Willow Oak Quercus phellos

Most people do not read Quercus phellos as an oak. It carries narrow, smooth edged leaves far closer to a willow than to the deep lobes of an English or pin oak, and the result is a fine textured canopy that filters light rather than shutting it out, so lawn and shrubs beneath fare better than they would under a heavier crowned oak. The form is a neat oval when young, broadening with age into a wide domed shade tree. Acorns are small, which keeps paths and driveways usable.

Wet feet, hard ground and a slow start

Full sun, moderate water, deciduous, and slow to moderate growth. It handles cold winters without difficulty, so the constraints here are soil and patience rather than climate. Autumn runs yellow through russet to bronze, and young trees often hold some dead leaves through winter before pushing them off in spring, which is normal rather than a fault. It is more tolerant of heavy clay and periodically wet ground than most of the genus, which makes it a sound pick for a low corner of a paddock, a swale edge or a lawn that stays damp after rain. Soil on the acidic side gives the cleanest foliage and the strongest colour, while strongly alkaline ground brings on yellowing between the leaf veins. The failure mode is impatience. A small tree planted into unimproved compacted ground can take years to do anything at all, which is the argument for starting with an advanced or mature container size when an avenue needs to read as an avenue within a few years.

Willow oak beside the evergreen oak and the maples

Algerian Oak is the alternative in this range and the opposite in habit, being evergreen and heavy leaved, casting dense shade all year and better suited to hot dry summers. Willow oak is the one to plant where you want winter sun reaching the house, dappled summer shade and very little acorn nuisance underfoot. Buyers often cross shop it against a large maple, so compare it with Fairview Flame, which colours far more strongly in autumn and reaches usable size sooner, while the oak is longer lived, tougher on wet ground and a much bigger tree in the end. Both oaks want the same thing at planting, which is depth of soil and a position nobody will disturb. See the full oaks range.

Dormant pruning and feeding a young willow oak

Prune in late autumn or winter while the tree is bare and the structure is easy to read. Keep a single central leader for as long as you can, remove competing shoots and any tight fork early, and lift the lower limbs in stages over several seasons rather than all at once. Mature oaks do not take kindly to heavy pruning, so get the framework right in the first decade. Feed in early spring with a complete slow release fertiliser while the tree is establishing, water deeply through the first few summers, and keep a wide mulched ring free of turf so grass roots are not competing at the surface.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 6 sizes, from 400mm up to 1000L, priced from $269.00 to $14969.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a tree for a small backyard.