LISTEN TO ME ... i wasted the first 5 years at my first house.. trying to save.. and deal with.. all the NIGHTMARES the prior owners left me ... and the happiest day of my life.. was the day i removed the last nightmare ... GET RID OF IT ... but with trees.. and a new house.. observe it this year.. and see if your ID is actually correct ... and then make some decisions.. there usually no real hurry with trees.. its not like this one will kill you in your sleep ... and i would NOT invest one cent in paying to have it pruned.. i would save that money for removal .... its obviously been growing like that for a decade or so..no hurry to prune off crossing branches ... so get rid of it.. sooner or later.. though i favor sooner.. say with/in 3 years.. DEPENDING on a proper ID ... ken ps: it really seems.. based on these pix.. that it adds NOTHING to the landscape of the house.. except the suggestion.. to hardcore gardeners.. that it was planted way to close to the house.. is improperly pruned, due to such.. and overly mature ...

I don't have extensive experience, but I've found that keeping them in pots for two years works well. I have tried planting out the first year and germinating directly in the ground, but tend to lose more that way. I do repot after the first year to accommodate root growth (white oaks like tall pots). By the second year, I find they're tough enough to fend well on their own without too much care. I still cage them and weed regularly. White oak seedlings are so beautiful, I actually like having them indoors over winter, but if you prefer to bury the pots outside, they'll do fine too. I would love to raise a few every year, but I run out of choice spots to plant them in.

Oh, very sorry to hear this, Dax. I hope it doesn't spread to anymore of your pines. About 10 years ago, I had planted a golden current in my yard because I loved the spicy smell of the blooms. I actually removed it, though it had no sign of the disease, when I read that it was a host; I didn't have any pines at the time but my neighbor did... I only had to deal with one bush, it sucks that you have a whole woods full of them, and probably your neighbors do, too, if it is a wild (native?) population there. Here is a link to preventative/cultural measures to control the disease: How To Manage Eastern White Pine Rust It is aimed at forestry practices so may not apply to your situation, but perhaps it will help. A quote from the linked site: "The best cultural practice to reduce losses from blister rust is to prune lower branches of young white pine" Of course, not much you can prune when you are dealing with seedlings and dwarfs. :-( Holly

Hi Ken, We planted 2 of them today. I'll try to get out and take pics tomorrow. Do you just need close-ups of a couple of the tips? This is the first we've seen smaller white pines for sale around here. Actually, in a nearby town, at a nursery, they were selling 1 gallon pots of them for $10, but they were very crooked. And they only had 2 of them. I've seen tons of small Austrian pines for cheap this year. Alot of my Austrians are getting blight and dying, so there was no way I was going to buy them. But they sure were beautiful and cheap. We're getting older and wanted to get a couple year's jump on the growth. We should have ordered from the DNR about 30 years ago! I'll take pics tomorrow........but I don't want any bad news, okay? :)