Thursday, March 26, 2020

Following Quercus garryana

I am making another attempt to be a tree follower (squirrelbasket/tree-following). My effort last year HERE was a fail. The problem was the tree was on a long vacant property that shortly shortly became not vacant. The tree remains, but I was unable/unwilling to trespass to get a good look to identify the tree. 

I have plenty of trees on our own property and I am only just beginning to get my head around the nuances of the forest. For this year I will follow a new tree.  

Quercus garryana 
Garry oak or Oregon oak or Oregon white oak 

I planted this tree last spring. The fence is to keep the deer from nibbling the tree. The soil is very hard glacial till. In western Washington oaks grow in the excessively well drained prairie sites, but there are patches in drier areas of the San Juan Islands as well as the Columbia River Gorge and valleys on the east slopes of the Cascade Range.

Samish Island is within the rain shadow of the Olympic Range and hence a bit on the dry side. There are oaks on the south facing bluffs of the island and I noted a small stand across Samish Bay on the lower slopes of Chuckanut Mountain. The biggest challenge to the oaks is shading out by taller evergreen trees - particularly the Douglas firs.

Not much to report at this late winter early spring time. Waiting for the leaves to come out and seeing if the tree tolerated saturated ground conditions from the very wet winter.
 

5 comments:

  1. A lovely choice - and apparently a bit of a rarity, found only in your neck of the woods? I look forward to seeing its leaves, flowers and acorns as the seasons go by.
    I guess it must be named after the same person as Garrya elliptica?
    Anyway, thank you for joining us and I look forward to finding out more.
    Best wishes :)

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  2. Tree following can sometimes be more eventful than you would expect... Good luck with the new tree!

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  3. Thanks for the interesting post about your new Garry Oak. Best luck to you and it!

    About ten years ago, I planted two in my suburban Bellevue yard: Dry, hard yellow clay with a small amount of till. They have taken off! (Leastways, I think they have. My assumption is that they are slower-growing than red oak, but they are 25' tall and seem robust. Their acorns have even added some volunteers too.) To your point, they do seem to enjoy full sun.

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