Black Walnut #3 (late June 2023)
|
lack Walnut #1 (late June 2023)
|
It's really hard to find a Black Walnut tree for sale in the Houston area. No local retail tree nurseries have them - the same applies to American Elm, Honeylocust, Hickories, Cherrybark Oak, American Beech, Water Tupelo, and many other natives.
I bought a mail-order Black Walnut from a nursery in Pennsylvania, Go Native Tree Farm, and planted it in November 2014. In the spring of 2015 it leafed out (on March 26th to be exact), but the leaves soon went yellow and had dropped off by June. The leaf loss could have been due to the fact that that part of the yard was waterlogged for about a month. The leaves did not grow back in 2015. I thought it was probably dead, but kept it in the ground in 2016 just in case. To my surprise, it started to leaf out on May 20th, almost two months later than it leafed out in 2015! In July 2016, it was looking quite healthy, but still only about 2.5 feet high. As I was pretty sure Black Walnut #1 wouldn't make it, I ordered a second, larger Black Walnut from a nursery in Georgia, Willis Orchards, (which I didn't know existed before).
I planted that one in the winter of 2015/16. On April 7th it produced four small compound leaves at the top of the tree......and then shut down and did not grow a millimeter since. On July 4th 2016, only two leaves remained. On July 16th, it had only one tiny leaflet remaining! On July 20th, all the leaves were gone! I tried one last time, receiving a replacement bare-root Black Walnut tree from the Georgia nursery. This one was bigger, thicker, and with a better root system than the previous one, and I planted it in part of the yard which has better drainage (i.e. is slightly higher in elevation).
|
Black Walnut #1 (late June 2021)
Black Walnut #3 (late June 2021)
Black Walnut #3 (early July 2020)
Black Walnut #1 (early July 2020)
Black Walnut #1 (end of June 2019)
Black Walnut #3 (end of June 2019), already starting to suffer from the heat.
Black Walnut #3 (July 2018)
Black Walnut #1 (July 2018)
Black Walnut #3 (July 2017)
|
Black Walnut #3 started to leaf out in March 2017. The picture below is from March 26th. I hoped this one doesn't just stop growing like Black Walnut #2.
On May 5th 2017 I pulled up Black Walnut #2 as it was completely dead.
Finally, on June 20th 2017, Black Walnut #1 started leafing out again, a full month later than in 2016 and by far the latest to leaf out of all my trees! On August 19th 2017 Black Walnut #1 had grown large healthy leaves and was looking great, but the leaves of Black Walnut #3 had started to yellow, and had also been voraciously eaten by unidentified insects. Black Walnut #1 leafed out about 2 months earlier in 2018 than in 2017 and was growing quite vigorously. The picture below is from May 6th 2018. Black Walnut #3 was the last tree to leaf out that year (04.20.18). On May 18th 2019, Black Walnut #3 was looking better than ever.
Spring 2021, the first catkins on the Black Walnut (#3 tree)!
|
Black Walnut #1 (July 2017)
Black Walnuts #1 (right) & #2 (left), July 2016
|