Glad to see someone in Oklahoma want's to plant a Live Oak. The hardier Fusiformis is a much under-used tree in Oklahoma even though is native to small area in the Southwest part of the state. That native range is zone 7a same as Oklahoma City.

http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/shrub/qufu.htm

I hear all the time Live Oaks don't grow here in OKC when there are 1000's of them around town of which most are Texas Fusiformis. Here are a couple of Fusiformis Live Oaks in N.W. Oklahoma City.

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Most any Live Oak wild dug from North to Central Texas will be Fusiformis or a hybrid of and will be longterm cold hardy in zone 7 Oklahoma. The hardiest Fusiformis are field dug in the Jacksboro Hills near Wichita Falls, TX. Larger Fusiformis are field dug going to the south say around San Antonio. They southern ones are much larger with only a slight hardiness loss. I think the AT&T Live Oaks in the pic above are the larger more southern Fusiformis strain where the smaller old live oaks on 23rd street are likely Jacksboro Hill strain.

In Oklahoma City the best place to buy a known Fusiformis is Satterlee Nursery on north May av. Johnny know's his stuff but can be somewhat high priced. If you have a pick-up drive down to the Dallas or Austin area and look for a nice locally field dug Fusiformis from one of their many nurseries. I think you will find big field dug Fusiformis cheaper down there. Around the discount garden centers in OKC most any Live Oak stock will be from Texas and likely Fusiformis bloodline. I think with container grown stock the variety 'Heritage' Live Oak is often shipped from Texas growers to our area. 'Heritage' is a Fusiformis strain with cold hardiness or so I have been told.

If you want native Oklahoma Fusiformis that are offspring of the Quartz Mountain population visit this nursery in Western Oklahoma. www.sunshinenursery.com I don't think they have any big specimens and the native stock is not any hardier than North Texas stock.

Good Luck.

Don,

Many thanks for your reply. I lived around NW10th and Council for many years (before building in Tri-Cities) so I know those places well, and I recall the trees from memory, although I didn't realize just what they were. I suppose that I should have, given their year-round vegetation, but I really didn't think about such things before I bought the house and acre (which is full of Post Oaks and a few Blackjacks).

I've always thought that that part of town was a bit unique: from the lake east, between 23rd and 10th, there are large swaths of native Post Oak forest (the Condos on NW10/Council, an Addition just West of MacArthur, etc. It must have been quite a sight 50/100 years ago.

Thanks again for the help, I'll be calling those that you reccommend. I've just looked at Sunshine's website: they do indeed sell Fusiformus but, as you say, just small ones. I'll call and double check.

I do have one question: I do have a truck and wouldn't mind a drive to Dallas. However, shouldn't a large tree be planted by the Nursery? At what size should one consider paying a Nursery to plant?

Here's the link to the Nursery in Austin I referred to above. There's lots to see in Austin but, for the Garden Lover, I highly reccommend a visit to Garden Adventures. The Live Oaks really are amazing.

Update: Called Satterlee's, they're out for the season. They reccommended Precur on 10th/Reno, called them, they have Virginanus, and couldn't tell me anything more about the Cultivar (haven't had great luck with them). Called a place in Richardson that specialized in trees, the fellow there didn't know what I was talking about, but was good enough to reccommend what he sadi was a large tree-farm south of Tyler, Rennerwood Nursery. Called them, they didn't grow Fusiformus. Then called Sunshine and struck paydirt. Spent some time speaking with Steve, he confirmed that they sold Fusiformus from the Quartz Mountain area. However, he believes that Fusiformis reputation for smaller size is probably a result of harsh environment, rather than genetic predisposition (he says that he knows of a Live Oak, presumeably a native in the Quartz Mountain area, whose diameter it would take three men with out-stretched arms to encircle). Unfortunately, he's out of the larger ones: the OKC zoo has some sort of project that involves native species and they've cleaned him out (Post, Blackjacks, etc, at least the larger ones) but he'll have some ready for the Spring. I enjoyed speaking with him so much that I'll wait untill then. That may work out better: after pondering just where I want to plant the Live Oak I've decided that a Cedar is in the way. I'll have to get it out of the way, and now I have a season to do it. shows the front, roughly south side of the lot. The Cedar is visible in the far-right mid-ground, on the flat. Other, perhaps more aesthetically pleasing areas are undesireable: I can't plant the Live Oak near the street, in the fore-ground: there is a power box within 20' or so and the cables radiate out from it in all directions. There's also a culvert (just visible beneath the drive) that drains the entire street: that area can stay damp, and actually soggy, for long periods of time.

While our native Live Oak should always be favored for planting in the OKC landscape I do not think it should exclude planting of the Texas stock. Being pragmatic about finding specimens will make the Texas stock a winner. North Texas ecotype Fusiformis are every bit hardy as the Quartz Mountain ecotype. I just wish to see more Fusiformis in town no matter the origin.

While Fusiformis is best for longterm survival even regular pureblood Quercus virginiana from Florida will survive a many years in OKC. We had many large old pure virginiana before the terrible long duration killer freeze of 1983 which took many out. Even though so many pure virginiana died some did survived but damaged. Then again every old Fusiformis survived the 80's almost untouched except for defoliation so why use anything else.

Overall for getting the biggest plant for your money I would go south and find a field dug plant from some nursery in central Texas. Any field dug plant in central Texas will have been dug from the closest source in central Texas thus Fusiformis. Even south central Texas Fusiformis are long term hardy so why not stretch your dollar. I think you could plant most any size live oak yourself. After calling Satterlee I bet you have found out it cost's much as the tree itself to have a nursery plant the tree.

No matter which source you select I thank you for planting another Live Oak in our town. I wish the tree well for fast growth and good form. Thank's again for planting a Live Oak.

Update II:

1. Stopped by the Lucent plant and took a close look at the Live Oaks there. I was impressed with their size, although I couldn't guess just when the building was built (and, presumeably, they were planted). 50's through the early 70's is the best I could do.

2. Since beginnning this thread I've decided to take a trip to southern New Mexico sometime soon. It occurred to me this evening that, on the way back, I could swing down and come back up to OKC via Austin, and that would give me a chance to pick up a tree. It might be a few hundred extra miles but I40 between here and Albuquerque gets very old after a single trip (well, during the trip, actually), and it's been maybe ten or more for me.

It'll also give me a chance to stop at Sigels in Addison and stock-up on libations that can't be found in Oklahoma liquor stores. And then there's a trip to the Flying Saucer (great Pub), and maybe Fryes (great geek store). Maybe I'll take a side-road through Hill Country... yeah, this is sounding better all the time.

Trouble is, I'll have a mere two days to make the return trip.

Finally, a question: The tree size will be somewhat limited by the size of my truckbed (I have a standard bed Silverado). I'll have it wrapped-up for protection. Even with a couple of feet hanging over the tailgate the greatest total length will be 12-13'. How big will the root-ball be for such a tree, and how thick might the base of the trunk be? I'm thinking about getting two, but I'm not sure that a second will fit.

Thanks for the help.

Hi Frank,

Thank's for giving a update to your Live Oak doings. It's great to hear about how things turn out in these posts.

To #1 the Lucent plant was built by Western Electric back in the 1950's. My uncle had worked there from the day it opened until he retired around 1978. However I do not know the exact year those Live Oaks were planted. I was born in 1962 and remember seeing those live oaks as a young child so they were likely planted in the early 60's or before.

To #2 that's great you can stop by Austin and buy a decent size live oak! You'll save money over buying it here. If it's dug from central Texas wild stock the plant will be hardy. Make sure the fire ants are dead if you see any in the rootball. If you see fire ants the nursery might drench the rootball with insecticide. If they don't drench the rootball you can with malathion before planting. Fire ants are nasty and they do survive here if given a foothold.

As for your finial question it's hard to say. A smaller field dug tree that will fit into a 1/2 ton truck will likely be around 4 inch in calliper with a rootball around 24 inches in diameter. The nursery folks will likely know how big a tree you can haul and how to load it. Sometimes you can rope the top to make it more compact for hauling. Take a pruner so you can cut any limb that hampers loading. Pruning a few limbs with live oaks is no trouble for the tree's health and could sure help with loading. I hope for the best in loading two specimens but if you can't squeeze another full size in the truck perhaps 1 or 2 nice 20 gallon container Live Oaks would fit in next to the big tree.

Good Luck with the tree and have a fun trip. Please let us know how the planting went and keep them well watered this dry winter. If fact your in the sandy part of OKC so better double-up with the waterings. lol

Frank,

On second thought a 4 inch calliper tree is likely to have a rootball 4 feet in diameter and man that's big & heavy. Might be better to get a 3 inch tree which would be around 3 feet of rootball. I just don't know what to tell you about which size would be best. You'll just have to see what's in stock and what you think is manageable. Bigger container grown specimens are great too having all the root system for better survival. Perhaps you might get a 65 gallon size container grown live oak. Check out the link below to see some container stock sizes. I think you can get 65 gallon container grown Live Oak here in OKC at the Home Depot on west Reno rather cheaply. I hope I have not confused anything. I just want you to be able to handle and plant whatever you get. Those 4 foot rootballs are sure big on field dug stock.

www.southernclassictrees.com/

Hi Frank,

You'll have a job with that cedar's root but the sandy soil sure will make digging easier. I have removed cedars and sometimes they are easy, other times very tough. It's still small so perhaps the trunk might rip it out.

I'm glad you have decided to go with container grown or recovered containerized stock. Container plants with a full root system survive so much better than field dug B&B plants. Sometimes those fresh dug burlap trees die no matter the care level. It's just too much shock to some trees being ripped out of the ground with less than 20% of the root system. Sometimes even when the B&B trees survive they recover to full healty very slowly and a smaller container tree will outgrow them in the same amount of time. Container is much better!

Good Luck and the trip sounds like a lot of fun.

I wanted to revive this 18 year old thread to follow up on project Live Oak and see if you got one and how it ended up; If so, how does it look today?

im down the road in Blanchard and interested in a live oak too.