Live Oak - a forgotten Atlanta landscape tree


Though it is the colossus that shades the streets of Savannah and is the state tree of Georgia, the Live oak Quercus virginiana continues to be overlooked as a potential landscape or specimen tree in Atlanta. Live oaks embody many of the sentimental qualities that are often associated with a southern oak: expansive, rich with character, and hauntingly lyrical with tales to tell of children and families meeting beneath the shadow if its weathered limbs.

Its popular detraction is also its greatest asset. Slow growing, but conservative.

Yet given the right conditions of bright sunlight, moisture, and well-drained soil, this tree is moderately, even fast-growing, in youth. Over time, this tree can outperform and outlive some of the more cosmopolitan oaks such as Willow oak and the newest urban dweller Nuttall oak.

It is a recommended southern landscape tree by Michael Dirr.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I've always loved oak trees but didn't associate them with the south. thanks for raising my awareness.

Dagny
www.onnotextiles.com
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6:41 PM
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