I had never heard of Shin Oaks before, though most likely, I have seen them in my travels. Sounds like they can and do grow where you live, if they are at least transplanted there. I'd go for it.

That's a great way to encourage your son's natural interests into something useful and constructive!

I use to drive an 18 wheeler across the lower 48 states and southeast Canada. I had an interest in oaks and started collecting acorns at the different roadsides parks I stopped at.

I found a lot of variations in the oak trees and acorns. From what I could see, and read, many oaks can cross pollinate. That helped me understand why so many variations.

My step son brought in a strange looking oak limb a couple of weeks ago. The acorn looked more Burr Oak, the leafs look more Chinkapin. If I were going to name it I would call it some type of Ckinkapin. If you ran a DNA test on an oak it might not be 100 percent any type oak, and if so, what would it be based on.

What a great hobby! I have purchased a couple of hybrids from Oikos Tree Crops, which is a fascinating company. Something I read there intrigued me, they graft really promising hybrids onto other oak root stock. I might try that sometime.

Oikos Tree Crops

I spent a lot of time when I first got here 4 1/2 yrs ago trying to figure out which kind we had. And yes, Larry, found out about the cross pollination,. Most of ours are post oaks, but couldn't identify some others clearly, bet those are cross pollination ones.