About
A nursery for the trees that deserve more use
Blue Whale Trees grows native trees and shrubs that garden centers do not carry: rare oaks, forgotten shade trees, understory shrubs for birds and bees, and seed from parent trees with decades of proven performance. It is a small nursery in the United States, run by its owner, a tree specialist and naturalist who has grown native trees from seed for over 20 years. Every tree and shrub is grown from seed and offered as saplings, acorns, nuts or seed, shipped within the contiguous United States or picked up.
What we believe
Genetics matter, and seed carries them. Every tree we sell is grown from seed, not grafted, so each seedling is genetically distinct and a planting of ten carries real diversity. When we can, we collect from named individual trees, chosen for size, form, vigor, health and hardiness, and we tell you which tree your seed came from.
Rarity is a reason to grow something, not a reason to leave it alone. Oglethorpe oak, blue ash, leatherwood, red mulberry and mountain camellia are rare in the wild and rarer in nurseries. The surest way to keep a species in the world is to put it in a thousand yards and woodlots where people care about it.
The climate is moving, and the trees we plant now will live in it. A sapling planted today may see a century of warmer summers, longer droughts and heavier storms. We favor species with wide natural tolerance of heat, drought and flooding, and we collect seed from parent trees that have thrived at the warm or dry edge of their range. Southern and coastal-plain oaks, bottomland trees that also take drought, prairie shrubs with taproots: these are the natives with room to spare.
A tree is a system, not an ornament. Leaf litter, stick piles, an exposed root flare, uncompacted soil, no nails in the trunk, protection from deer and voles: these decide whether a tree thrives more than any fertilizer does. We say so, in plain language, with every plant we sell.
What we grow
Each group opens the catalog filtered to it.
- Rare and uncommon oaks
- dwarf chinquapin, bear, sand post, delta post and Oglethorpe oak, and more as acorn crops allow.
- Classic oaks
- white, northern red, bur, swamp white, chinquapin, chestnut, pin, willow and live oak, grown from seed.
- Superior specimen lines
- acorns and seedlings from individual proven trees, including a cherrybark oak on Wye Island, a select swamp chestnut oak and a select American holly.
- Uncommon yard trees
- black gum, yellowwood, basswood, cucumber magnolia, sourwood, hornbeam, fringetree, smoketree, silverbell, coffeetree, blue ash, bald cypress.
- Native shrubs
- spicebush, summersweet, viburnums, witch hazel, elderberries, ninebark, leatherwood, mountain laurel, winterberry and the rest of the understory.
- Nut and fruit trees
- northern pecan, shagbark hickory, black walnut, pawpaw, persimmon, American plum, hazelnut, beach plum.
- Trees for honey
- black locust, basswood, black gum, sourwood, persimmon and summersweet.
- Chestnuts and chinquapins
- the native Allegheny and Ozark chinquapins, the American chestnut and the blight-resistant Chinese chestnut, as saplings and as nuts to sow.
- Seed, acorns and nuts
- acorns and nuts from the trees above.
How we grow
Every tree and shrub we sell starts as seed. We collect it from parent trees chosen for size, form, vigor, health and hardiness, and where the parent is a named individual tree, its plant page says so. Nothing is grafted, so each seedling is genetically distinct and a planting of ten carries real diversity.
The seedlings are grown from that seed here and sold young, usually 12 to 18 inches tall when they ship, bare-root or in a pot, in the dormant season from leaf drop until bud break. A small seed-grown sapling planted with its root flare in view establishes faster than a large transplant and catches up to it within a few years.
Every plant is inspected before it leaves. We ship within the contiguous United States, priced by zone, in the spring and fall windows the shipping page gives, and each plant's page says which form it ships in and when. The owner has grown native trees from seed for over 20 years.
How we write the plant pages and the articles
Every plant page is written from the sources listed on the page: the Forest Service, university extension services, botanical gardens and arboreta, state natural heritage programs and the regional floras. Its hardiness zones are the widest range those sources give. Its facts are checked against each other before the page is published.
The articles are written from the sources listed at the end of each: the Forest Service's silvics and fire-effects reviews, university extension services, state agencies and peer-reviewed papers. Each quotation is checked word for word against the page it came from. Each fact about a tree or shrub we grow is checked against that plant's own page. Where the sources disagree, the article says so and names them. An article carries the date it was published and the date its substance last changed.
The site changes most days: the What's changed page lists the changes a reader could notice, by date.
All content, information and data on this site are fully and thoroughly manually reviewed and fact-checked by the owner of the nursery, a naturalist and native tree enthusiast with over 20 years of experience.
How to work with us
Browse the catalog, use the tree finder to narrow it to your site, and write to us with what you have in mind. A tree or shrub can be ordered online once its page shows a price. Until then, write to us and we confirm what is ready, since availability depends on the season and the seed crop. Larger plantings, restoration projects and seed orders for other nurseries are welcome.
Asking about several plants? The request list takes a quantity for each and sends them together.
Not sure what a spot needs? The articles cover the mistakes we see most and how trees actually grow, and the tools put numbers on watering and growth.
Got a site in mind?
Tell us the zone, the soil, the sun and what you want the tree to do.
We will suggest species and tell you what is ready.