Tag Archives: Quercus nigra

Planting

End of an Era, Beginning of an Era

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When my family and I moved into Inman Park in 2000, just over two decades ago, the neighborhood was full of mature trees, primarily water oaks (Quercus nigra), which shaded our streets and yards.

Here are some photos taken from Google Maps of Waverly Way from 2007 and January 2022, looking east and west of our home at Waverly Way’s intersection with Hurt Street. Note the red arrow.

Waverly at Hurt, looking east, in 2007
in January 2022
Waverly at Hurt, looking west, in 2007
in January 2022

Recently the city had to take down the last of the roughly 80-year-old water oaks along Waverly Way. The crown of the tree was healthy, but its buttress roots could no longer be counted on to keep the tree standing through a high wind or ice storm.

How quickly things change!

And change again! Here are some blackgums (Nyssa sylvatica ‘Wildfire’) which the Pattersons agreed to have planted in tree wells along their Hurt Street sidewalk. They will reach 40-60 feet eventually. And the two white oaks (Quercus alba) that they planted in their front yard years ago (not pictured here) could grow as high at 80-100 feet.

Our next Inman Park tree planting will be Saturday, January 21. Let us know if your yard or sidewalk strip needs a tree!

Education, Planting

Tale of An Oak Tree

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When Jeanne and I moved into our Waverly Way home, back in the year 2000, there stood a huge water oak (Quercus nigra) between our house and our neighbor to the east.

Several years later, that oak died, and so our neighbor had to take it down. But it left some acorns behind!

In 2010, you can just see a sapling poking its head out of the bushes, in front of the flowering dogwood:

The next year, it’s making a bit of progress, though it’s hard to pick it out among all the other volunteers.

By 2014, with its root system just the way it wants it, the oak has leapt up.

Here is the tree now, on May 22, 2021. Roughly a decade of growth. It’s more than 60 feet tall. Look to the left. That’s a white oak (Quercus alba) that I myself planted probably five years before that water oak even thought about germinating.

Sixty feet tall in 10-12 years!