Trees

[rmstevens2]

I decided not to wait to post a photo of the Sun Valley Red Maple out front on the east side of my driveway. It hasn't reached its peak, and the photo doesn't do it justice, but it's got some nice red-orange foliage.

Here's a shot of the same tree this morning. I think it has made some progress but is still short of its peak autumn color.

[rmstevens2]

Man, it's slow here in the forum this evening!

I might as well post today's photo of the Sun Valley Red Maple out front on the east side of my driveway. I think the color today is about as good as it's going to get.

[Webb]

Quantico National Cemetery has quite a few Sawtooth Oaks. They are native to Asia, but were brought into use in the US around the 1920s, and are now found just about anywhere Oaks grow, naturally. The trees were planted during the construction of the cemetery. I prefer to plant native, mostly. Some non natives aren't too bad to plant, such as Asian Magnolias or Japanese cherries. I was the foreman at the National Cemetery here in Pittsburgh during construction, and except for the Elm hybrids, all of the trees are at least native to the U.S. The Swamp White Oaks have done really well since planting in 2007. They have a small native range around the Great Lakes states, and prefer wet, clay soil. But your posts about Oaks made me think about the Quaquerni tribe of Gallaecia, Iberia.

"The Quaquerni or Querquerni were an ancient tribe of Gallaecia, living in the Baixa Limia region of southern Galicia, where the Roman fort of Aquis Querquennis has been found.[1]"

and

"The name Querquerni is probably related to Latin quercus ("oak"),[8][9] which stems from Proto-Indo-European root *pérkʷus, meaning "oak". It is probably a Q-Celtic formation meaning "the Oak People / Warriors"

Both quotes from Wiki.

[rmstevens2]

I don't have a photo of it handy, but I grew a Sawtooth Oak from an acorn at my old house in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I got the acorn at the base of a Sawtooth Oak in front of the Braddock Road Metro Station in Alexandria, put the acorn in my pocket, brought it home, and planted it. It did really well and is huge now (wish I had a photo). That was quite a few years ago.

[Webb]

I don't have a photo of it handy, but I grew a Sawtooth Oak from an acorn at my old house in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I got the acorn at the base of a Sawtooth Oak in front of the Braddock Road Metro Station in Alexandria, put the acorn in my pocket, brought it home, and planted it. It did really well and is huge now (wish I had a photo). That was quite a few years ago.

They are an interesting tree.  Heavy acorn producers, from what I remember, and Turkeys will eat the acorns.  Oaks are probably my favorite trees.  Southern Reds and Chestnut Oaks, but I like trees in general.  Did you have to do anything special to get the acorn to germinate?

[rmstevens2]

I don't have a photo of it handy, but I grew a Sawtooth Oak from an acorn at my old house in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I got the acorn at the base of a Sawtooth Oak in front of the Braddock Road Metro Station in Alexandria, put the acorn in my pocket, brought it home, and planted it. It did really well and is huge now (wish I had a photo). That was quite a few years ago.

They are an interesting tree.  Heavy acorn producers, from what I remember, and Turkeys will eat the acorns.  Oaks are probably my favorite trees.  Southern Reds and Chestnut Oaks, but I like trees in general.  Did you have to do anything special to get the acorn to germinate?

No, I just stuck it in some loose soil near my wife's roses. When it sprouted, I let it grow a little bit and then moved it to a spot with plenty of room for it to grow.

[rmstevens2]

I don't have a photo of it handy, but I grew a Sawtooth Oak from an acorn at my old house in Spotsylvania County, Virginia. I got the acorn at the base of a Sawtooth Oak in front of the Braddock Road Metro Station in Alexandria, put the acorn in my pocket, brought it home, and planted it. It did really well and is huge now (wish I had a photo). That was quite a few years ago.

They are an interesting tree.  Heavy acorn producers, from what I remember, and Turkeys will eat the acorns.  Oaks are probably my favorite trees.  Southern Reds and Chestnut Oaks, but I like trees in general.  Did you have to do anything special to get the acorn to germinate?

No, I just stuck it in some loose soil near my wife's roses. When it sprouted, I let it grow a little bit and then moved it to a spot with plenty of room for it to grow.

I should have mentioned that I stuck the acorn in that loose soil in autumn. It over-wintered there and then sprouted in the spring. It's a miracle the squirrels didn't find it and eat it, because our yard in Virginia was crawling with squirrels. They regularly stashed acorns in the flower beds and then came back and dug them up later.

[rmstevens2]

Sorry for boring everyone to death, but I think my Sun Valley Red Maple was even better today than before, which surprised me, but these phone photos don't do it justice.

[rmstevens2]

A couple of posts back I mentioned that some years ago I grew a big Sawtooth Oak tree in my front yard from an acorn I picked up in front of the Braddock Road Metro station in Alexandria, Virginia. Well, speaking of growing oak trees from acorns, this photo is of a little Shumard Red Oak I am growing in my backyard from an acorn I picked up at my daughter's university in Longview, Texas, from under the beautiful Shumard Red Oaks there. It's only a little over a foot tall now, but - God willing - it should eventually get to be a big beautiful tree. Hope I live long enough to see it!

(This is my idea of excitement these days.)

[JonikW]

On the subject of oaks, there are some nice ones in a field near my house in Kent. I can see them from my window and in 2020/21 took some pics of a group of them, one for each season of spring, summer, autumn and winter. I didn't quite manage to stand on the same spot each time but I like the series and was thinking of getting them printed to go in a frame on the wall. I do love a good oak.

[rmstevens2]

Awesome photos! You really should print them, frame them, and hang them on a wall.

[rmstevens2]

I hesitate to post my feeble phone photos after JonikW's awesome spread two posts back, but okay, here's yet another tree post from me. Today my wife and I went up to Bailey's Ace Hardware in Daingerfield, Texas, about 30 minutes north of us. We went there to get some bags of fertilizer, but we ended up buying an October Glory Red Maple. Honestly, my wife saw the Red Maples and fell in love, because they still had some bright red-orange leaves on them and looked awesome. So, we bought one and dragged it home. It had more red leaves on it than the photo below shows, but some of them blew off the tree as we drove it home in the back of my pickup. I planted it over on the west side of my backyard.

Again, phone photos don't do the leaf colors justice.

[rmstevens2]

Okay, they've rolled up the sidewalks here at GenArchivist, and things are pretty slow, so I'm going to post another photo of my Southern Live Oak.

Southern Live Oaks get pretty big. In the Deep South, in places like Georgia and Florida, you see them with Spanish Moss hanging from them, which can be spooky at night but must be cool at Halloween. Here we don't get any moss on them except maybe the usual kind that grows on the bark and is barely noticeable, but they still get pretty big. They're called "Live" because they're evergreen.

[rmstevens2]

Here's a Southern Magnolia on the west side of my front yard back near the woods next door. This photo was taken back in August. Southern Magnolias get huge and magnificent in this area. In Virginia they stay kind of wimpy and never achieve their full potential. I think that's probably because winters in Virginia are a little colder than Magnolias like.

[Webb]

Here's a Southern Magnolia on the west side of my front yard back near the woods next door. This photo was taken back in August. Southern Magnolias get huge and magnificent in this area. In Virginia they stay kind of wimpy and never achieve their full potential. I think that's probably because winters in Virginia are a little colder than Magnolias like.

In the Pittsburgh area, stellata or star magnolias and saucer magnolias are really popular ornamental plantings, however, one ill timed frost ruins the showy flowers.