Lou: I have a pretty good idea as to how you felt on Monday. I underestimate how hard these jobs will be and how long they will take. Planting 50 small trees and seedlings sounds like a snap - until you do it. I've read articles that say a person can plant a seedling in a couple of minutes, but that's not been my experience. The articles also don't mention land prep ahead of time, carrying water, and mulching the seedlings. If my memory is correct, you are planting your seedlings on land that doesn't have a convenient source of water yet, so that makes your job more difficult. I am planting where I live so I had a few conveniences - a well and 1,000 feet of hose. I need to develop a watering system so I don't have to drag the hose to water new trees, drag it away to mow, then drag it back to water. I have a riding mower and got a little trailer for less than $100. The trailer helped because I can carry shovels, mattock, a few buckets of water or mulch, or few small trees. The land is bumpy so half of the water spilled out of the buckets. I shifted to 5 gallon water jugs - they work much better. It was a very long, hot, tedious process - thank goodness for ibuprofen. Bottom line: it will take longer than you expect and when you finish, you'll feel it.The good news is that the pain passes in a couple of days, just in time for you to plant the next batch of seedlings. I hope you have good weather this weekend. I can't start yet because we've had so much rain, everything is soaked, so I need to wait. Jan -early April tends to be very wet here so I don't know how much longer I'll have to wait. I hope all goes well this weekend. Take care, Pam

Well, If I had room for only one, I guess the Q. Rubra N. Red oak would be it. The branches will get thicker and not slope down. If you have room the Pin oak has great fall color for me as Beng has mentioned. The Nuttall's is a red oak family oak, and mine have still got their leaves on them although they are brownish red, I'm happy with them. I know fall color is nice to have, and is the reason some add certain trees to their yard, but, I have to say, I have a Quercus Velutina with great form, and it got kinda orange for a while this fall, one over the mountains had yellow fall color, but, the form of the tree was perfect, even if mine never has much fall color, I just love it's form, and can't wait for it to mature. I can't help but think that starting an oak from an acorn puts the tree at an advantage. I know they grow laterals etc. I know that they do, but, Dax sent me an acorn for a Burr oak, and I direct sowed the acorn, and I have seen articles saying Burr oak sometimes have taproots that go down 7 feet sometimes. Okay, whatever, maybe this one hasn't got a taproot that deep, but, I do know that, if there is a drought that lasts a while, I do not have to baby that seedling, and that Burr seedling doesn't have to take a year or 2 to replace roots instead of putting out growth. If I can choose, I'll choose direct sowing seed. I am going to direct sow Hickory seeds after seeing a post on here where the kid is holding a Hickory in a very long pot, and the taproot is longer than the pot. I am sure the trees will be okay in a rootmaker pot etc. But, I would rather keep that taproot in situ if I am not moving the seedling anyhoo, ya know? I am not knocking the way some peeps do it, but my choice is direct sow. There are situations it must be done in pots. Poaky1

My best friend lives about 7 miles from me, and I planted 2 wild southern Mag in her yard last winter. I think she may be colder than my area because she is about 1 mile or 2 from where the road is that goes straight up to Jamonsville (probably misspelled) and increases in elevation, well, ALOT. So I thought since she is literally at the foot of the mountains, I would give her free plants and sort of experiment with hardiness of some plants. The first year, the southern Mags literally blew out of the ground. The leaves acted like a sail and they were just... gone. I replanted in spring of 2013, with smaller leaved S Mags, the same wild type. I luckily got 2 with smaller leaves. So far spo good, but I will be buying more Dollar tree wire garbage baskets, and cut the bottom out and secure them around her trees. I also have planted her, yes, AGAIN, Live oak "late drop". I need to protect them too, because she has tons of deer and bunnies. There is nothing but woods all around her, so protection needs to be put in action or whatever, you know what I mean. I hope they haven't been chomped up already, I planted them in Sept, 2013.

We are dealing with the same thing; two trees we don't want to lose. One of them has alot of sentimental value; it was a gift to my mother 10 years ago and she is deceased. Anyway, what I have been told is that the root system comes out under ground about as far as the longest branches above ground. I don't know if that is true or not. Also, that the concrete above the roots might inhibit water from getting to the roots. I think what you have described sounds pretty tight. We have talked to a tree man who can move our trees and he is very reasonable. He quoted us about $500 for the two trees, but that is sight unseen. His quote might change once he has actually come out and looked at them. However, one of the trees has had a hard time of it this year because of the severe freeze early in the spring. He told us he would not try to move it this year because it has already been shocked once and to move it will shock it again and he does not think it would survive. So looks like if we want to try to save this tree, we will have to wait until next spring. I just offer this for what it is worth. Gloria-KC