Some of the trees are going dormant, yes. We've been treated to a show by the maples and sweet gums this year. Lots of oranges and reds. The crape myrtles are also going bare between dormancy and strong winds. The tree the branches came from probably only had 10% of its leaves still attached but all pretty much dead by now. Most all deciduous trees except maybe the elms do lose their leaves here around thanksgiving time, they just usually go brown though and fall off. Seeing nice colors is less common.
Winter oscillates between the 70s and the 50s depending on the week/if there's rain coming through. Today and tomorrow are in the mid 80s.
I went and got some perlite so I'll pot them up tomorrow, put a clear plastic tent over it and see what happens!