I would be interested in some of these acorns. Please e-mail. Ann

I just picked a few Quercus Alba acorns last week. I'm in Pa zone 6. Alexander is right, it's that time. If you can't get them yourself, there are people who I've gotten acorns from on this forum and just payed postage. If you specify I can try to get some of them. I may be able to get Q. Rubra, Q. Alba, and Q. Prinus. The Q. Prinus is a native but aggressively spreading tree, it seeds a TON of seed at an early age. Great for wildlife, though. I may be able to get Q. Imbricaria and also Q. Phellos. Those last 2 are big maybes. One is a very old Shingle oak, it had no acorns but a couple last year. The willow oak is a maybe because it is in a park-like setting ( Mt. Macrina ) and there are tons of squirrels. I used to work at the Nursing home there, and there are tons of oaks there. I never realized all the different types that were there until lately after riding through the roads that go to the different areas there. I need to take some pictures of the trees and post them. Anyway list some oaks you want acorns from AmericanGardner and I'll try to help. My neighbor has a Sugar Maple, if they seed now I can try to collect some from his driveway.

The Pacific International Quilt Festival in October is one of the best in our area. It's at the Santa Clara Convention Center. There are also a lot of regional ones by individual guilds, such as Diablo Valley, Livermore's, East Bay, Benicia and so forth. If you join a local guild, you usually get notices of all the local shows each month in your newsletter. If you want to go farther afield, the big show in Ontario is the Road to California which starts Jan 22nd. I go every so often and it's large and offers lots of classes, except it's too late now to get into most. We're lucky to live in the bay area because we have so many resources.

Well, I went looking for signs of Q. velutina acorns ripening on some trees. Well, I was staring up into a tree a guy came up to me with sawdust all over him and said "hi". He was part of a crew that had from what he said just chopped down a large chestnut tree in the back of one of the homes by the road I was on. He told me that I was a month too early for the Red oak acorns, but, the squirrels were eating up the other nuts (chestnuts?) like crazy. I did see a Q. Alba with little green acorns on it. So I guess that's my answer. As far as the one pic on someone else's post here wanting an ID of their red oak ( I think a Q. Velutina) I don't know how to explain that one. I guess they had a already half formed Red oak family (Q. Velutina was my guess) acorn. The place I was at when the guy came up to my car, has tons of mature trees. Oaks, Chestnuts obviously, Maples. sycamores, Hickory, many others I am unfamiliar with some Walnuts, I don't know a black Walnut from any other Walnut. Pecans look like Walnuts to me as far as leaves. I would need my Field Guide to tell the difference. I didn't go to the place that I will be going to in mid to late September for a Q. Velutina acorn search. If they had been ripe I could've gotten them where I went today. I may look there first, (where I went today) in mid Sept. If I find any I'll offer some to anyone here who wants any. I have 2 Q. Velutinas. I have one that is close to a Q. Robur, and one that has enough room to grow to a nice wide spreading tree. I love the one that is in the open.