Glad your loblolly is so tough, Henry. I am in Northern Virginia and am planning on an Eastern White Pine-sorry, but it will be in the back, so if you visit, you won't have to look at it! ;-)

We used to back to an old growth forest, but it was clear-cut and now we are looking at gosh awful McMansions. I need more coverage than the Loblolly would offer.

Oh, and I do always enjoy reading your posts!

I was surprised it survived the cold we got. We hadn’t gotten that cold in 10-16 years!

Cyn - look around at the state of mature white pines in Northern Virginia, to be sure you want that. There might be a smattering of nice looking ones, but the larger they get the more likely they are to have branches snapped by periodic wet snowfalls.

At the very least plan on pro-actively pruning it forever.

Bengz6westmd, where are you located? I’d like to see more climate data of your area to see if I am good to plant some more southern pines like pond pines since my yard is wet muck.

Henry, I'm in z6, but in a frost hollow (early May frosts are the usual latest). Typical winter-lows are -5f to 5F, but -10F just a week ago. Record lows here would be around -20F, tho I haven't seen that here yet in 20 yrs. Only problem w/the southern hard pines are wet snows/ice, tho none of mine have had serious damage yet.

Since loblollies have some selection/breeding done on them, there might be a source that has a more cold-climate adaptability, or simply one sourced from its most northern range, say from New Jersey or central Arkansas. I know Starhill Forest in central IL grows loblollies, a selection called 'Westvaco Hardy'.

http://starhillforest.com/wp1/visit/directions-and-maps/

PS Both loblollies and pond pines can tolerate wet/poor soils. My loblolly is about 16 yrs old in the most wrenched of soils near the road (pic). Pond pine grows down low in a wet area.

David, do you have any suggestions for me that are native to Alexandria? I really want to screen the dreadful new homes behind us. I planted some Nellie Stevens hollies 25 years ago and they are great now, but not native. Maybe an American Holly? I have one up closer to the house, but they are pretty slow-growing and at 72, I may not have 25 years. Although, the next owner here might be happy...unless they want to clear cut like the developer behind us. This spot is a pretty steep hill.

Forgive me Henry. Sorry to hijack your thread.

Ok, first of all, funny thing is I was about to amend my post to say if your timeframe is < 20 years, the white pines might serve your purposes. OTOH there's a case to be made for thinking of 1) future owners of your property and 2) your neighbors!

If you need native, that does limit your choices. Large American hollies are going to be hard to find, and anywhere near the DC area will probably charge a pretty penny. Do you know about Colesville in Ashland, Virginia. They are a little cheaper and have a better variety (of actually useful plants, not stupid stuff like the $800 PNW monkey puzzles you can find at Merrified GC) than any DC area nursery I know of. They currently have 4-5' containerized Foster hollies (fully native hybrid, and faster growing than pure opaca) for a reasonable price.

Personally I'd 100% plant the fosters for their more attractive appearance and better use for screening. Hollies are way more prunable than pines.

Thanks for the mention of Colesville nursery. I have gone to Ivandale Farms in Hamilton and they have very good prices which includes the planting, unlike Merrifield which as you mentioned are ridiculously expensive and on top of the sales price, they charge 60% of the sales price to plant. Ivandale has some 8'-10' Foster Hollies, so I will call them on Monday. I will look up directions. It would be easy for us to pick up one of the smaller ones from Coleville and their prices are quite amazing. Ifr we get a smaller one, we can probably plant it ourselves (both of us are in our 70s and a little bit creaky, although not terribly so yet!). Thanks so much!

You're welcome, glad I could help. I'd rather have a forum where topics can go a little off-piste than one that's over moderated! Back to pines!

BTW make SURE you aggressively break up the root system w/the containerized stuff. Even more than other shrubs like azaleas or hydrangeas, potted Ilex quickly fill a container with wrapping roots. This is almost a case for not using a landscaper to plant trees or shrubs. Who knows how many have trained their workers to deal with it.

Bhutan pine - P.Wallichiana is a beautiful pine...with long, glaucus needles.

Regarding Loblolly, I agree with beng that a northern provenance source with greater winter hardiness would be better for use in colder climate areas. Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder states that "Winter hardiness is a problem in the St. Louis area", and the Ohio DNR says, "it is at its northernmost "non-native" range in southern Ohio, where the winters are warm from a statewide perspective, but as cold as it can tolerate from the tree's perspective." There is an old planting west of Detroit where Loblolly pines have survived long-term, although they have grown very slowly and some of them are struggling (some have declined to the point where they have been removed). The photos below were taken today (2/2/25)

Interesting factoid: Wikipedia's article on Loblolly Pine says that, "USFS surveys found that loblolly pine is the second-most common species of tree in the United States after red maple."

Yeah, they’re all over the south. You drive through the Carolinas and the Deep South, it’s nothing but Loblolly pines.

arbordave and Henry, there's loblolly plantations around Charlottesville, VA -- one reason other than profit is that the soil there is poor for crop-planting (the pines grow well-enough in poor soil). Most of the lumber sold as "southern yellow pine" is loblolly. A small loblolly planting in Fort Frederick, west MD, very near the Potomac River. Tallest about 100 ft.

Yep, a surprising amount of Loblolly plantations in NW Virginia; I've never noticed them across the river in MD but it makes sense. A lot of the ones closer to DC were cut down for housing developments, of course.

Plenty of seed in stock! https://buyvatrees.com/shop/pine-loblolly-virginias-best-open-pollinated-op-1-0-pinus-taeda/

Down the street from me there is a long leaf pine that has probably been there since we were zone 6B, now, 7B NJ/NYC Metro Area. I have heard here that there is a move cold hardy montagne variety of Long Leaf Pine. No issues here.

41 North, my longleaf source was montane from NE Alabama (from a forest-service company). Planted two here, but one blew over from a girdled-root issue, and a couple more are doing OK nearby that I gifted to. On mine, a couple compatible nearby pines should provide pollination for it, but no cones/flowers yet. This one leans a bit to get away from the honeylocust. Limbs get a bit twisted from snow-loads, but not broken. IMO, very interesting, but not quite as handsome as loblolly or pond pine (it's too shaded from the honeylocust).

Pond pine in a wet spot has more sun.

Definitely agree that Loblolly is a great conifer and tougher than most think. I am in Eastern Washington and purchased a moderately sized loblolly pine in late-December 2023. I planted it in early january, and within a few weeks, we were hit with a severe cold freeze. We experienced about a week of below-zero temperatures during the day and night, with the lowest temp we saw being around -16F. Not only did my pine not have any damage whatsoever, it put on about 3 feet of growth this past summer. It is also looking fine this winter after dealing with -9F.

Just looked at musserforests, and they have some hard-to-find evergreens. Some things are junk like Austrian pine and Colorado spruce (die quickly in the US east), but just ignore those. Even have southwestern white pine!

https://musserforests.com/collections/evergreen-trees

Wow Thomas, a Loblolly in Eastern Washington is far from home! Thanks for sharing and good luck with it.