Englishlive Oak Acorns

currently unavailable This particular strain of hybrid oak has its origins in a breeding program by the late Dr. Eugene Cottam. His persistence and deep interest in creating and identifying oaks is legendary. Some of the seedling crosses ended up in an arboretums and some were abandoned over time. They were of interest from a horticultural perspective but never found widespread use in any way.  When I first found out about it, I was growing a lot of hybrid oaks. This cross with an evergreen shrub oak and the common English oak inspired me to find an evergreen oak. That did show up in the population but they are incredibly slow growing. (Those now reside at my farm while I figure out a way to root them.)  I grew seedlings from several hundred pounds of acorns and like many directions I had taken, nature had other ideas. The shrub live oak is not adapted to Michigan and is weak growing and can easily die off during winter as there is just too much moisture in the soil here. As time went on, I left a hedge row of the most vigorous and long lived plants. These since have produced decent crops of acorns and the trees have remained healthy. I have removed the weakest plants and pruned them to improve growth rate and form. 

Englishlive oak has the ability to grow in very dry and hot sites. The trees have thick leaves and a squatty structure to 20 ft. or less. They could easily be established in zones 3-9 as a form of fruiting hedgerow. The trees can be limbed up to prevent browse. The acorns are produced early in the season in September. The wood from this hybrid is incredibly hard and heavy.  The leaves are clean throughout the season and remain on the trees until November. Selections could be made for urban type trees or any place that there is a lot of heat and little soil moisture in a temperate climate.