Come and See The Show!

Each autumn visitor’s to Trees That Please Nursery are treated to a special presentation of Fabulous Fall Foliage courtesy of our Red Oaks. The players in this dazzling display are a New Mexico native, the Chisos Red Oak, and the Texas Red Oak, not native but gets as close as west Texas. We propagate both trees from acorns collected from wild populations.

The Chisos Red Oak, (Quercus gravesii) a New Mexico native is found in the Organ Mountains by Las Cruces. This oak can grow 1’ – 4’ per year reaching 30’ – 35’ tall and sometimes as wide.

It has a deep tap root so could be planted closer to structures than say a surface rooted tree like a Cottonwood or Globe Willow. Fall foliage colors are reds, maroons, and occasionally orange.

The Texas Red Oak, (Quercus buckleyi) can also grow 1’ to 4’ per season reaching 40’ – 45’ tall and 25’ – 30’ wide.

It also has a tap root so may be planted nearer structures than surface rooted trees. Fall foliage colors are usually combinations of reds and maroons.

Leaves of both trees turn a chocolate brown after the colors fade. The Texas Red Oak will drop its leaves during December and January. The Chisos Red Oak typically holds its chocolate brown leaves until the spring winds finally take them off the tree, usually just weeks before spring leaf out.

Hurry in, the shows about to start!

During our October Sale the Chisos Red and Texas Red Oaks are discounted 25% and are available in both 5 gallon and 15 gallon container sizes. So come on in and save today!

Photos and Narrative By:

Stephen Sain

Staff Plant Physiologist

Comments

All About the Shantung Maple!

The Shantung Maple ( Acer truncatum ) is also known as the Purple Blow Maple due to the color of its newly emerging leaves which are red-purple (see photo below). These young expanding red-purple leaves change to green as they mature. Leaves are small, about the size of Japanese Red Maple leaves, perhaps 3’-4’ wide at maturity. The Shantung Maple grows 1′-2′ annually reaching 25″ tall and wide. This is our tree for all planting situations. This Maple does well in heavy clay, sandy soils, full sun, or part shade. It can be planted in a lawn or next to a hot asphalt street (see photo below). It seemingly is a happy tree enjoying life wherever it is placed. One place we would not recommend planting this tree is in a rockscape which is just too hot and inhospitable to support this beautiful tree. A smaller tree, the Shantung Ma...

How does nitrogen work in the soil, and where does it come from when we don't have a bag of fertilizer to supplement it?

I've spoken many times on this subject at conferences and it was the main theme of my talk when I represented North America at the World's 1st Humus Experts Meeting in Vienna Austria back in 2013. Most of the Nitrogen used by the vast tropical rain forests, or the fastest growing biomass place on Earth, the Coastal Redwood Forests of California, comes from the production of protein by the Free-Living Nitrogen Fixing bacteria in soil and the massive biomass structure of the mycorrhizal fungi. The proteins as it breaks down in the soil into amino acids are the building blocks of life and the explanation of the Soil Food Web. However, in order for those amino acids to enter a plant and be part of the nitrogen budget of the plant they must have the assistance of the mycorrhizal fungi. It's much more efficient for a plant to uptake amino acids whose molecules include nitrogen needed to build tissues than to uptake just nitrogen minus the amino acid. ...

Desert Willows

The Desert Willow ( Chilopsis linearis ) is a small flowering tree grown for its orchid like flowers and tolerance to hot arid landscapes. The Desert Willow is a New Mexico native tree that normally grows with multi-trunks to about 15′-18’ tall and wide. If pruned into a single-trunk tree it can grow much taller. This trees common name, Desert Willow, is given due to its willow-like leaves (photo). The Desert Willow is not related to other willows like Globe or Weeping. The Desert Willow is well suited for the xeric landscape or to cool down a west or south facing wall. In particularly hot areas, areas with low annual rainfall or where water is limiting the Desert Willow makes a great specimen tree because of its tolerance to these conditions. In hot, dry areas the Desert Willow is sometimes used as the sole landscaping tree (photo). It produces a light dappled shade due to its leaf and canopy structure that is ideal to cool down hot sun facing walls (photo). It produces orchid li...

Trees That Please Nursery

Search This Blog