i planted mail order 3 foot sticks.. which the second year.. started growing about 3 feet per year ... YA KNOW ... you dont have to buy everything big ... for $110 .. you could get about 10 crabs in the mail ... IMHO.. you would be better off with 4 crabs ... a dark purple leafed with dark fruit... a white flowered with lime leaves and yellow fall color ... a green leaf with white flower ... and green with pink flower .... in each corner of your yard... full month of spring flower.. since they usually dont all bloom precisely at the same moment .... and it will be spectacular ... one crab... hmmmmm ... dull ...lol just a thought.. i know you are going your own way.. and good luck with all that ... no matter which one you get.. bone up on sucker removal.. it can be maddening ... ken

I live in an area that makes my hour-long commute pure delight for a month in the fall. Folks come from all over the world to see northern New England in autumn. That said, there are plants that you can add to your yard that will give you riotous fall color in your area. Right now there is a poster over on the shrubs forum from the Bay Area who has posted some of the same shrubs and small trees that show color here such as Fothergilla, Japanese maples, Itea, blueberries, and Enkianthus among others. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4983162/wonderful-fall-color-shrubs?n=15 http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/4983152/my-wonderful-disanthus-cercidifolius?n=10 if she can grow them, there is a reasonable chance that you can, though Northern California covers a quite broad swath. I would check out plantings at relatively local arboretums, colleges, and wealthier neighborhoods that have particularly nice plantings to see what might work for you. Plants you don't know may be IDed on the Name that Plant Forum if you can take good photos. You may also find some good info on this blog, Form and Foliage, whose author is perhaps Sonoma County, but in the northern half of CA regardless. I know I have seen some lovely foliage posted by its author, so it might be worth looking around there. Here are my Fothergilla from earlier this month.

Hard to say, there are few named varieties of oak (OIKOS treefarms had a number of them). But that kind of coloring isn't rare on some oaks (sometimes just on certain branches). Leaves kinda suggest Shumard oak to me.

Tupelo seems very likely. The alternate leaves, leaf size, some serration at the tip and that intense fall color would all support that. Check out the photos in the NC extension link......the fall color ones are dead on! https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/nyssa-sylvatica/ Not all trees will have a strong berry presence and possibly none at all.