Almost looks like holly.

Saw some seedlings under the live oaks at Walt Disney World (all the parks) that looked the same.

Q. fusiformis would probably be fine for you, but straight virginiana would likely be dodgy at best.

Looks just like the seedlings the squirrels planted all over my garden for me. It took me a year or so to figure out they weren't holly, but baby live oaks.

Between the live oaks and the willow oaks (tree is next door, not on our property), I've got a bunch of oak seedlings for free. Anyone want to come by and collect some? :)

Sam, great job on the live oak seedlings! Where was the source? Northern provenance?

I have three live oaks (Q. virginiana) in my yard and NONE of them had any freeze damage from the winter from hell. Now, the main issue with live oaks in the Mid-Atlantic is breakage from snow and ice loads. Unfortunately this tree likes to put out a lot of horizontal limbs, and the evergreen leaves really hold the snow.

I did lose a few limbs from two of my trees this past winter from ice.

I wish I had take a photo of them, but I was in Tulsa over Christmas just after an ice storm, and the owners had all the large lower limbs of their live oaks propped up with 2 x 4s to keep them from breaking under the weight of the ice. It was really something.

I was gonna say Sam you are zone 7 why can't they take your winters? Same question for Hairmetal, Dave etc but Njoasis had mentioned the snowloads, in another post. I just think about our White pines, they get damaged too by wet snow, but don't live oaks have super strong wood? Does anyone have any images of a Live oak "uglified" by snow load breakage? I would imagine once they get branches that are thicker, the snow won't be so horrible. If I was zone 7, I would be out in a blizzard with a long pole knocking the snow off. I guess an overnight blizzard forecasted for a day later would foul that up.

{{gwi:375379}}
Here is one of several LO's near the picnic area of the Nat'l Arboretum, my seed source. They suffered no damage last winter. Where they originated from I don't know.
Germination of Q. virginiana is peculiar, in that the radicle, soon after it appears, becomes enlarged just below the surface of the ground because of the transfer of food from the cotyledons. from the USDA Handbook 450.
I'm starting to wonder if possibly some of the acorns will need a second winter to send up the top?

Live oaks grow pretty fast when they're small. I had a small one in a pot that I sunk in the ground under a frost cloth covered frame and it just shot up this spring -- only to be chewed down by a rabbit (but that's beside the point).

So keep them protected from squirrels, rabbits and chipmunks. You probably know that.

LOs can suffer excessive damages from heavy snow or ice storms in Dallas-Ft Worth every once in a while. After 2-3 years, you can't tell that it happened several years ago. It will look really ugly first year though.

Here are some acorns from the same tree in my previous post. This is a recent pic. Those acorns are disappearing fast thanks to squirrels and blue jays. I think that these trees @ Nat'l Arboretum and the one @ UDEL, Newark are the northernmost Live Oak in eastern N. America.

I bought a live oak 7 or 8 years ago from nature hills dot com. I was really happy with how it had grown until it had it's first acorn crop. Turns out it is fusiformis instead of virginiana. Still a nice tree that will still be in our yard long after I'm gone.

Also, sapsuckers seem to prefer it in the spring even over all my various sugar maples. One winter, they nearly girdled the main stem (about 10") and several of the side branches that were 3-5" thick. Really blew my mind at the time haha

'... I think that these trees @ Nat'l Arboretum and the one @ UDEL, Newark are the northernmost Live Oak in eastern N. America....'

Well, Newark Delaware is pretty far north, but certainly there are live oaks growing further north than the Nat'l Arboretum. I know of several in Sterling, VA, for example. That's quite a ways west too. Lots of acorns in my trees this year. Quickly becoming squirrel food. I don't mind. At least they're not bothering persimmons this year. And what am I going to do with hundreds of acorns?

It's weird how much acorn size varies with Live oak, some trees produce tiny little acorns while others produce much larger ones like in that photo.

Those that grow in Williamsburg, Va have small acorns. I've gotten Q.Fusiformis acorns that were larger than those regular Q. Virginiana acorns from Williamsburg, Va, and the Fusi's are spindle shaped, IOW, they have a pointy end on them. None of those I tried germinated for me though, and my Quartz mountain Live oak hasn't gotten acorns on it yet. THis is only winter #3 for it in my yard, so acorns may take a while.

WEll, anyway, Sam MD, you should be able to grow several Live oaks (Virginiana) easily, I had seen several Live oaks that seemed to be plain Virginianas in Williamsburgh, Va. So I am thinking that you should've been able to grow a Q.V. Tree easily in zone 7. I'm not sure what I missed, if there's a reason why you need advice on the subject, good luck anyway Sam.