Sonderegger Pine, Bastard Pine

A quick way to tell if you in fact have a loblolly x longleaf hybrid is to look at one of the terminal buds. The long leaf has a fuzzy w...Read Morehite terminal bud, the loblolly a pointed brown terminal bud, and their hybrid a striped brown terminal bud. I will post a photo for clarification.

I work for a forest tree nursery in Georgia. Sonderegger Pine is a natural hybrid of Longleaf and Loblolly Pine. Considered genetic junk ...Read Moreby people in the forestry business. I'm stunned anyone would offer this tree for sale. For the person from Ohio, of the Southern yellow pines, Shortleaf would be the best options in your area. Snow and ice will eventually tear every branch off the Slash trees and Loblolly is only moderately resistant to snow and ice.

I received 10 Sonderegger Pines from Willis Orchards Co. last fall. They are approximately 3 ft tall. At this point, I'm still not 100% s...Read Moreure they are in fact the loblolly-longleaf hybrids. They survived the winter OK here with some browning leaves, and have all sent up new growth this spring. However, they are not growing very fast. Since the needles turned brown in winter, that may in fact prove they are loblolly/longleaf hybrids. My regular loblollies have never shown cold stress like that. I may fertilize them a little to give them a boost. But as far as right now, they have shorter needles than loblolly, and don't look the greatest. I'll keep you posted, and will upload pics soon, too. Maybe some of you southerners could help me decide if I actually have sondereggers.

....Oh, and by the way, I have a 3ft Slash Pine outside that I grew from seed.It's been in the ground 2 yrs, and it's growing much better, and looks much healthier than the "sondereggers".