Oops, Zone 9. Sorry. Here is a pic.

Oops. Silly dumb phone. LoL.

Re: The second pic showing tree in relation to house I personally would hv planted it a little further away but perhaps you wanted your tree to provide patio shade.

Here is a pic of mine. It used to be approx 8 ft tall but the leader was ugly and twisted so we Cut it and are training a new, straighter branch as the leader

Thanks for the reply bossyvossy and the pic! Yes, I'm wanting patio shade and shade over my house. My first introduction to the Willow Oak Tree was a quick buy............. "Hey man buy this big tree, I'll cut the tree's roots free from the ground.". "It should have been re-planted in a 48×48 wood box years ago, but its still in a 24x24 box now"......

I didnt know better and bought it. It died within 1 week from shock of loosing the tap roots that grounded through the container it was in. A root ball of a 24x24 container couldn't supply enough to thr top big tree. See pics. I immediately fell in love with the Willow Oak Tree. Was saddened to dig it back up and cut it up. Lesson learned.

The Lord works in mysterious ways though. The tree was way to close to my house. It would have been way bad. It as 8 feet from the foundation and 4 ft from my air conditioning slab !

Pic 2/2

Multiple attempts to get it right. Rotated... saved.. etc. Oh well.

Pics taken with a phone and directly uploaded from the phone to GW does this to the pics. It isn't anything you did wrong. To fix this, I upload to an image hosting site and get the code from those sites to post them here. This also allows me to post multiple pics in the same post.

John

Mine are only a couple years old, but I think they are fine, they both have more than one leader, which I'll fix once they get about 6 ft tall. Just figure it's an oak and will be large at maturity. Look at some pics of champion trees in your state or surrounding states.

Thanks. I have. The trees get big! 80+H × 40+W. If u can post a pic or two?

My willow oak went from a trade 5 gallon to being 45 foot high and probably 25 to 30 foot broad after 12-15 years. For an oak, they grow fast...I saw no negatives with this tree.

Dmacsimus, you surely don't want to see my little trees, right? I am talking the biggest tree is about 4-5 ft tall. You will get your best info on champion trees sites which you already have seen I believe. If you see mine you will get no idea of how they look when growing for a decade or more. I am likely wrong, but it looks like you want me to post pics of my Q. Phellos. Sorry if I misunderstood. Mine are little crappy tiny things.

I've got a pretty big one. Nothing wrong with it per se, but they are so common around here that I just kind a have a "meh" opinion about it.

Some years actually gets a halfway decent yellow fall color. This year it's got some yellow and brown showing at the same time, but the leaves are dropping almost as soon as they change.

One nice thing about them is they have small leaves, and they drop fairly cleanly and quickly unlike a lot of Oaks.

Thank you all for the replies. Mucho appreciatedo!

We have a huge old willow oak out front. It is beautiful. It will grow large and they have a wonderful shape. We do spray it for borers which are a problem here. The pic is not a good shot of the tree, but it does show the size of the trunk. We have been here almot 20 years and it was a good-sized tree when we moved in. You have made a good choice!

Thanks for the info and pic. I'm excited to see what mines going to do this spring in 2015.....

In further thought, I have removed the Quercus Phellos and replaced it with the Quercus Urban Pinnacle. Living in the city, and not having acreage, this choice is to use my backyard space a little more efficiently. It will also give me a tad more room for a few more oaks.:))

I was able to give the Quercus Phellos to a friend who has the room for this awesome BIG growing tree.

And I still get to see it grow!

Thanks

Willow oaks in this area of the country are prolific. We love them. They do get big though. Of oak trees their leaves are less bothersome Bc they are small.

Well, technically they're not mine, this is the main campus of my state's university. There is a double row of willow oaks leading up to the graduate library. Do I like them? Yes, very much.

The UMD (?) grounds department has done a nice job with those.

Since this is such an old post I feel OK hijacking it. I saw a company that sells willow oak/scarlet oaks hybrids. Does that sound like a good idea?

an oldee but a goodie! I wish I had more room for I still think out of the majority of oaks, the mighty willow is such a beautifully structured powerful looking tree. would have liked to keep mine, and see it get big before I leave the earth. time matters. if ya have the room, I'd say go for it! what beautiful trees they are! great pic btw. someone planned well with that oak tree planting lay out. such beauty!
dmacsimus

I took this pic this morning on my state's University campus. Beautiful Willow Oaks in back of the big M. Willow oak is the dominant deciduous tree on this campus.

I find Q.phellos to be somewhat of a boring tree in my opinion, the leaves aren't exactly beautiful, and neither is the bark, and not much fall color. The acorns are bitter and aren't really preferred by wildlife. The tree does have good form though. In my area Q.nigra and Q.laurifolia are so common I guess I just don't see Q.phellos as being much different, from a distance they look the same.

Q.phellos did evolve in a humid climate though, so it would be interesting to see how well they would grow in CA.

one man's trash, is another man's gold. The Q. Phellos is what it is. A very big powerful strong wooded oak, which grows very fast, and sets its roots deep. I just wish I had more land so I could collect all of em that would grow well in my zone, defenately the Q. Phellos would be included. Awesome tree!

I went today where there is the only mature Willow oak near me looking for acorns and there weren't any. I did find one of the only white oak family oak trees on the whole property that had one acorn hanging up in the tree. I THINK the tree was Swamp white oak. If it wasn't Swamp white oak it was either a Swamp Chestnut oak or the other one, .... Q.Muehlenbergi.

Dmac- is your Q. Phellos still alive?

it still is, but not at my house. I gave it to a friend who I know, so hopefully if he remembers to jeep watering it, I will get to see it get big.

instead I replaced it with the Q. Pinnacle oak (verticle seed growing selection). here's a pic of that tree as of right now. I also planted on of its seedlings in my yard. yup, gonna be an oak reserve for sure. lol check it.
thanks Poaky 1

The Willow/Scarlet Oak hybrids I planted last Fall are looking sad...despite the relatively warm winter and wet Spring. The straight Scarlt and White Oak are doing better.

really, interesting. please, keep us up to speed..... I have a scarlet letter oak that seams to be doing ok, but it's leaves are starting to curl. we are experiencing a heat wave here in Kalifornia, Visalia. I'll snap a pic tomorrow.

The hybrids look like they started to grow leaves and then they started to die. It's odd. Part of the reason for the hybrid is Scarlet Oak is supposed to have trouble with transplanting...but so far the straight Scarlet look healthier. Willow Oak are borderline in my area, but we had a warm winter and it's been very wet...

Tried to edit my 2014 post above but unable. The tree shown was sold to me as a q. Phellos but it is NOT. It is an evergreen oak, q. Virginiana aka live oak. I did finally get a q. Phellos but it is a tiny thing. Just keeping records straight.

here is my Q. Scarlet Letter oak tree hybrid. been giving it water just a bout everyday. middle of Kali, we're going through a heat wave right now. over 100's . if I member right, this will be its 2nd summer. it's put on about 1'1/2' of growth so far. I've noticed the leaves are a little bit curled. Thinking because the heat.

If you like the willow, you should also like the water, Same characteristics except leaves. Both thrive in my neck of the woods. Lots of leaves, fast growth, very hardy, drought tolerant, no fall color, looses limbs all the time and produces thousands of acorns.

I have a water oak that has grown very fast but is either chlorotic or has some kind of rust or is burning like hell in my TX sun. I have contacted the urban forestry people but either too busy or lousy responders. I'm pondering what to do

well, ummmm, is that a natural area for that type of oak, or have you pushed its boundaries? if it's just heat stressed, and disease has not sat in, I would say give it a tap more irrigation, but seeing it's in lawn, hummmmmm. if it doesn't eventually convert over to the area its in, you might have to take it out. if its diseased, I would take it out now, and treat the area around it. don't want to chance trees that get BIG , for when they fail, the failure is normally BIG too.

Have you done a soil test beneath the tree?