native plants Archives - Cook Forest Conservancy

Clarion River Brewing Native Seedlings

Every backyard is part of a larger ecosystem, and every plant you plant can make a difference – for wildlife, for clean water, for climate change. Join the Clarion River Brewing Company in its inaugural drive to help locals plant more native trees & shrubs! Here’s what’s on offer for the 2022 Native Sapling Sale, and tips on which to plant to better your backyard habitat

Native Trees:

According to Professor Doug Tallamy, oak trees are the best choice for supporting healthy ecosystems (bugs, birds, & critters) – and they’re pretty low-maintenance and long-living. Interesting note: oaks only propagate by acorns – cuttings generally won’t work, which means they stay genetically diverse and evolutioniarily adaptable.

Red Oak

Quicker-growing than some, red oaks will reach 70 feet tall and live 300 years. Red oak tolerates pollution , enjoys acidic soil and full sun, and puts on quite a nice show of vibrant fall leaves.

Pin Oak

Water-loving pin oaks also grow pretty quickly, and prefer streambanks, swamp conditions, and damp hollows. Pyrimidal in form, pin oaks will also grow to 60-70 feet in height, but are narrower than red oaks – more like half as wide as tall. Pin oaks are less great as street trees and in small spaces, but are excellent for birds and mammals.

Native Small Trees & Shrubs:

Ninebark

Ninebark is the native that has it all – ninebark attracts pollinators, looks good in all seasons, and is tough & resilient. Ninebark makes a great hedge, and blooms best when it has three or more sister plants. A favorite of bees and as a floral bouquet filler! It’s also easy to make more natives – by physically dividing ninebark plants in spring, or by rooting cuttings. Ninebark grows well in most soils and locations, including clay and shade, and reaches approximately 5-10 feet in height and width.

Silky Dogwood

Glossy green in spring with maroon twigs for winter interest, Silky Dogwood produces creamy white flowers from May to June. It likes living along well-drained streambanks, with roots shaded by… shade… or about 2″ of mulch in brighter locations. Silky dogwood is multi-stemmed, charmingly unkempt in form, and good for erosion control.

Greystem Dogwood

Birds love greystem dogwood, which grows to 16′ tall and will form thickets by underground rhizome where it’s happy – or, it can be trimmed into single specimen trees. Lots of winter interest and low-maintenance. Also known as panicle dogwood, it is a good choice for borders or mass plantings, and enjoys a streamside location.

How to Create Native Habitat

Plant saplings, and seedlings, and eliminate or limit your use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers.

Improve the health of all your trees:

plant and encourage a biologically diverse property – trees with unrelated but nearby neighbors are often healthier
invite and protect pollinators, both bird and insect
plant natives
insist on local stream and riparian health protections
reduce pollution: gasoline, exhaust, consumer pesticides; minimize lawn
monitor your trees for stress or disease, and act early
protect roots from soil compaction (e.g., don’t park or drive under tree canopies)

Plant Propagation – Woody Natives

Many of the most popular decorative (and practical) landscape plants—shrubs, vines, and fruits—can be propagated by the simple technique of rooting a piece of a “parent” plant. Improve your gardening skills while saving money, by learning simple plant propagation techniques. One source plant – already in your yard or your neighbor’s – can produce hundreds of identical offspring, at little to no cost!

Clone your Favorite Native Plants:

Join Ty Ryen, DCNR Bureau of Forestry Service Forester and Certified Arborist, for this FREE indoor event – a hands-on demonstration with hardwood cuttings, plus tips on timing your cuttings and mixing soil:

<< Saturday, 19 March 2022 – 11 am – 1 pm >>

This free event is open to all. The DCNR Cook Forest State Park office has generously donated their conference room for the gardening seminar – the address is 100 PA-36, Cooksburg, PA 16217, and the google maps code is 8QMR+59 Cooksburg, Farmington Township, PA.

Now approved for 2 Continuing Education Units for ISA Certified Arborists!

Still Free! RSVP to save your seat – space is limited – via Facebook, or via

& here’s a link to the flyer, in gdrive.

Acorns: Science & Mysteries

a Penn State Forest Stewards series article – written by Jim Finley, Professor Emeritus, Forest Resources Management, Center for Private Forests at Penn State.

Oaks are economically important tree species in Pennsylvania and across the East. Acorns, or mast – a word derived from old English which means “forest food,” are important to wildlife. Oak-borne mast production varies from year to year. Much research has sought to predict masting years, when big acorn crops occur, and shed light on what leads to poor years – or early acorn abscission (detachment) – like you may have seen this season.

Oaks separate into two groups, popularly referred to as red and white, and learning to identify the difference between the two groups is easy.

Red oaks – e.g. Northern red oak, pin oak, scarlet oak, and black oak – have small “bristles” on the lobes and tips of their leaves. White oaks – e.g. white oak and rock, or chestnut, oak – lack these bristles, and have rounded leaf lobes. (CFC note: the image above is of a white oak.) There are other differences that are more difficult to recognize, such as acorn structure and wood anatomy.

The Process of Creating an Acorn –
and the Trials of 2020

Both red and white oaks produce female and male flowers on the same tree, unlike ash which has male and female trees. The process of producing an acorn starts late in the growing year when the male flowers form as the tree’s growth slows toward the end of summer. That is the end of the first year (year 1) in the process. Then, in the second year (year 2), as the tree comes out of dormancy, female flowers form in the axil of the leaf stem and the twig and remain dormant. As the spring leaves begin to unfold, the male flowers emerge and are very apparent as rather-long, drooping, greenish-yellow catkins. These appear about two weeks before the much smaller female flowers emerge.

White Oak Acorn Production

For the white oaks, as the male and female flowers emerge in year 2 as described above, pollination and fertilization should happen. The pollen from the male flower, which is wind-disseminated, lands on the style, which is part of the female flower. When this happens, the pollen initiates the development of a pollen tube that transfers male cells into the ovule to complete fertilization and the process of acorn formation should start in earnest. For this to happen, it is ideal to have warm days and cool nights.

If temperatures are not right, fertilization may fail, and the female flowers will abort, which results in low acorn initiation. Alternatively, if temperatures become too hot or drought conditions occur, white oak acorns may abort, which is likely apparent in mid-June to mid- to late-July; perhaps that is the reason for reported early acorn drop this year. The other big threat to white oak acorns is late spring frosts, which also happened this year, and would again remove the fertilized flowers.

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