We live on five acres surrounded by woods. We would like to see more
redbuds and dogwoods in the woods and wonder what is the easiest way
to get 2-3 or each to grow? We don't have a way to get water to them
so whatever we do will just have to be left up to mother nature. Can
we start these kinds of small trees with seeds planted in the forest
or do we need cuttings or small seedlings? Any suggestions will be
appreciated.

wrote in message
...
We live on five acres surrounded by woods. We would like to see more
redbuds and dogwoods in the woods and wonder what is the easiest way
to get 2-3 or each to grow? We don't have a way to get water to them
so whatever we do will just have to be left up to mother nature. Can
we start these kinds of small trees with seeds planted in the forest
or do we need cuttings or small seedlings? Any suggestions will be
appreciated.

What I wonder is whether or not if you _weed_ your forest, the dogwoods and
redbud would have a better chance of spreading on their own. I'm on a couple
of wooded acres in West Virginia. Last spring I started systematically
hand-pulling the worst invasives - garlic mustard and Japanese honeysuckle -
out of the forest floor. I worked about 6-8 feet into the woods from every
woods' edge. It seems to me that the cutleaf toothwort and other
forest-floor native plants are showing stronger this year, although there's
still a lot of honeysuckle, especially, to pull. So I wonder if relentlessly
pursuing the major invasives would also give trees a better chance to
germinate. Even the oaks, maybe, I don't know. (No doubt there a studies on
this, I just haven't looked them up.) Of course right in the middle of
everything is an 80-foot Norway maple, and that I can't hand-pull. But I can
destroy its saplings.

You can join the National Arbor Day Foundation and get 10 free trees for $10.00. You can even choose to have oaks, flowering trees, wildlife collection, etc. These are small bare root seedlings, but the price is right!
http://www.arborday.org/shopping/mem...emberships.cfm

You will need to water your new seedlings once a week for at least their first year, but with them being so small you shouldn't need too much water, especially if it rains. Here's how to plant young bareroot seedlings and watering info.
http://www.state.sc.us/forest/refplant.htm
http://www.watersaver.org/pdfs/FALL_..._FOR_TREES.pdf


Here's something that might be helpful. If nothing else, it gives guidelines on how much water your trees will need.
http://www.treegator.com/junior/junior_directions.html

Newt

Rachel, I really like your ideas. The only caveat might be that certain
invasives actually enjoy disturbed soil (English Ivy, for example) so
removal of *other* invasives should reflect that. Toothwort is such a
charming native plant!


--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
email:
http://beyondgardening.com/Albums

"Rachel" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
We live on five acres surrounded by woods. We would like to see more
redbuds and dogwoods in the woods and wonder what is the easiest way
to get 2-3 or each to grow? We don't have a way to get water to them
so whatever we do will just have to be left up to mother nature. Can
we start these kinds of small trees with seeds planted in the forest
or do we need cuttings or small seedlings? Any suggestions will be
appreciated.

What I wonder is whether or not if you _weed_ your forest, the dogwoods
and
redbud would have a better chance of spreading on their own. I'm on a
couple
of wooded acres in West Virginia. Last spring I started systematically
hand-pulling the worst invasives - garlic mustard and Japanese
honeysuckle -
out of the forest floor. I worked about 6-8 feet into the woods from every
woods' edge. It seems to me that the cutleaf toothwort and other
forest-floor native plants are showing stronger this year, although
there's
still a lot of honeysuckle, especially, to pull. So I wonder if
relentlessly
pursuing the major invasives would also give trees a better chance to
germinate. Even the oaks, maybe, I don't know. (No doubt there a studies
on
this, I just haven't looked them up.) Of course right in the middle of
everything is an 80-foot Norway maple, and that I can't hand-pull. But I
can
destroy its saplings.

Just a note - these are edge-of-the-woods plants. I'd say get 4 - 5
foot tall trees and plant along the edge of the woods. I actually
have mine in full sun in my yard and they bloom like crazy every year.


On Sat, 16 Apr 2005 16:17:30 GMT, wrote:

We live on five acres surrounded by woods. We would like to see more
redbuds and dogwoods in the woods and wonder what is the easiest way
to get 2-3 or each to grow? We don't have a way to get water to them
so whatever we do will just have to be left up to mother nature. Can
we start these kinds of small trees with seeds planted in the forest
or do we need cuttings or small seedlings? Any suggestions will be
appreciated.

"David J Bockman" wrote in message
news:ugr8e.14034$Zn3.4697@trnddc02...
certain
invasives actually enjoy disturbed soil (English Ivy, for example) so
removal of *other* invasives should reflect that. Toothwort is such a
charming native plant!

Yes, it really is. It's just everywhere right now, including around and in
and out of my patch of Virginia bluebells, which I reintroduced to a wettish
part of the yard by the edge of the woods and now, in their fourth spring,
they're really spreading. We also have a carpet of Claytonia virginica
(Spring Beauty) across our yard.

There's no English Ivy in sight around here, just tons and tons of the
honeysuckle. My biggest problem in pulling that up is coming in contact with
that nice native vine, poison ivy, to which I'm quite allergic. Pulling the
garlic mustard is easier, safer and quite rewarding; there are whole areas
where I pulled it last year and no little florettes of it have appeared this
spring.

--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
email:
http://beyondgardening.com/Albums

wrote in message
...
We live on five acres surrounded by woods. We would like to see more
redbuds and dogwoods in the woods and wonder what is the easiest way
to get 2-3 or each to grow? We don't have a way to get water to them
so whatever we do will just have to be left up to mother nature. Can
we start these kinds of small trees with seeds planted in the forest
or do we need cuttings or small seedlings? Any suggestions will be
appreciated.

What I wonder is whether or not if you _weed_ your forest, the dogwoods and
redbud would have a better chance of spreading on their own. I'm on a couple
of wooded acres in West Virginia. Last spring I started systematically
hand-pulling the worst invasives - garlic mustard and Japanese honeysuckle -
out of the forest floor. I worked about 6-8 feet into the woods from every
woods' edge. It seems to me that the cutleaf toothwort and other
forest-floor native plants are showing stronger this year, although there's
still a lot of honeysuckle, especially, to pull. So I wonder if relentlessly
pursuing the major invasives would also give trees a better chance to
germinate. Even the oaks, maybe, I don't know. (No doubt there a studies on
this, I just haven't looked them up.) Of course right in the middle of
everything is an 80-foot Norway maple, and that I can't hand-pull. But I can
destroy its saplings.