A Tale of Two Oaks. My favorite plant in the garden (This Week.)

O.K. it's really just a comparison of two interesting oaks, Quercus robur 'Filicifolia' and Quercus dentata 'Pinnatifida.' The first being brand new to me as I just purchased it from none other than Dancing Oakes Nursery at the recent Heronswood sale and the second being an old and still greatly admired friend that I bought years ago from Heronswood Nursery.   My pal Loree asked me about the new oak as she was contemplating a Q. dentata 'Pinnatifida' for an area of her garden that she'll be clearing out but also liked the foliage of Q. robur 'Filicifolia.'  To be a lazy friend and an even lazier blogger, I've made a post out of the comparison that I was going to do anyway for my own edification.

Here's what little I know and some information borrowed from Michigan State University's Plant Encyclopedia  Quercus robur 'Filicifolia' is an English Oak cultivar and is also known  as cut leaf oak and fern leaf oak. 

Distribution:  Europe, N. Africa, and western Asia.

Hardiness Zone:  USDA Zones 4-8  

Size:   75-100 ft. tall, with a similar spread.

Form:   Deciduous. A large, open, wide-spreading tree, with heavy limbs and a short, massive trunk.

Bark:   Bark grayish brown, becoming deeply fissured with age.

Stem/Bud: 

Leaves:   Deciduous. A large, open, wide-spreading tree, with heavy limbs and a short, massive trunk.

Fall Color:   Fall color is brownish to red.

Flower:   Plants are monoecious. Male flowers are borne in clustered, pendent catkins; the females are borne solitary, or in a few-flowered spike in the axils of the new leaves.

Fruit:   Fruit is an acorn, l-2 inches long, oblong to oval, enclosed about l/3 by bowl-like, thick, woody, knobbycap, borne on a long, slender stalk. Raw acorns are poisonous.

Uses:   Specimen. Dry sites.

Problems:   Acorns contain tannic acids that are posionous (they were used in past to tan leather). The tannic acids msut be leached or boiled out before they are eaten.

Notes:    Has longer acorns than the other oaks we study.

Notes 2:   Leafs out late in spring. Shade tree.

Q. dentata 'Pinnatifida' has much larger leaves that sometimes appear to have a golden cast to them.  There are some great pictures of a 40 year old specimen of this one along with an interesting comment here.  Mostly, I remember my glee at first seeing this for the first time.  The leaves were glowing beautifully in the summer sunshine and my heart began pounding the way it does when I see a glorious plant for the first time.  I believe in love at first sight!

An informative post from the JC Raulston Arboretum can be found here. My personal experience with this one is that it grows very slowly but surely but the foliage is thrilling.  One site said 10 feet tall by 3 feet wide in 10 years.  I think that's fairly optimistic.  

 

 There's lots of great information about this one at Plant Lust.

Here's the trowel again for scale.  A Japanese/Korean native, the Emperor oak is pretty spectacular of foliage.  Louis the Plant Geek is fond of it's pink spring foliage.  See his entry here.  I've been seeing this called a rare and even very rare tree yet there seems to be a lot of writing about it and I've seen it for sale in a few places.

Those are some big, interesting-looking leaves!  ("This is the one that you want" he whispered to his agave-loving friend.) I remember Dan Hinkley waxing poetic about this somewhere but can't put my finger on the source at the moment. 

So enamored of the leaves am I that in the fall as they drop, some are gathered and brought inside to appreciate through the winter.

Anyway, if you're looking for an oak with unusual leaves, these two should be on your short list unless you want to sit in the shade of said tree in your lifetime.  In that case, maybe I could show you something in a paulownia or poplar.

My favorite plant in the garden this week is the brainchild of Loree at Danger Garden.  Follow the link to see this weeks favorite plants of other gardeners.