Live Oak Tree Recipients

I didn't realize how fun it would be to notify all the organizations that have been awarded our 100 free live oaks.  Thanks everyone for applying!   And the recipients of our 100 Trees for 100 Years are:
Austin Elementary
Ben Milam Elementary

Bonham Elementary

Bonita Park Head Start

Borderland Calvary Chapel

Boys & Girls Club of San Benito

Bowie Elementary

Cameron County Irrigation District #2

City of San Benito

Food Bank of the RGV
Har-Tex 4-H Club
Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum
Harlingen C.I.S.D.
Harlingen Chamber of Commerce
Harlingen Economic Development Corporation
Harlingen High School
Harlingen Proud
Hispanic Genealogy Group/Tip-O-Tex Genealogy Society
Iglesia Christiana Emmanuel
Keys Academy
La Nueva Jerusalem
Lamar Elementary
Marine Military Academy
Memorial Middle School
Miller Jordan Middle School
Rangerville Baptist Church
Rodriguez Elementary
Sam Houston Elementary
San Benito C.I.S.D.
Secunda Iglesia Presbiteriana
St. Anthony Catholic Church
Sunny Glen Children's Home
Texas State Technical College
The Saint Paul Academy
Treasure Hills Elementary
Wesley United Methodist Church
Wilson Elementary

How great to have these 100 trees added to the landscapes of our schools, churches, and parks next month!

100 Trees for 100 Years

In honor of the centennial celebrations in the cities of San Benito and Harlingen, Simmons Oak Farms will donate 100 live oak trees to deserving local public and private organizations.

Cecil Simmons, M.D. and Leonard Simmons, III, the owners of Simmons Oak Farms, decided that 100 trees for 100 years would be a fitting tribute to these two towns.   The centennial celebrations are particularly meaningful to the owners. Their family first moved to this area in 1919. Cecil raised his family in San Benito where he practices medicine, and Leonard, a 4th generation local farmer, raised his family in Harlingen.

When we first began talking about 100 Trees for 100 Years, Cecil noted, “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if these 100 trees are still around when San Benito and Harlingen celebrate their bi-centennial anniversaries.”

Schools, churches, public entities, and not-for-profit organizations in the Harlingen/San Benito area are eligible to apply. The donated trees will range from 12 to 18 feet tall.   They will be available for installation in February, the month designated as All Valley Arbor Month by the Valley Proud Environmental Council. Donation recipients are expected to install, stake and maintain the tree(s) they receive. Interested parties can download an application at the company website.  For more information or to have an application mailed to you, contact us either by email  or phone (956) 425-5859.

November is for Planting

November is a terrific month to plant shade trees - so this week we're putting in a couple thousand.     It's been two years since these acorns were first planted.   These well-rooted Live Oak, Quercus virginiana, are goind from #5 pots into 24" in-ground Rootmaker bags.    We expect our trees to grow about 1" of caliper each year and will probably begin harvesting this field in 2013.    

This little oak has both good genetics and training.   It has a strong main trunk.  Lots of green all up and down the main stem will add thickness to the trunk. 

First Community Bank's 30th Anniversary

We started the week with deliveries -   Large Southern Live Oaks to three more First Community Bank locations.   The bank is celebrating its 30th anniversary this week.   Watch the Valley Morning Star for the special events at the different locations -  and then stop by and sign up to win one of these trees!   October is a great month to celebrate 30 years of service to the local communities. 

Here's the tree to be given away by the Los Fresnos Location.

Live Oak Planting

This week, Simmons Oak Farms added a Live Oak, Quercus virginiana, to the Cameron County Master Gardener Arboretum.   The planting bed is surrounded by sidewalk that leads up to the outdoor classroom.   What a pleasant stroll it will be up that sidewalk when it's shaded by oak branches.

We have a new tool that removes the RootMaker bag from the rootball.   Attached to a power drill, it rips the bag right off, disturbing the roots much less than removing it by hand.    This is the first time that we ever used a Treegator.    This tree has a 5" caliper trunk so we zipped two together.  They each will hold 20 gallons of water.   The "gator" then emits the water over the  next 8 hours - slowly soaking the rootball - RIGHT where it's needed.    According to the instructions, a once weekly irrigation is all you need to get your shade tree well established.

We did purchase a box of these Treegators and will have them available for customers who might need one or two.  One of the best things is that it is re-usable (and guaranteed for two years).

Good Morning World

I love to drive onto the loading yard first thing in the morning to be greeted with this bunch of cured Live Oaks.   This is the group that is being containerized.   First, they are cured for 3 weeks and then they go into #95 pots.   The canopies have been left open.  They look so awsome that we end up selling a bunch before we have a chance to pot them up. 

Why Oak Trees are not Houseplants

For their 30th Anniversary, the Stuart Place location of  First Community Bank is displaying a Southern Live Oak in their lobby.   Here at the nursery, we took great lengths to pick out a big one for 'em.     Maybe we overdid it a bit . . . .

Ricky, Clara, Linda and Melissa give a bit of perspective to the size.  

Congrats to First Community Bank and all its employees!

Containerized Live Oaks

We've only got about half a row planted so far - and I LOVE how great these Southern Live Oaks look! They all fork well above my head - yeh, yeh, yeh, I know it's because their rootballs are now above ground . . .

. . . . anyhow, Simmons Oak Farms is excited to be able to supply our customers with larger Southern Live Oaks, Quercus virginiana. I mean we are all about the oaks . . . .

More room for big trees

This is our new holding yard - tomorrow we begin harvesting Southern Live Oaks that are 5" to 6" caliper and containerizing them. The diameter of their rootball will go from 24" to 40". The original plan was to put 4" oaks in the 95 gallon pots - but by the time we were ready to plant, we just had bigger trees. Yep, you do the math as to how long it took us to get in gear . . .

. . . in reality, we like to sell our shade trees at no bigger than 4". They're somewhere between 14 and 18 feet tall then and a lot of plant to handle. A 5 or 6 inch tree will transplant better with a bigger rootball than the 24" RootMaker bags they're growing in.

At the left are some Southern Live Oaks that are being cured. We can keep them on the yard for months and months like this, if needed.

Here's a close-up of the in-ground container we use. The material it's made of prunes the trees roots. In a plastic pot, roots hit the side of the pot, turn and begin circling. We don't have that problem with this process. I mean, just look at the number of small fibrous roots - when this tree is transplanted, the root system should really take off - well, provided it is given lots of water - but that's altogether another subject.