Photos L-R: Chris Cardwell, “5 Paw Paw trees planted just 3 years ago. One is already 6 feet tall!”
Chris Cardwell: “These Buttonbush plants are 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide today. They started as whips just 3 years ago.”
Kansas Forest Service
While it’s hard to believe we’re already thinking about the upcoming fall planting season, this week is “go time” for two very important opportunities to make big strides in your naturescaping journeys at a great value. Small-format native tree and shrub seedlings have been in production all season, and both the Kansas Forest Service and the Missouri Department of Conservation are opening their online ordering pages soon.
KFS’ fall sale begins August 30th and is set to feature a diverse array of containerized seedlings, ‘baby’ trees and shrubs that are sold in groups of 25. These 7” deep little pots are a very cost-effective way to cover large swaths of your landscape dedicated to your habitat improvement goals. Plant them this fall or winter and enjoy their fresh leaves in early spring. MDC’s George O. White Nursery also begins taking orders on September 3, and gardeners throughout the Midwest can pre-order bare root seedlings, or “whips” for delivery in early spring 2025. Dormant packages of dozens of beneficial species can arrive at your doorstep in bundles of 10, ready to go straight in the ground, or perhaps to be potted up and grown out to a larger size. If their place in your landscape isn’t immediately clear, they can also be ‘heeled in’ with mulch or loose soil, their roots protected until you’ve found the perfect spot for them.
And while these snack-sized juvenile specimens are a prime target for browsing wildlife, their survival rates can be surprisingly high as they experience minimal transplant shock when installed in fall through early spring. For a patient steward, watching their growth is so rewarding, and the ecosystem benefits are realized within only a couple growing seasons. Plant them densely for screening hedges and bird-friendly thickets of fruit-bearing natives like chokeberry, elderberry, or a Keystone Plum. Opting to protect your seedlings with small tree tubes or wire barriers can quickly yield five-foot hardwood trees in your landscape for pennies on the dollar.
But demand is high! Online sales begin at midnight of the respective dates, and many native plant nerds literally set an alarm to get the jump on limited supplies of their favorite species, lined up like Walmart bargain hunters at dawn on Black Friday. So, maximize your plant budgets this week and invest in the long-term future of the ecosystems you nurture, all while supporting two of the best resources available to stewards throughout our ecoregion.
