Some Fall Color in Downers Grove

On my walk home from the train, I came across this stunner of a Maple tree near the corner of Fairmount and Maple in Downers Grove.  The photo, which....I will tell you has no filter/crank of the saturation/etc hardly does it justice, but you can get a sense for the power of how pink it looks in real life.  I snapped this photo and then hurried home to see what we had in our #newoldbackyard that could compare.  Unfortunately....we have lots of greens back there.  And some yellows.  And a few browns.  But no oranges or pinks or reds.

For now.

Nat brought it up and she's right:  Seems like something we need to add a tree or two to the backyard arboretum this coming Spring (in addition to the Frans Fontaine Hornbeams that I posted about yesterday along the northern border) that puts on a nice show in the fall.

A quick look on Web shows me that some prime targets might be Sugar Maples, Red Maples or maybe even a Bald Cyprus all of which give some great reds and pinks and oranges in the autumn.

On the new landscape plan for the #newoldbackyard, there is not a spot for a tree like this, but perhaps, we can swap one of them in for one of the conifers they've placed in various places.

When Spring comes, I'll be heading to both the nursery for some big trees and Menards to find a small 1" caliper tree or two from the list above to get started growing in the back of the #newoldbackyard. In addition to the Frans Fontain European Hornbeams (that turn a really nice yellow in the fall), we'll be increasing the number of NEW trees back there more than 2X in just one year?!?