FAQ

Q1) How can I avoid transplant shock when planting an oak tree?

A1) Planting a tree is like making an investment. A maple tree is like a dotcom stock – it goes up really fast. An oak is more like a government bond, slow to mature but solid as the earth.

Although they’re slower getting to the payoff, oaks make up for it by developing into commanding trees. They look good up close, where you can appreciate their lobed leaves and ridged bark, and from a distance, standing together in a natural grove or spreading their broad arms above a billowing prairie.

Particularly in the fall, when their leaves go various shades of red, orange and russet, oaks are the most glorious trees in our local landscape. They’re our Plant of the Month for October.

“None of the big maples and the rest have the size and majestic shape our oaks have,” says Connor Shaw, who owns the Monee tree nursery Possibility Place. “And there’s nostalgia associated with oaks. You think of oak furniture and acorns. They’re historic trees.”

If they’re so great, how come oaks are so hard to get going in home landscapes? Shaw and Cliff Miller, head of the Lake Bluff landscape design firm P. Clifford Miller, both say it’s because we try to hurry oaks along.

Homeowners often want an instant landscape, so they pay for big oaks. But oaks’ roots are more delicate than those of many other trees and they don’t take transplanting easily. Miller says the stress of the transplant can lead to dieback and bug infestations – and even slower initial growth than the tree could have had.

The simplest way to avoid transplant stress, Miller and Shaw agree, is to start with small oaks. Their root balls are so small that they’re far less likely to be damaged in transplanting, and if any recovery time is needed, it’s short. Besides, both oak experts say, and oak planted small will eventually get bigger than one planted big, because of its low-stress youth.

Shaw suggests starting with oaks whose trunks are 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter; that’s about 6 to 8 feet high, and priced from $100 to $250.

The usual slam on oaks is that they grow too slowly, but Terry McLoughlin, an arborist who owns McLoughlin Tree Care in St. Charles, says, “They grow just fine if you put them where they want to be.” Annual growth of a foot or more is normal for well-handled oaks after their first year in the ground, Shaw says.

The essential way to avoid stressing an oak is to plant it in the right conditions. Most must be grown in full sun. Here are some of the best oaks for Chicago-area yards:

White oak (Quercus alba) is the Illinois state tree. Its leaves have deep round lobes and go a rich burgundy in fall. A white oak can top out at about 80 feet high. It must be grown in moist soil. Miller says white oaks are finicky in one important way: They need relatively acidic soil. If your soil pH is above 7, don’t plant a white oak. Miller recommends a chinkapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii) as a substitute in those more alkaline soils.

Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) is true to its name. It can’t take a dry setting. “If you have a seasonally wet depression in your yard, you want a swamp white,” Miller says. The leaves aren’t very lobed, but they go nice shades of orange in the fall. Swamp white oak can get to 60 feet high and wide, and, according to studies at The Morton Arboretum can tolerate urban conditions well. It prefers slightly acidic soil but isn’t as picky as the white oak. An added attraction on swamp whites, which hail from a little south of here: “They have very cool peeling bark, almost like the river birch, that everybody loves,” Miller says.

Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) is among the slowest-growing oaks, but when it gets where it’s going – up to 80 feet high and 90 feet wide – it's incomparably statuesque. With deeply grooved bark and asymmetrically outstretched branches, an old bur oak is an amazing sight. It’s the variety that adapts to a wider range of conditions than most local oaks, Shaw says. “It can sit on a hill or in a floodplain and do fine,” he says. Miller recommends bur oaks for planting in the poor, disturbed soil of new subdivisions. “They’re a pioneer tree,” he says. “They’ll love it.”

Pin oak (Quercus palustris) is loved for growing faster than other oaks and for its pointy, slim-waisted leaves to go deep reds and browns in fall. But McLoughlin believes homeowners often love it the wrong way. “They like it so much they stick it in the front yard,” where drainage has usually been engineered to drain water off the flat lawn, he says. Pin oaks can grow tall – up to 70 feet high and 35 feet wide – if given abundant water, but in drier sites such as lawns, most are forgotten and die young, he says. McLoughlin recommends planting pin oaks in depressions where water collects.

Red oak or northern red oak (Quercus rubra) is the only one among these oaks that can take any shade – although light shade only, not the darkness below Norway maples. It’s a fast grower, eventually hitting about 75 fee high and 65 feet wide if planted in an acidic soil. The fat, pointy leaves go yellow and occasionally red in fall. McLoughlin warns, though, that red oak is the variety that most often has to be removed because of rotting inside. By Dennis Rodkin Chicago Tribune, October 1, 2000

Q2) How did you get started in the nursery business?

A2) Connor Shaw was 9 when his father, an executive at Marshall Field’s, moved his family from Lake Bluff to a farmhouse in Monee, Ill. “My dad had a vision of becoming a gentleman farmer,” Shaw says.

The setting was not exactly bucolic. The house had been vacant except for a large family of rats. Three outhouses, numerous sheds, a chicken coop and a barn were in woeful need of repair. “My dad would say the place had all kinds of possibilities, but when my grandfather saw it, he sat down on the steps and cried.”

That was in 1957 and local farmers still plowed with horses. The 1860s-era house soon was made livable and 13 outbuildings were demolished. The rural environment slowly fostered the young Shaw’s interest in raising livestock and growing plants. “I had lived three blocks from the beach, but out here were cows, sheep and chicken.”

It became a working farm for him and his three brothers. “We showed sheep at the county and state fairs. And I netted $1,500 a year (selling them). It was as good as you could do for a kid in the ‘60s,” says the 54-year-old Shaw.

The livestock is gone and the 80-acre farm now is home to Possibility Place, a wholesale nursery started by Shaw and his wife, Jo, in 1978. Nearly 60,000 trees thrive at the nursery, which specializes in trees and shrubs native to northeastern Illinois. More than 18,000 trees are planted each year, mostly from seeds collected in Show’s home garden on the property and elsewhere within a 150-mile radius.

Besides growing eight of the nine oaks native to the Chicago area, Shaw offers hackberry, redbud, fringe tree, pagoda dogwood, downy hawthorn, Kentucky coffee tree, blue ash, wafer ash, buckeye, blue beech, American beech, butternut, yellow birch, serviceberry, sassafras, persimmon, sour gum, prairie willow, ironwood, quaking aspen and viburnum.

There are scores of others. All are underused, but highly attractive, durable species that can withstand the Midwest’s sweltering, droughty summers, freezing winters and impenetrable clay soils. Many of these delightful natives, like Juneberry or American plum, offer spring blossoms, berries, interesting bark, fragrance or brilliant fall color. They are little known to most homeowners and retail garden centers, but Shaw is changing that.

Municipalities, golf courses, universities, park districts and homeowners are among the nursery’s 500 or so clients. “We’ve been buying materials from Connor for about 10 years,” says Mike Stelter, forester at the Downers Grove Park District. “It’s not so much that we went the native route. We’re looking to diversify the plantings instead of sticking with just a few types. There’s a rule of thumb that you try not to have more than 10 percent of one species of trees in your inventory.”

Thinking outside the box An exceptional plant palette and an unorthodox method of raising trees and shrubs have popularized the nursery. Most growers sell trees dug during spring dormancy before leaves sprout. Up to 80 percent of the tree’s root system is left in the ground; remaining roots are stuck in a ball of soil held together with burlap. Newly planted trees often suffer transplant shock requiring years to recover before resuming normal growth.

Shaw’s seedlings are nurtured in 1-gallon pots before they are transplanted into special in-ground root bags where they grow for an average of five years. In the spring, the tree is dug and the root bag removed. It’s then prepared for sale, placed in an above-ground container that holds special soil and fertilizers and receives daily irrigation.

“Our above-ground container system allows us to provide trees bearing 100 percent of their own roots. A tree or shrub with a fibrous root system not only transplants well but thrives,” Shaw says.

This practice allows trees to be successfully dug in late summer, something most growers do not attempt.

“Most people don’t think about planting trees in summer,” says Tom Green, horticulture professor at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Ill. Green is working with Shaw, who donated 60 bur oak trees for the project, to analyze planting times and their impact on tree health. “One of the problems that nurserymen have is that they’re dependent on spring sales,” Green says. “The study shows that there’s another time of the year you can plant trees.”

“He’s employing a lot of new technologies,” says Jeff Iles, chairman of the horticulture department at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. “The thing I like about him is that he’s not afraid to try new things.”

Shaw and Iles are studying success in transplanting but oak, chinquapin oak, blue beech and American linden at various times in the year. The university planted 100 of Shaw’s trees in spring, late summer and fall. Preliminary data show that late summer and fall planting were successful.

“I’ve learned more from Connor about plants native to this area and how to use them than anybody else out there,” says Dave Ward, golf course superintendent at Olympia fields Country Club. Ward plants about 45 trees, 150 shrubs and a large number of native prairie plants from Possibility Place each year. “We have close to 100 percent success now transplanting oaks that we didn’t have in the beginning,” Ward says.

Native wonderland Their 2-acre yard is a monument to native plants. “There are 105 native shrubs in the Chicagoland area and we have about 50 of them in our yard," Shaw says. Serviceberries, bottlebrush buckeye, redbuds, shingle oak, sumac, Chinquapin oak, paw paw, New Jersey tea, spicebush, elderberry and witch hazel are among the "woodies” in perimeter plantings and island beds.

“In 1985, there was nothing in the front yard except evergreens,” Shaw says. “Everything we planted had a 1 1/2 inch caliper (trunk).” A catalpa, planted from a seed in 1988, now holds center court at the front of the yard towering over shrubs.

In the back yard, Jo mixes natives, such as delicate prairie dropseed, pale purple coneflower, wild petunia, Culver’s root, queen-of-the-prairie, mountain mint and asters, with old-fashioned peonies, phlox, and daylilies. The hefty, eye-appealing borders attract butterflies and curious clients.

“People have a really tough time when you say natives. They think of roadside and weedy. We created a garden to show them off and there are always comments and questions,” she says.

Shaw has added more than 125 species of native herbaceous plants, grasses, sedges and rushes to the catalog. “It fits a niche in the market,” he says. Some trees are sold with a group of 18 prairie plants as companions.

Sons Kelsay and Tristan are old hands, having helped their dad collect seeds since they were 4 years old. Kelsay handles the nursery’s marketing and Tristan manages operations. “I realized I liked being outside. I don’t want to spend my life indoors,” Tristan says. “It can’t always be a picnic, but I like the relaxed atmosphere. It’s low stress and easy going.”

“We don’t believe in the status quo. We are constantly testing species, fertilizers, soil mixes and transplant ability. I’ve had a lot of failures. We’ve learned what takes and what doesn’t,” Shaw says.

The learning process has paid off. “His trees will be here long after we aren’t,” Kolar says.

SHAW’S PICKS Looking for something out of the ordinary? Connor Shaw suggests these lovely natives:

TREES PERENNIALS Catalpa Queen of the Prairie Bur oak Wild white indigo Chinquapin oak Prairie dock Swamp white oak Wild petunia Hill’s oak Golden Alexanders Ironwood Tradescantia Blue beech ORNAMENTAL GRASSES SHRUBS Sideoats grama Blackhaw viburnum Northern or prairie dropseed American filbert Big bluestem Mapleleaf viburnum Yellow honeysuckle Rosa setigera (Illinois rose) Ninebark (Physocarpus) Connor Shaw’s roots run deep as an advocate for native trees and

Q3) How can I reduce the maintenance time with my trees?

A3) Some days it seems like we are living in a mad and crazy world. Business people say that we are becoming more and more efficient.

I believe we are becoming more efficient; however, for us to be more efficient it seems like we must work longer hours.

Maintanance is critical to plant survival. Having fewer free hours means less time to manage your landscape. I know I run counter-culture when I say smaller is better and timing is everything versus bigger is better and I want it now. Here are a few things I have learned while being in the trenches for 25 years.

Plant a 1.5-inch caliper tree next to a 4-inch caliper tree, and in four years the trees will be the same height and crown size. This is only true if you take the time to maintain the two trees. The 1.5-inch tree needs to be mulched and watered the first growing season. Watering is only necessary during drought for the following year. The larger tree must be watered every week during the growing season for four years and mulched. If you have the ample resources of time, dedication to watering, and money, then the large tree is possible. If your resources are limited, get the smaller tree, and it will be the same size as the bigger tree would be in four years.

Another thing to keep in mind is that smaller trees come with small root balls and weigh as little as 50 to 150 pounds; whereas, a 4 inch caliper tree root ball weighs about 1400 pounds. Smaller trees cost less to install and give the option for some people to install their own.

There are a few important recommendations for planting your own tree. The hole should be shallow enough so that the top of the root ball is 2 inches above grade. The hole should be about 2.5 times the width of the root ball. After filling the hole, surround the perimeter of the backfilled area with a 3-inch high berm. This area creates a "saucer" which can assist in watering, and should be filled with 3-inch deep mulch.

Correct watering techniques are very hard to teach. If we do not get a 2-inch rain once a week during the growing season, you must water woody plants in order to get them established. More frequent watering may be required if the plants are in gravel or sandy sites, and if we have temperatures in the 90's with no rain. Once the woody plants are established, we really don't need to water unless we have a drought for 3 or 4 weeks.

Quantity of watering is always difficult, but I prefer to saturate the ball by filling the "saucer" twice. Many people have irrigation systems that treat grass, woody plants, and perennials the same. They are not, and require different zones for different watering regimens.

Keep in mind that one can only reduce long term maintenance if one chooses the right plant for the site.

Q4) Is there a plant that does not attract insects?

A4) There is no such thing as an insect free plant. Every year I give numerous talks and invariably get asked many questions. One question that people frequently ask is, "Will I have more problems with insects if I install native plants in my landscape?" There is no such thing as an insect-free plant. However, you might believe that it is possible to have an insect-free world through pesticides. At least that is what the pesticide companies would like you to believe! Actually pesticides may create more problems then they solve by killing the good insects (98%) as well as the bad (2%). The other factor of environmental harm could be debated long and hard.

We have not used an insecticide, miticide, or a fungicide in 16 years. You might draw the conclusion that we don't have insect problems because we grow native plants. That would be the wrong conclusion. One reason we do not have problems is that the method we use to raise our trees and shrubs dramatically reduces stress, which in turn reduces insect problems. Another reason is that we are willing to accept a certain amount of damage such as holes in leaves, gall (there are 400 gall that live on oaks and do not seem to do damage), and an occasional defoliation of one or two trees. This does not mean we will never spray an insecticide, but we will try hard not to!

Another reason we don't use insecticides is BUTTERFLIES. As hard as it is to believe butterflies ARE insects and insecticides definitely kill them.

To attract butterflies you must raise plants that are sources of larval food for the caterpillar and nectar sources for the butterfly. Butterflies seem to gather nectar from a large number of plants. Larva tend to be very specific, and their chosen plants are mostly native. For example, the zebra swallowtail lays its eggs only on Asimina triloba (Paw Paw).

"If I grow these butterfly plants will they come?" Upon visiting the greenhouse last spring in the evening, I noticed the Bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia) were in bloom. Upon shining the flashlight into the plants, I was greeted by 50 to 100 moths that were pollinating the plants. We asked an entomologist how the moths found our plants since the closest bladdernut we know of are four miles away. He said, "They blew in!" Fifty to one hundred moths pinpointed these shrubs in the middle of nowhere. There must be an unbelievably potent pheromone involved that I want to bottle and sell! So, will they come?

They came! Lorrie, our propagator, informed me that we had a critter eating the sassafras and the spicebush. Together we set out to find this critter, and it turned out to be a caterpillar with two fake eyes -- the spicebush caterpillar. The nearest spicebush or sassafras is twenty miles away. We will continue to watch the host plants for caterpillars and see what shows up.

Q5) What happens if a tree is planted too deeply?

A5) Trees planted too deeply die prematurely. One reason is that roots need oxygen. A second reason is that roots can actually choke the tree. Many people believe that any circling root is bad. This does not appear to be true. The worst circling roots are those that circle at or above the root collar or root flare of the tree. Roots that circle below the root flare are usually not problematic. We recommend planting 2-inches above grade, or higher than 2-inches if planting on a wet site.