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.
What we believe
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.
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.
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.
- 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 seed
- acorns and nuts from the trees above, chinquapins and chestnuts, and a small rotating selection of exceptional non-native seed.
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. Plants with a price can be ordered online and shipped or picked up; for everything else, availability depends on the season and the seed crop, so we confirm what is ready before anything else. Larger plantings, restoration projects and seed orders for other nurseries are welcome.
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.