Fall in SoCal & South Florida

[MikeLowry5]

I was interested to know from those of you in L.A., San Diego, and all of those below the freezing line in Florida if the leaves on your trees change colors and fall like they do in the rest of the country?

I've never been to any of these places during the fall/winter and didn't know if your trees stay green all year round?

Does the zoysia and bermuda (mainly Florida) go dormant or stay green year round?

Thanks!

[BullGator]

Clearwater, FL: Stays green as long as the course keeps it wet. Winter is our dry season. We burned some greens last year b/c it was colder than usual, but normally it's not a problem.

Palm trees don't change color!

[Mac62]

The leaves change color and fall in southern California - at least if you're in an area that has deciduous trees (and there are many). On a few of the courses we routinely played when I lived down there, you'd have to sweep a path for your putt through all the fallen leaves on the greens. The grass on the courses generally stays green year 'round though. There are mountainous areas that get snow in the winter so it may be different there, but I never lived/golfed in any of those places.

[MikeLowry5]

Good info! I thought that the tree leaves fell no matter what. I would assume SoCal courses do not (for the most part) have bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, or other warm season grasses. With that said I assumed they stayed green all year.

Here even in St. Louis the bentgrass greens stay green in the winter. Most every course here has zoysia fairways which go dormant the first week of November. It makes for a nice look from a far with Bluegrass or Fescue rough mixed with the golden color of the dormant zoysia.

[Clambake]

In SoCal I would say most trees don't really change colors like more northern climates; they just sort of turn brown and fall off. There are some that may go through a phase or two of orange, but we certainly don't seem to get the lovely vivid colors like those areas that get a good frost. Although our weather seems pretty benign for those used to four distinct seasons, we have our own version of four seasons and the plants go through the same growth/mature/declinging/dormant cycles as plants anywhere in the country, just not as dramatically. Also, most of the grass strains still have a dormant season, and while they might not go completely brown they slow to little growth and lose a lot of their green color. For this reason most courses do an overseeding in the fall with a cooler weather grass to keep the fairways looking and playing nice.