The Naked Oak Tree Farm

The Naked Oak Tree Farm A small specialty nursery focusing on native tree conservation projects in the Delaware Valley area.

There is a lot of choices when choosing native trees and they should all be planted and supported, but when it seems lik...
04/30/2026

There is a lot of choices when choosing native trees and they should all be planted and supported, but when it seems like there are too many to choose from, these below are some of the best options. Remember that you don't have to wait for a tree to mature to benefit wildlife. Insects and caterpillars are able to feast on tree leaves when they are just 2-3 years old seedlings.
In addition to the wildlife shown here, note that oaks support over 500 species of caterpillars, black cherry supports over 450 species of caterpillars, black willow supports over 250 species, hickories support over 200 species ... the value is real.

Hi All! It’s been a crazy spring. With the upgraded beds and irrigation systems this winter we are very behind in gettin...
04/29/2026

Hi All!

It’s been a crazy spring. With the upgraded beds and irrigation systems this winter we are very behind in getting seedlings potted up, but we are opening on May 3rd with limited inventory anyway. Please use the Calendly link on the website to schedule a time on an open Sunday as usual.

First for sale in May and June will be well established potted trees/shrubs. We will have another inventory release around mid/late June when the recently potted trees will have filled in their pots enough to sell and release more as the larger pots are ready. We sell based on root ball size, not trunk height. Root ball health and mass will be the most important factor in the success of planting a new tree.

The website will be updated with inventory numbers on May 3rd, but first release goes on this page. Please see attached picture here with the inventory list for May.

Later in late June, we will have:
American Hazelnut
Sweetgum
Swamp Cottonwood
more Pawpaw
more Eastern Redbud
more Beach Plum
more American Chestnut
more Butternut
more Black Willow

Other stragglers may be ready late season like:
Southern Wax Myrtle
American Holly
Allegheny Chinquapin (dwarf chestnut)
maybe Flowering Dogwood
more Oaks
……

As a reminder, we are both the grower and seller. Many big box retail nurseries are only the sellers, meaning that they source their stock from many different growers so if one does not have something available they can just buy from another. That means they can have the same things on sale every year.
However, our inventory depends very much on seed crops during prior years. We do bring in seed from outside our local ecoregion for purposes such as increasing genetic diversity or for horticultural fruit/garden type trees, but the vast majority is sourced from within our regional ecoregion and contingent on seed crop that year. We always put the seed source information up front so the choice is yours.

Most larger nurseries sell native plants as straight species and we call those "horticultural straight" which is prefixed with "HS" in our labels when we sell those. Those are plants which have been in the horticultural industry for some time (over 3 generations) with missing original wild source information. At larger nurseries, most of the seed or plant source information is lost between the seed gatherer, the seed broker, the wholesale grower, and then finally the retail nurseries around the county. For restoration plantings, we try our best disclose seed source data and we put a lot of time and effort into tracking and labeling so you can choose the best fit for your interests.

On that note, we have updated our labeling procedures to give you more information. Going forward on 2026 pots, you can tell the seed ecoregion easier just by looking at the lot # on the label, for example:

"WL-24COAM2401-DE64F-S"

Above, the first two letters denote the provenance terminology. WL = "wild local". The next numbers 24COAM2401 denote the stratification year, genus, species, crop year, and sequential number (in this case Corylus Americana = American Hazelnut). The next numbers DE64F denote the mother tree state, followed by the level IV ecoregion. The last letters denote the propagation method, which in this case is "S" for seed. Other methods such as air layering, cutting, and grafting would be AL, C, and G respectively. Please see our website at the bottom of the Native Tree Store page for additional details on provenance terminology.

Lots of work in the spring, one of which includes sexing wild local ecotype spicebush! Red bands for females and blue fo...
04/04/2026

Lots of work in the spring, one of which includes sexing wild local ecotype spicebush! Red bands for females and blue for males. Both have fantastic spring color and appearance though. This year’s batch had about 33% female and 66% male overall.

Seed beds are prepped and most seeds are leaving the fridge and going in this weekend. Lots of changes this year like a more efficient irrigation system and higher grow beds for pots to make viewing and handling easier. It’s been a busy winter!

We are rushing to be ready for the first open day on May 3rd!

One of our favorite seedlings from our Butternut project planted at a site here in northern Delaware. Butternut Canker d...
03/02/2026

One of our favorite seedlings from our Butternut project planted at a site here in northern Delaware. Butternut Canker disease has killed off 80-90% of our native butternuts throughout north America. Many of the remaining large wild trees are hybrids with Japanese Walnut making pure Butternuts very rare.

Many efforts to save the Butternut are geared towards hybrid resistance breeding. However, the few remaining tolerant wild trees we have here in Delaware along with seedlings like this one, prove to us that pure Butternut resistance breeding is also a viable and worthwhile avenue to pursue. Enthusiasts and organizations from Nova Scotia to Wisconsin and south to Virginia are working on this, and we are happy that Delaware is now part of the this national effort.

Many more seedlings will be planted this March and April!

Root development is always the primary consideration when growing trees in containers. My instructions to customers is t...
11/10/2025

Root development is always the primary consideration when growing trees in containers.

My instructions to customers is to peel off the pouches and then plant directly in their soil. Nothing else is required for a successful planting other than mulch. Unlike trees grown in standard plastic pots, our root systems are 10x larger in surface area and are ready to grow in all directions for a faster transplant.

But, how is it possible that these root pouches can contain roots from large forest trees like oaks, hickories, and tulip trees?

I kept a Tulip Tree in a 3 gallon pot for 1 year longer than it should have to see how it grew. They are known to have a tap root and wide lateral root system, so they shouldn't take well to a standard pot at all.
The biggest issue was water stress. The tree had so many roots that it took up all the water in the pot the same day it was watered. How can a tree in those conditions not have circling roots?

I took a knife and cut the root ball in half so see and the pictures speak for themselves. No circling roots, just thousands of fine roots ready to grow in all directions as soon as it hits soil!

Our native Red Maple (Acer rubrum) sure has some great colors! (first picture). They differ from year to year, and even...
11/10/2025

Our native Red Maple (Acer rubrum) sure has some great colors! (first picture). They differ from year to year, and even on the same tree, but I've never seen a shade of red like on this seedling. It's almost neon-magenta/red.

Lots of other great colors in November too - Sweetgum, Red Oaks, White Oaks, Black Tupelo, and next year Sassafras too!

One day left this year Nov 23rd for the fall sale, after which we will close for the winter and switch to bare root sales into next spring. Happy fall!

Finally!!! I good Chestnut Oak (Quercus montana) crop in our area! This awesome tree is in the white oak family, meaning...
10/23/2025

Finally!!! I good Chestnut Oak (Quercus montana) crop in our area! This awesome tree is in the white oak family, meaning that the acorns sprout in the fall as soon as they drop from the trees. They are also some of the most desirable food for wildlife, so it's critical that they are put to bed over the winter in these air prune beds protected by hardware cloth. This tree is also called the Rock Oak because it is often found on rocky terrain and the bark looks like mountain ridges. A resilient, rugged, and impressive tree it often lives for around 400 years and during all that time provides support for hundreds of species of insects and wildlife.

If you would like to learn more about the current status of our main 3 projects, we will be presenting at the Delaware I...
10/06/2025

If you would like to learn more about the current status of our main 3 projects, we will be presenting at the Delaware Invasive Species Council (DISC) on October 21st in Marydel, Delaware with details and updates. There will be many fantastic presentations on important topics as seen in the agenda below.

Prior online registration is mandatory for DISC. Please visit their website below if you would like to attend. See you there!

https://delawareinvasives.net/?page_id=2398

This is one of my favorite white oak trees, and it’s right here in Newark, Delaware. It’s around 300 years old - older t...
10/02/2025

This is one of my favorite white oak trees, and it’s right here in Newark, Delaware. It’s around 300 years old - older than the United States. It was alive when George Washington was crossing the Delaware River!

Back in 1978 it was marked to be cut down for a new roadway expansion. Its imminent demise was talked about all over Newark, and later in newspapers around the state.

Thankfully citizens mobilized to bring attention to this and prevent it from being cut down. DelDOT listened and noted the importance of the tree. They redesigned the road, bought additional land, and successfully changed their plans to reroute the road around the irreplaceable tree.

This is an example of the power that citizens have to protect the environment and the lands around us!

We have worked with DelDOT to collect and grow acorns from this tree to pass its genes on for future generations, and look forward to seeing its seedlings growing in our local area - a testament to the success of those who protected it almost 50 years ago.

Seed collection season started a few weeks ago with sassafras and black cherry in our area. Its picking up now with nort...
08/26/2025

Seed collection season started a few weeks ago with sassafras and black cherry in our area. Its picking up now with northern spicebush, flowering dogwood, and American hornbeam just coming in. American beech looks to be only a week or so out.

Collecting native local wild seed from our partner locations is important for restoration work to ensure local genetics stay in the Delaware Valley Region.

An interesting note on American Beech is that Beech Leaf Disease was recently detected in our area as of last year. The effects have been very visible this summer. We are working with one of our partner sites to track any trees that seem resistant so we can collect seeds from those trees for future propagation. Beech nuts are delicious (like sunflower seeds in my opinion) and grow in pairs. Sometimes though, you can find a set of 3 like in the picture below. If that reminds you of an American chestnut burr (with the typical 3 chestnuts inside), that's because they are in the same family!

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Newark, DE

Telephone

+13027663650

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