Quercus, Pin Oak, Swamp Oak 'Pacific Brilliance'

I just discovered this new cultivar of the Pin Oak while strolling through a tree nursery in southeast Pennsylvania. There was a line of ...Read Moreyoung trees staked with stout bamboo poles. This cultivar differs from the straight species in that it does not form such low, descending branches that the mother species usually does, and it bears smaller and less acorns. One problem with Pin Oak is that it does form "pins" of short thorn-like spurs that can prick a person as one walks under or by the tree from the lower branches. Like the mother species, this cultivar needs acid soil that should be below pH 6.7 to not develop iron chlorosis caused by a lack of iron because it is unavailable to this plant at just barely acid or alkaline reaction in the soil.