Pine Trees

Does anyone know a good place to order pine seedlings? I need at least 20.

www.mailordernatives.com

$4 per seedling, $38 for a bundle of 25.

This message was edited Nov 13, 2007 11:20 PM

musser forest
the botany shop
arbor day foundation
call your local conservation district they
prob have tree incredible sale come march you
pre order 2+2 seedlings 36" high 10 for 12$ typical.

My county ext. office has a tree sale in Dec. dirt cheap for pines. Might want to check yours out.

Now that I think about it I can send you 20-30 long leaf seedlings pretty easily I think. Not totally sure on that but behind me down a dirt road there were loads of them last year.

Core, you'd be suprised to find out those little longleaf seedlings can have a taproot 3 feet long. They usually don't survive transplanting.

I didn't know that. Now I do, thank you.

Hey, thank guys for all the great info.

I have looked at trees on the Arbor Day Foundation site. Does anyone know if the Ponderosa Pine drops lots of needles? I want trees that drop needles so that I can use them as top mulch around plants and other trees.

I'm not sure how well Ponderosa pine would perform in Alabama, it's pretty much a western tree. I'm not trying to point fingers, but ArborDay has a reputation for sending out dried up little sticks that never make it. Look for Longleaf pine, it's needles are in the highest demand.

Arbor Day is listed in the Garden Watchdog, I would definitely look at their rating there before you decide to get things from them. Last time I looked, I think they were running about 50/50 on negatives & positives.

Longleaf I consider the "cadillac" of pines, but I dont' think Longleaf pine will do well that far north. I'm just south of Birmingham and see very few growing wild in this area, whereas they are the dominant type in East Central Alabama.Within the past 5 years I have planted longleaf, white pine and Loblolly. The Loblolliles are already about 8-10 feet tall and vigorous. Most of the white pines died (don't like the sun and heat as much); the longleaf pines are indeed hard to transplant but I did and in 3 years it is about 4 feet high and I still am having to protect it. If you need pines quickly, grow the Loblolly pines; ask the Ala. Cooperative Extension service or forestry commision where you can get them. In fact the forestry guys attended a local arbor day event and gave me the loblolly pines so they must have a source.

Here's a pic of a stand of young Longleaf pines in Tallapoosa county; beautiful, aren't they?

Here is an eastern white pine (looks like a little Christmas tree) and to the left is a Loblolly I planted the same year (you can see I already had to prune the lower limbs to keep it from overgrowing the eastern white)

please give arbor day a break. they are in the process of reforesting americas.
if you take care of their little seedlings they send you then you are ok. i have never
been disappointed with anything, and well, if it died, they sent me a new one or
5, whatever.
arbor day does an awesome job of getting out to the schools and clubs all over
america and getting youngsters interested in trees, and thats where conservation
and caring all starts.
so, look past the negative feedbacks on that company and realize that not everyone
is just in the nursery business for money alone.
if we buy anything or not, we join for a measly $15 a year and I tell them to keep my
trees and plant them somewhere where they are needed.

sheri

I wasn't trying to say they were a bad organization, just that they may not be the best place to look to as a source for plants. They are doing good things and I'm with you, I'd give them the money and tell them to keep the plants. But since Linda's looking for a source for plants for her yard and not a place to donate money to a good cause, I figured she ought to see the feedback on their plants. Arbor Day may not be the best option for what she was asking for.

Passiflora, you're probably right about the Longleaf. If Linda is in the extreme northern part of the state Loblolly would probably be the best choice. When Loblolly pines are planted down here in the southern half of the state they seem to be a magnet for pine beetles.

I don't like Loblolly pines. They constantly drop needles, cones and branches. They do grow fast and wide on top but they do seem to have more bug problems than long leaf.

Thanks again for all the good info. I will consider all your suggestions.

Needles is what I like! It is the primary mulch I use in my garden. And it's all free! They'll all drop cones and needles seasonally. The longleaf pine cones can be used in crafts, they are so large and beautiful. Likewise the needles are used to craft beautiful craft items though few people know how these days. My grandmother made some unbelievable items that I will try to post some time. She showed me how to do it but I was just a kid and didn't pay attention. I regret it now.

Re: Musser forests I have ordered from them (that is where I got the eastern white pines) and they are great but they didn't have pines that will thrive in North Alabama; they cater a lot to the Christmas tree farms.

I think Musser is a good place our extension gets their
huge orders from Musser in fact.

thanks for your discussions I love DG!
sheri

I am not crazy about the Arbor Day Foundation's annual "membership" fee and am not convinced it is all used to do nothing but selfless, good things, but there is a difference between the free sticks they send as a membership gift (though I had a couple of them do quite well for me at my previous residence) and the trees in their online store, which are reasonably priced for what you get. I guess one advantage of the membership is that you do get a discount when you buy trees, so if you purchased even just a few you'd easily recoup your money. I ordered four maple trees from them last fall and all four have done extremely well, and are between 5 and 8 feet tall after one year. Their products are not bad. I gave them a neutral in my review. Overall I think their products are positive but their constant mailings and ploys for money are beyond annoying.

International paper sells a surprising variety of seedlings.
http://www.internationalpaper.com/Forest/Forest%20Customer%20Segments/Nurseries%20and%20Orchar.html
(you have to click on the left menu and choose a category); also check out the links from the alabama forestry owners association:
http://www.afoa.org/ads.htm#TREE%20SEEDLINGS%20FOR%20SALE

university of idaho nursery for trees and seedlings
go to their web site
sheri