Dallas Morning News – July 20, 2017
Good and Better Oaks for North Texas
Like most landscape guys I have designed into projects and planted many red oaks and live oaks. I also have several of them where I live. My office and experimental gardens have two other oaks that are really better for most residential landscapes and should be used much more. They are Lacey oak and Mexican white oak.
Live oaks have been grossly over planted in Texas even though they are beautiful, large-growing shade trees that have many positive features. They are evergreen, grow into majestic specimens, are very tough and can tolerate a remarkable amount of abuse – but they also have some negative points. They are messy. Live oaks throw down leaves, twigs, flowers and acorns all year long. They also get too large for most residential property. Their foliage is dense and creates the problem that leads to my most common question: “how do I grow grass in the shade?”
Red oaks are fast and large growing, have beautiful although inconsistent fall color and have soft, beautiful texture. Their negatives include too many being planted and great sensitivity to “wet feet” caused by heavy soils, being planted too deep, over-watering and poor drainage. They also get far too large for most residential property. I’ve had to remove some of mine because of crowding.
Another negative for our “big two oaks” is that they are both susceptible to oak wilt. If you are in the planning stages of new or updated landscaping, here are a couple of recommendations to consider. Mexican white oak and Lacy oak are two natives that seem to be much more appropriate for residential and some commercial projects. Mexican white oak (
Quercus polymorpha
), confusingly sold often as Monterrey oak, is evergreen most years, has leathery dark green distinctive foliage, is much cleaner that live oak and doesn’t get overpoweringly large.
Lacey oak (Quercus laceyi) is a beautiful small to medium tree with blue-green mature foliage, peach colored new growth and similar fall color. Bark is interesting flaky. New spring growth is peach or light reddish in color. Mature leaves are leathery, dusky blue to blue-gray or grayish green. Fall color ranges from pink or peach to gold. The new growth in the spring is a similar color and a very pleasant feature.
There are other good oak tree choices for our alkaline clay soils but these two are high on my list of recommendations. The only negative about this pair is that they will be a little harder to find in the industry. You’ll find it worth the effort.