Native oak species in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region

[Tiny Tree Enthusiast]

I am interested in experimenting more with species that are native to the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Can anyone share experience or thoughts on which of these oak species may be most (or least) suitable for bonsai?

1. Black oak
2. White oak
3. Scarlet oak
4. Red oak
5. Pin oak

Thanks in advance!

 

[rockm]

Pin oak is the best on your list. Best eastern oak for bonsai is willow oak (quercus Phellos) pretty common but very shallow roots and leaves reduce well. Red oak. White oak. Scarlett oak etc are not great. Leaves don’t reduce much they don’t like root disturbance and don’t respond well to bonsai cultivation

Live oak (quercus Virginiana) is a pretty good candidate as well.

 

[PA_Penjing]

bear oak has the smallest leaves and shortest internodes of my native oaks, q. ilicifolia. It has the somewhat typical oak leaf shape but they are hard to find for sale AND in nature. They grow in a cool meandering style, like wild bonsai but I've never seen a substantial trunk on one. It might be one of those yamadori or don't bother species. I've heard quite a few times over the years on bonsai nut that pin oak make good bonsai but I've never seen one, that I can remember at least, good or bad. I tried to sprout some acorns this winter but the squirrels had other plans. I wanted to try a shohin kind of thing

 

[PA_Penjing]

Something like this, it’s an English oak but I like the cartoony proportions. Like a shohin azalea in bloom or something

 

[Gabler]

I am interested in experimenting more with species that are native to the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Can anyone share experience or thoughts on which of these oak species may be most (or least) suitable for bonsai?

1. Black oak
2. White oak
3. Scarlet oak
4. Red oak
5. Pin oak

Thanks in advance!

I'm also a fan of Maryland native oaks, but I can only recommend most oaks with an asterisk. Q. alba and Q. macrocarpa are easy to grow, and they have nice bark, but it takes work to reduce the leaves, and they're always going to he too big for smaller bonsai. Go big or go home. Q. palustris has more reasonable leaves, but it's tricky to build dense ramification, and it's slow to grow bark. Again, it will need to be a bigger tree. Q. phellos is definitely best in terms of leaf size and ramification, but it's slow to develop interesting bark. Last spring, I sowed the seeds from a hybrid tree: Q. lobata x macrocarpa. The seedlings survived our cold winter, so they definitely inherited the cold hardiness of Q. macrocarpa. They also seem to have the leaf size of Q. lobata. It'll be ten years at least before I have any results, but the initial prospects look promising.

Other species you should consider (outside the genus Quercus) include Acer rubrum, Carpinus caroliniana, and Ulmus americana. My personal favorite is Fagus grandifolia, but they're slow to develop, so they aren't first on my list of recommendations. It's also nice to keep at least one Liquidambar styraciflua for the fall color. I'm trying out a number of other natives, but it's too early for me to recommend them from personal experience.

 

[Gabler]

I almost forgot to mention conifers. Pinus rigida and Pinus virginiana are both excellent. Pinus taeda forms beautiful bark extremely fast, but it also has very long needles which will require some work to reduce. P. rigida and P. taeda both respond to decandling like a Japanese Black Pine.