- Welcome to the Best of Oklahoma Gardening.

Today we're talking with Riley Coy about tree selection.

I'll share with you a beautiful crab apple.

We learn about B and B tree production.

David Hilloff shares about the native paw paw.

And then we look at the flowering Dogwood.

Underwriting assistance for our program is provided by the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, helping to keep Oklahoma Green and growing.

Oklahoma Gardening is also a proud partner with Shape Your Future, a program of the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust.

Shape Your Future, provides resources for Oklahomans to make the healthy choice the easy choice.

I love sharing with you guys the cool things that plants can do.

We're back here at the Student Farm.

I wanna share with you a tropical plant that you might find in some Oklahoma landscapes.

It's important to know which plants we are dealing with so that we can continue to maintain them successfully for years to come.

Today we're out in the garden and joined by Riley Coy with Oklahoma Forestry Services.

And Riley, help us to decide how to select a right tree for our landscape.

Could you please?

- Absolutely.

So you've decided that you want a tree, - Right?

Right.

- It's not exactly like saying, I want this pretty flower.

Let's go stick it in the yard and see how it does.

A tree is a commitment.

It's a lifelong commitment.

Trees have a much longer timescale than humans do.

So you've gotta consider your objectives before you even get anywhere to select a tree.

- And in some cases, they can be a little pricier upfront to buy too.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

So you wanna make sure you're investing well.

- Right.

These are your resources, your hard-earned resources.

Right.

So, you know, put a little bit of forethought into it before you go and select a - Tree.

Okay.

So what are some of the things that we need to consider?

It's not just a I like that one.

Right.

- Well, you need to consider, first and foremost probably the size of maturity.

Okay.

You know, if you're wanting something to shade your home, you're wanting something tall and big.

Maybe you've got utility lines overhead in your backyard.

So you don't want the utility company having to come through and improve 'em in the future.

Maybe you want something different than size.

Maybe you're looking for fruit production.

Maybe you're looking for fall foliage.

Maybe you're looking for spring flowers.

- Okay.

- All of those are considerations that go into the first steps of choosing the proper tree for your location.

- Okay.

And I know sometimes it's about how fast it will grow also, or even sometimes the debris, some of the stuff's falling on us now out here.

Absolutely.

Under these soap - Berries.

Yeah.

We're standing under a stand of soap berries right here, and they're in full bloom this time of year.

And right now they're shedding their little flowers.

So that's what you see kind of raining down on us.

But no, unfortunately, a lot of people really want a fast growing shade tree, and then they don't want it to drop anything.

That's something you have to know, is that the faster a tree grows, the more brittle it is, the more it'll break.

- Okay.

- And shed limbs under high winds and ice and things that we get in Oklahoma pretty often.

- So what are some of those fast growing trees that be mindful that they might break on us too?

- There's American Sycamore, there's all the maples are pretty fast growing trees.

- Okay.

- There are several different ones.

River Birch, we've got some on the, on the grounds here.

River Birch is a really quickly rapid growing tree that is also fairly messy.

Most of those trees can tend to be messier trees.

- Okay.

- The slower growing trees are gonna be less messy, but it's also a longer time commitment before you realize that shade.

- Okay.

All right.

So obviously you mentioned maturity and size.

That's critical.

Whether you want it to be big or you want it to stay small.

Under those power lines, can you give us a couple of, you know, good trees that might work under power lines or maybe some taller shade trees also?

- Yeah, absolutely.

When you're looking at utility plantings, things like Eastern Red Bud American smoke tree would be a good option.

Things that that stay under about 20 feet tall at full maturity.

There are different viburnums out there.

The snowball viburnum is one good option.

Our native version of the viburnum is called the Rusty Black Hawk.

A little hard to find in the nursery industry, but a great option if you can find it.

- Okay.

- There are a lot of different species that stay under that mark for utility line plantings that are good options.

- Okay.

What if, you know, a lot of times I know we'll drive through the neighborhood, we'll see something in our neighbor's yard and think, oh, that's a cool tree.

I hope to get that in my yard.

I mean, is that a good way to, by looking at our neighbors and seeing what they have, is that a good assessment or - That that's an amazing assessment?

Yes.

Okay.

Drive around, look at what's planted and what's growing.

Well, you're gonna see some that aren't growing well, you're gonna see some that are doing fantastic.

Trying to figure out what those are.

If there's not a whole lot of 'em, maybe that's what you want in your yard.

- Okay.

- If there are a whole lot of 'em, for instance, Schu Mar Oak Schu Mar Oak is a great tree for Oklahoma, but it's heavily planted.

So maybe you like the look of a schu mar oak, but you want something different that's gonna grow as well as a schu mar oak.

So we, in the forestry industry, we talk about associated species a lot.

So schu Mar oaks naturally grow down by creeks, so they like a wetter type soil.

Other trees that fit that same criteria are pecan, black, walnut, all the sycamores, things like that.

Bur oak is a great example of a white oak that's gonna get really big at maturity and it's gonna fit the same criteria as the shumar oak.

- Okay.

- So looking at those associated species can really help you narrow down the species that's right for your yard.

- Okay.

And you mentioned a couple of nut varieties there too, which kind of can lead you into potentially if you wanted something that could produce for you.

Right.

And whether that's for you or even for the wildlife potentially.

- Absolutely.

Yeah.

There are a lot of options.

There are a lot of negative options, even for food producing trees.

The American persimmon is a great option, can be messy.

You know, if you're not out there harvesting the fruit, the fruit falls to the ground, can get a little stinky and attract some flies.

But there are several of those options.

The Mexican plum is a small statured tree that produces a great fruit.

The Pawpaw North America's largest native fruit.

- Yeah.

- It kind of tastes like a mango and a banana.

Awesome fruit.

Small statued tree goes great under power lines, kind of needs a wet spot, a little dappled shade.

If you've got that in your yard, grab you a couple of those.

You're gonna need two of them so that they can pollinate each other - Right.

- In order to realize the fruit.

But that's a great option as well.

- Okay.

And and that kind of leads me to another thing.

I think a lot of times we think trees full sun, but the paw paw is a prime example of something that might need a little more of that understory or the edge of the canopy there.

Yeah.

Right.

And so sometimes you have to take in your environmental conditions, whether that's soil or sun exposure as well.

- Absolutely.

The pH of your soil.

- Right, - Right.

Is a big factor of it.

If you want to grow a flowering dogwood in Tulsa, doesn't mean it's gonna grow in Oklahoma City, even though we're in the same grow zone.

- Okay.

And is that applicable also north to south in Oklahoma as well?

- A little bit.

Not quite as much.

You know, southern magnolia's not gonna like our extreme winters and the northern fringes of the state, but they do great down south around Durant.

- Yeah.

- Other things like the escarpment Live Oak does great in the South.

The further north you go, it has a little harder time because it does get colder up north.

So you have to consider all that north and South has some bearing to it, but east and west has a much larger bearing on whether a tree's gonna work or not.

- Okay.

All right.

So it's a little bit more complicated than just going and picking your favorite tree at the nursery.

At least go in kind of with your thoughts in mind about where this tree's gonna go and maybe what are some of those prime qualities that you wanna ensure that you have as an investment?

- Absolutely.

A little bit of research on the front end of selecting your tree is gonna pay dividends on the back end.

Okay.

And if you wanna go deeper into it and learn more about it, you can always call your local forester with Oklahoma Forestry Services.

You can call your local arborist and you can call the OSU Extension Office for your county.

All of those people are gonna have great suggestions.

- All right.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- If you're looking to add a little color to your garden, why not go big by adding a prairie fire crab apple?

You can see behind me the amazing display of cranberry colored flowers that cover the canopy in early spring.

It's actually just a beautiful plant that's really gonna make that impact for people that might be going by your landscape.

But the display doesn't just end in spring.

In fact, it continues on as it pushes out that foliage later on.

That's going to be kind of a burgundy red colored foliage in the summer months that will slowly transition to a deep green with some red veins in it as you go into the fall months.

Now, finally, as you head from fall into winter, it's gonna produce these crab apples.

After all of these pollinated flowers that continue to maturing, you're gonna get these small fruits that persist through the winter months, and they're actually edible and preferred by the wildlife.

So you're gonna help benefit that wildlife in your community as well.

So it's really a small tree that's going to give you year round benefit.

Now, again, I mentioned it is a small tree.

It's only gonna reach a max out about 20 feet tall.

So it's a nice tree.

If you have utility lines or something going across the back of your yard, you can still plant this one underneath there.

Now you might be thinking crab apples aren't those prone to different diseases.

While some of them are, this prairie fire is actually resistant to a lot of those that kind of affect some of the more common crab apples.

So some of those diseases that you might hear about are firelight scab, cedar, apple, rust, and prairie fire has shown high resistance to those.

So we've had these planted out here at the gardens for several years and have never had any problems with them.

So an excellent tree to plant in your landscape, it does need full sun and well drained soil.

It is hardy to zone four, so you don't have to worry about sometimes those unseasonably really cold temperatures that we can get in our Oklahoma winters.

This is an Oklahoma proven plant, so it is tried and true.

To add to your landscape Today we are just outside of Yukon at Green Shade, which is a tree farm and also a full service horticulture nursery provider.

Right?

- Correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So - Joining me is Justin Lingo, who is the owner and president.

So Justin, I wanna talk about bald and burlap trees, specifically how we get to this process.

- Right.

- So you've got several thousand trees planted out here.

Let's talk about how that first gets started.

- So we start with a liner tree and that, - Which is what?

- That is a tree that we, we would say is probably as big as your pinky.

- Okay.

- And they range from three to six feet tall.

So we want them tall enough that rabbits and other varmit don't eat them down.

Okay.

- But - We don't want them so tall that the Oklahoma wind will damage 'em all right.

So we really shoot for that pinky size and three to six foot tall.

And we see a really good transplant rate in that, in that range.

If we get 'em too big, we see that they don't root well.

If we get 'em too small, they just don't ever get out of the weeds.

Okay.

So we really target that size.

- Okay.

So you're planting those trees and then how long are they out here growing - For a period of time?

So, so some of those trees will be here five to seven years.

- So after growing for a few years, depending on which variety, how many varieties do you kind of have out - Here?

I think we probably, I mean, it's hard to tell because we have all these cultivars.

- Okay.

- But I would say it's 20 to 30.

Okay.

You know, true species.

And then probably almost a hundred cultivars.

- All right.

- Of different types.

- And other than obviously we're getting a larger sized tree, I mean, what's one of the benefits of having a tree that's grown here in Oklahoma?

- We really think that the trees have grown here in Oklahoma are conditioned to the swings of hot and cold.

So you get to really experience very cold weather like we had last week and 110 like we had last summer.

And then we also get, you know, trees in Oklahoma tend to be a little bit shorter, so they're not real long and leggy and they do well transplanting, so.

Okay.

- All right.

Yeah.

So we're here in the winter time, and I know a lot of times we think till wait till spring and summer to really talk about landscaping.

Right.

But you guys are full on in digging these bald and burlap trees right - Now.

Yeah.

So tell - Us a little bit.

Obviously we didn't dig it up and it just looked like that.

- No.

So, so we had a crew come in and they dug, they bring a machine in with spades and they will dig up the trees and put 'em in this container.

I mean, it's really just balling brought up in wire.

And this would be the industry standard transplanting method.

- Okay.

- I know there's a lot of other methods out there, and we like some of those methods, but they, they tend not to maybe be the best for certain species.

Okay.

And so we, we've really been successful with digging ball and burlap, how we store it, how we transplant it, how we get it to a commercial site or a residential site.

And our crews are adapted to that.

There's other crews who are adapted to different methods.

- Right.

- And you go further south, more pots are used, more large boxes are used and, and so, but that probably does not great for Oklahoma.

- Okay.

- So we've, we've, we've done well with this.

I think we've also used fabric bags or pot and pot, you know, some these things.

And we've seen advantages for certain trees with those.

But this works for us.

- Okay.

How do you know when it's time to finally dig the tree?

I guess?

- So we work off of orders.

Okay.

And so a customer will call us and say, Hey, we want a certain size elm.

And we say yes or no, we have it, we wait till the right time of the year, more or less, we can start digging November 15th.

If we've really been had a really cold October, 1st of November, we can start about October 15th or November 15th, and we'll go through about March 15th on digging.

- Okay.

So come March, you'll dig a lot more that are ready for that season so that you have a, a supply to - Right - Pull from.

- So, so we will sell, we'll sell these trees to other landscapers.

We'll sell these trees to other nurseries and they'll give us orders.

So we've already kind of got our orders ready for the year and we know what we're gonna have available and we work off of that.

And so if a customer wants a certain size, we say yes or no.

We have it.

And it, and it's a, it's a good system.

- Okay.

So how do you know other than your orders how to dig a tree come march?

- Right, right.

So we look for a couple things.

We want it to be, for it to be economically viable for us to do, we need a two inch tree.

Okay.

So we take the caliber here and we go six inches up from the base of the - Root.

Okay.

- I mean the, the top of the root ball.

And so we're gonna measure this.

And this is a two and a half inch tree.

Once it gets over six inches, we'd go to DBH measuring.

So that's gonna be up in here.

But since it's a small tree, we still measure six inches up from the base of the - Tree.

Okay.

- And then for as far as a root ball, we want it to be a nine to 10 times the diameter of the trunk.

- Oh, okay.

- So, so if we have a two inch tree, or two and a half inch tree, 10 times, that's gonna be 25 to, you know, 28 inches.

And so we dug these with a 32 just 'cause we like to put a little extra soil on it.

And with our sandy soil, we think that's a good idea.

- Right.

And looking at the hole behind you, I mean, we're not seeing any roots that have really been lost in this.

Right.

So really captured most of that in there.

Right.

- So we, you know, if we get our aligners from a, a lot of really good nurseries, and so they are root pruned in the nursery.

Okay.

So they come in, they root p prune 'em.

When they're very small, they start forming that fibrous root opposed to if we were out here putting in, you know, seeds, they might be a large tap root.

- Okay.

- And that we would want to root prune.

- Okay.

- At, at that point, when it's in the ground, in the, in the hole, we don't see a lot of really large roots.

Okay.

So that, that gives us confidence that we're capturing the large roots and we're not causing the tree too many, too much stress by pruning.

Right.

- Okay.

So when we're planting these trees, so let's say I'm a homeowner and this comes in my backyard and I have a contractor, - Right.

- Who isn't you?

- Right.

- What should I expect?

I mean, you know, I've heard different ways of planting ball and burlap.

So what is the preferred method?

- We really like to see a, the hole dug two to three times the diameter of this.

- Okay.

- So that's a lot of digging, but a lot of times that will help loosen - Up.

Can I borrow the machine back there?

- Well, maybe we'll see.

But if you can dig the root, the hole two to three times the size of the root ball, and then use that same soil in the hole.

Right.

Don't bring in a bunch, a bunch of new soil or different amendments.

Just use that same soil back in the, that hole.

And then what we like to do is get the tree, you know, do a lot of measuring measure, measure twice.

Cut tree once.

Right?

Yeah.

But the same thing with trees.

Right.

And we like to put the tree in the fill up the bottom just so the tree can stand on its - Own.

Okay.

- And then we like to start cutting the fabric and wire apart off.

Okay.

So we would want to see, at a minimum, we want to see the top third of this burlap and wire and rope gone - Removed.

Okay.

- Removed.

- All right.

- We want to leave as much of the soil that it came with, with the tree.

And if you can go further down on taking wire and burlap off, I think that's great.

But the, the key is not to crack the root ball, not to damage the root ball.

We want to keep that root ball as as intact as possible.

- Right.

Because that's potentially gonna damage some of those roots - In that.

Right.

So all those fibrous roots in there are connected to the soil and if the more it's disturbed, the more it's damaged, the longer time it'll take to transition and start growing - Again.

Okay.

And absolutely remove anything that's up around.

- Yes, definitely remove any rope or, or string at the top of the root ball.

- Okay.

For sure.

Okay.

Alright, well thank you so much for sharing all of this with us.

Yeah.

It looks like you've got a, a full season ahead of you digging behind us.

- We, we'll stay busy.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Occasionally we choose a plant that needs a little bit of extra consideration in terms of where it's grown and where it's located in the landscape.

And that's called our collector's choice.

So for 2024 we chose the pawpaw, the paw paw is actually a native tree to eastern half of the United States and up into Canada and of course in into the eastern and central portions of Oklahoma as well.

It is a wonderful small tree can get up to about 30 feet.

It will tolerate deep shade, but it also grows well in full sun.

It typically is found growing as an understory tree along the edges of woodland areas, near riparian areas, rivers, et cetera, where there's nice moisture but has well drained soils.

It has a nice yellow fall color, which is really attractive, but it's a really easy and fun plant to grow and it has edible fruit on it.

So the Paw paw and this plant here is actually producing some fruit right now.

And the interesting thing about this fruit is, well first it tastes, it has a sweet custard like flavor to it, but it's also has a very short lifespan.

So when it matures you need to harvest it and eat it right away 'cause it doesn't have a very good shelf life.

But the other problem is beating the critters to it too.

So a lot of wildlife love the fruit and if you're not paying attention to it, they'll come in and they'll snatch it all up before you can harvest it.

Another thing to remember is if you really want some good fruit on your tree, you need to have two or three other varieties or trees that have just different genetic diversity because the flowers which are produced in the spring, they're reddish brown color, they are self incompatible.

So in other words, they can't pollinize pollinate each other.

So you'll need two or three other varieties to cross pollinate so that you can ensure that you get good fruit.

Again, this is a, a wonderful small edible plant that you can put in your landscape and it is our collector's choice for 2024.

- Of course, we love our native red buds, but just as they are beginning to fade, we have the flowering dogwood, which is also a native to take center stage.

So you can see how beautiful it is.

It's a nice flowering tree that really helps transition us from spring into those summer months as it starts to bloom at the end of March, early April.

And it's a native tree, so it's actually native from southeastern Canada down through eastern US into Mexico.

And in fact, here in Oklahoma, we're sort of on the western boundary of where it is native.

Now regards to the conditions that it can grow in, although it is native and it's hardy from zones five to nine, it doesn't really handle urban pollution very well.

So sometimes it can be tricky in urban landscapes.

You can see we have it planted amongst some of our other trees right as we come into our shade garden here.

And that's because it really likes having that protection and that exposure where it's got some sun, but also has a little bit of shade protection from those other trees.

So you wanna make sure to kind of nestle it in because it is native an understory tree like our red buds.

So it sort of likes that protection a little bit.

Now you can see it produces what looks like a beautiful white flower, but these are not actual flowers or petals.

These are actually brax, which is a modified leaf.

The actual flower is a cluster right here in the center.

And these will eventually get pollinated and later on in the fall they will turn into a cluster of little red berries, which are a nice fruit for the songbirds actually.

So again, it adds to not only the wildlife, and then also later on in the fall when we've got our leaves on there, those green leaves will then transition to kind of a burgundy leaf.

Again, adding to that year round interest of this tree.

I mentioned the brax here.

They come in either white to ranges of pink.

So there are a lot of cultivars on the market to give you that specific color of pink that you might be looking for, or the white selection that you might want.

They have some that are light pink all the way to a really dark rose colored pink as well.

So this tree is a moderate grower, kind of a slow grower, but it will get to a height of about 20 to almost 40 feet tall.

It is either a multi stem or a single stem tree.

You can get both versions of it, but a nice understory tree.

Now as far as where to grow it in the soil conditions, basically it does grow well in clay to sandy soils.

However, it does like a lot of organic matter and needs good drainage.

Also, it can handle a slightly acidic pH all the way to a neutral pH as well.

So when you're looking to add flower power into your landscape, don't forget to include some trees.

Also like the flowering dogwood.

There are a lot of great horticulture activities this time of year.

Be sure and consider some of these events in the weeks ahead.

Join us next week on Oklahoma Gardening as we are talking about native plants.

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You wanna face it this way?

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Oklahoma Gardening is produced by the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service as part of the division of Agricultural Sciences and natural resources at Oklahoma State University.

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