{{gwi:2122981}}

I wonder if the acorns would yield anything like the mother plant?

That's a show stopper live oak.

In what area was it discovered?

Yep - very difficult to propagate though. My friend has gotten scions from this very tree and tried..No success. He also grew acorns from it, but none of the seedlings were golden..Maybe a little...

For close-up views...

[Including the species name within the single quotes used to designate a cultivar is of course incorrect]

Here is a link that might be useful: MARIETTE'S BACK TO BASICS: {Our Golden Live Oak 'Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold' with Catkins}

Very purdy lookin oak!

Can't it be grafted??

When Willows said "scions", I think that's a terrn generally reserved for grafting material. People otherwise call them cuttings.

I _think_ I've read here and there of something being difficult to graft...in the sense of a specific cultivar rather than an entire genus. Of course, grafting is more of than not these days reserved for things that are difficult to _root_ at least as far as ornamental horticulture goes. (the opposite seems the case in agriculture, where grafting is often easier and more productive than rooting) It's not uncommon at all to read of things being difficult to root...whether clones, species, or entire genus like oaks.

It could be that the best option will be sending it to someone who has really mastered commercial cloning, like Briggs. You get the impression they were producing that purple yucca for a while not because a purple yucca was a logical compliment to their main business, which is rhododendron liners, but because they were the only company on the face of the planet that was willing to figure out how to clone it.

Update - come to think of it I don't think rhodie liners are actually their only core line of business. Which only underscores though, why they would be the appropriate party to figure out how to micropropagate it.

Grandview Oak sounds nice for my winter get away (I wish) down in Florida. I'd really like to see it in all four seasons. Few if any trees, broad leaved or otherwise, with yellow foliage,look good year around.
Regarding Briggs, when did they ever propagate oaks? That would be a first. They'd better get themselves out of financial hot water first.

"They'd better get themselves out of financial hot water first."

As had the entire nursery "industry" - except for Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowes hahaha.
Not sure what your point was but whether in hot water or not, they are still leaders in micropropagation. There are others who could probably do it of course - Terra Nova comes to mind. The big biotech companies would have the means to, as well, but they would never waste the capital on an ornamental plant of (from their perspective) very limited ROI.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.terranovanurseries.com/media/about_us_science_team.php

The thing about those pictures is - like a lot of lab work, I should know I once did it - once the protocol is worked out, it's a lot of tedious grunt work. It's the working out a working protocol that would suck up a lot of the PhD researcher's time, potentially. There could be some forestry company out there that micropropagates oaks for good growth characteristics. Who knows. If so their protocol might work on this oak very efficiently.
I tried to get an apparent plant cloning company in California to clone my super hardy Eucalyptus lacrimans, before it died. (unrelated to hardiness) The guy said Eucalyptus were tricky and never got back to me. I also think he didn't believe it would be very marketable. I don't even remember the name, I just found them in google. The tree died in one of my late summer/autumn super storms. 15" of rain in 48 hours. I should have had it in a spot w/better drainage. It had been undamaged in a winter when E. neglecta had all the leaves freeze off. It was clearly much hardier.

Have not tried grafting Q.virginiana...but other members of the white oak group are EASY to graft; I've done hundreds.
Not sure why it would necessarily be any more difficult to graft than any other member of the group.
Might have to try some this coming spring, just for grins; have one Q.virginiana that's been surviving in a fairly sheltered spot here in z6 KY for over 40 years. Sent scions to Dax last year, but I think the wood was damaged by winter conditions here before I collected it; don't think he had any success.

Notice the shrub habit, I assume this is due to reduced chlorophyll - something that might also make it less able to respond to propagation attempts than normal.

When I looked for Q. cerris 'Variegata' in England for a friend that just had to have it the one nursery I ended up at had a small batch of small grafts, most of which didn't look very good. I imagine working with the yellow Q. virginiana would produce similar outcomes, with years of coddling being needed to get a graft to the point where it went on to make a satisfactory specimen.

The scattered green leaves in the close ups I linked to I would like to know more about also, before I invested in trying to make a cultivar out of the plant. Mostly new growth is yellow, with it becoming all or partly green later? Or is the shrub reverting? Instability is a big problem with variegated and colored foliage variants of many trees and shrubs, with some kinds giving off high percentages of variegated seedlings - which pretty much all throw it off, sooner or later.

Y'all can grow Q.V. in your zone I can't, but, I am stubbornly trying with one I planted in 2012, it came up from the roots after last winter. But I may be one of the few that thinks the yellow isn't that appealing to me. It makes me think of chlorosis in the tree. I like the one the lady with the website/blog was standing under in one of the pics, and you could only see the upper canopy in the picture. Much nicer color to me. But I guess in Live oak areas a change in leaf hue may be more in demand or somethin' like that. Poaky1