How can I avoid transplant shock when planting an oak tree?
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 theyre 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. Theyre 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 theres nostalgia associated with oaks. You think of oak furniture and acorns. Theyre historic trees. If theyre so great, how come oaks are so hard to get going in hom
