I love live oaks

[Cable]

Talk about a muse! I just got back from Charleston and Savannah and I'm in love with live oaks.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rzgtj3d58cvucr3/AADcWCH_GZBbxActZ4Hr2tKAa?dl=0

 

[defra]

Nice !
Thnx for sharing

 

[Cable]

They aren't hardy to my area but when I get better at this I'll probably try one. At the least I can mimic it with another species.

 

[RKatzin]

You might consider some of the western live oak. I have Coastal and chrysolepis, Canyon Live Oak growing at three to four thousand feet. Pretty harsh up on top, so maybe something you can work with in Ohio with some winter care.

 

[rockm]

They aren't hardy to my area but when I get better at this I'll probably try one. At the least I can mimic it with another species.

Unless you have winter storage in a cold greenhouse, you are very unlikely to be able to keep Southern Live oak (quercus virginiana) alive where you are. I have a close relative of the the sothern species--quercus fusiformis--as bonsai here in Zone 7 Virginia. It is more cold hardy that q. V., but I have to store it in a cold greenhouse from the end of November until mid-May or so.

It could survive without that treatment, but it wouldn't develop as quickly. Additionally, the weather has been very unreliable for the last five years or so, with very early warm ups followed by deep freezes. That kind of thing would probably have killed it.

I would suggest substituting boxwood. It can make quite convincing live oak images and is vastly more cold hardy than any live oak would be in your climate.

First pic is of my actual live oak (collected near Austin 25 years ago), second is of a Kingsville boxwood style as a Texas live oak.

 

[theone420]

Talk about a muse! I just got back from Charleston and Savannah and I'm in love with live oaks.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rzgtj3d58cvucr3/AADcWCH_GZBbxActZ4Hr2tKAa?dl=0

Definitely better than dead oaks!


Although:

 

[rockm]

And remember that while all those Southern live oaks get most of the press, there are more spectacular, tougher, and single-trunked!! live oaks in Texas
http://www.texasescapes.com/MikeCoxTexasTales/177-Sam-Houston-Oak.htm

 

[RKatzin]

Here's one I'm just getting started with. This is a Q. Chrysolepis var. vaccinifolia, aka huckleberry oak. It's a dwarf variety of Quercus chrysolepis aka Canyon Live Oak.
I dug this old stump two years ago and it has been sulking since. Just sitting there, not dying, but not making any new growth. This year it finally kicked in and started a bunch of new shoots.

 

[JosephCooper]

RockM is right, a boxwood can be made to look much more like a live oak than other oaks can.

 

[Solaris]

RockM is right, a boxwood can be made to look much more like a live oak than other oaks can.

I can definitely see that. The ones I collected this year certainly have the look.

@Cable: Next year I'll keep an eye out for some nice ones when I'm doing the Craigslist landscaping thing in the spring. I've got a trio of them right now, but I have no idea if they'll survive the winter.