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Re: Acquiring/Planting Bur Oaks, et. al.

My apologies for not responding to your inquiries on the Prairie Enthusiasts
discussion board, but my wife just had a baby on Thursday.  I am pleased
that you found more help by way of the Prairie listserv.

The best source of native tree stock around the Madison area is The Bruce
Company.  I think it is actually in Middleton.  They are a retail
greenhouse/nursery that has a specialty in producing quality native trees
and shrubs.  Reeseville Nursery is a company over by Milwaukee somewhere
that specializes in native woody plant material. As does Cascade Nursery
(located in Iowa which may raise some local genetics concerns, but in
general woody species have a greater range than non-woody species).  I can
get addresses for you if you request them, but I don't have them at home (I
would have to get them from work).

The best time to plant any plant material is in the spring - late April to
mid June - after the last hard frost but before the spring rains have ended.
 For seeds, most people plant from when the ground is dried out enough in
the spring to get in and plant it to before the spring rains end, but this
actually depends also on the species.  There is some discussion about fall
planting better for establishing grasses and some of the spring ephemerals
need to be seeded in directly after the plant sets seed.

As far as over wintering, one of the better methods that I have come across
goes something like this:
cut off the dead leaves and stem material an inch or so above the soil after
plant has gone dormant
place a sheet over this - not plastic, you want the plants to be able to
breathe.  This allows for easy removal of straw
put 4-6" of straw on the top of that.  This acts as insulation
hope for a nice gentle snow fall to cover up the straw and allow it to
retain some degree of moisture.
In the spring after the last frost (or you can start in a green house a
little earlier) uncover and keep watered.  They may seem slow to respond and
will start growing at different times than the same species that are already
in the ground, but they will fill in just fine.  Expect some mortality -
some species like butterfly weed do not do well at all with over-wintering
in flats or pots.  I don't know how the harebells will fair but I would not
count on it.  Also you should expect some mouse damage.  Some years are
worse than others for this, but there are a couple of things that you can do
to reduce the damage. One is to make sure that there are no extra dead
leaves and stem material by the plants under the sheet.  They shouldn't
create too much damage if they are just in the straw layer. Another is to
make sure that the sheet you use does not contain holes that the mice will
travel through.

I would only put goats on a prairie if they were trained to eat only the bad
stuff and not the good stuff.  The other info on the prairie listserv on
this I thought is very helpful.  One other thing to think about with the
poison ivy is that the oils in it is what creates the rash, so if you burn a
prairie with poison ivy in it there is a good chance that it will get into
your eyes and you could get a rash on the inside of your eyelids. or worse,
if there is enough of it, you could inhale it and get it in your lungs.  You
just want to remember to stay out of the smoke.

As far as the overcoming guilt- that seems to be a hot topic on the listserv
now, but as for my two-cent's worth. There are enough thistles around that
you should not worry about wacking out some to make way for other species
that are less prevalent on the landscape.  Goldfinches also like sunflowers.
 One they seem to prefer is Helianthus occidentalis. as for the
philosophical part of your question; at this year's Native Lanscaping
Conference sponsored by the Madison Arboretum, Neil Diboll gave the keynote
speech (if you ever have a chance to hear him speak, do so; he is
excellent). He started out by quoting Genesis: God said unto man be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.  Diboll said
we got most of that right so far except for the replenishing part.  We as
humans have altered the entire earth so entirely that any action that we now
perform now alters the earth itself. By not taking on the responsilility of
restoring our native plant communities, we inadvertantly take the action of
allowing the decline of these communities and all of the knowledge that they
represent.  I view our efforts in restoration as a way to replenish the
diversity of the earth.  Just about every source that I know of that has
expressed an opinion on diverity states that if we allow ourselves to create
vast monocultures, they will eventually fail and we will be left with a void
that may not be able to be repaired.  So by pulling a wayward thistle to
make way for even a wild bergamot allows us to try to maintain this ever
increasingly delicate balance of diversified resources.  So how Chichen
Little does that sound? 
----------
From: "J. A. Raasch" <jaraasch@facstaff.wisc.edu>
To: prairie list <prairie@mallorn.com>
Subject: Acquiring/Planting Bur Oaks
Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 18:58:11 -0500

 Hello:

 When is the best time to plant bur oaks and other woody  oak-opening and
oak-savanna plants? Can someone suggest a  source of such plants? (Dane
County, Southwest Wisconsin)

 Thank you again!
J. A. Raasch
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Plant Biotechnology Laboratory
UWBC 425 Henry Mall
Madison, WI   53706
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