When I talk about “Fire on the Mountain,” I don’t mean the hot, destructive kind of fire we all dread every summer in the foothills, but the wild, exciting fall color that lights up the landscape with dappled yellows, brilliant oranges, and fire engine reds in autumn. Although we all love the evergreen trees and shrubs that proliferate throughout the Sierra, wouldn’t it be exciting to have a burst of color in the waning days of the year? They are lush and green in the spring, some flowering in the summer, and all catch fire in the shortening days of September and October. It is best to leave the fallen leaves on the ground for mulch to protect the roots from freezing in the winter. It is well known in the foothills and, though it is mostly loved for the beautiful pink or white flowers it produces in the spring, it also has lovely purplish-red tones in the fall. I even cut the tops off of some and just stuck them in the ground in another part of the garden and they grew!

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