Where to get Trees

I am wanting to plant a row of Arborvitae across the front of my yard. We live by a major highway, and the sound break would be great...plus it will keep the kids off the road and give us some privacy. I am trying to find out the best place to get these, as they are very expensive at the local stores. I know that the arbor day foundation has them cheap on their site, but they only ship twice each year. Any other suggestions?

You could only get them once a year but the state I live in (Iowa) had a program to buy from them, back then it had a min. of 500 trees or shrubs and they were on the small side but very reasonable price wise.

Um...............the woods?

-Soupy1957

I don't think to many people have them growing in their woods.

NY has the same program. It is a very inexpensive way to get a bunch of trees and shipping is the cost of stopping by the local soil and water office.

I think there are two types of Arborvitae. One is deer resistant and the other isn't. Here in the garden state, I always see 1/2 eaten Arborvitae in peoples yards.

They grow in the woods here.
Deer usually get to them first, though.

Usually in a clearing, though. Cedar and juniper. Look for one you usually find the other.

Same in Missouri. Also, they have a list of nurseries in our state. Good for shopping around. When the bundles come, it takes over your time until you get all 500 planted.

State programs have them (usually once a year). I got seedlings from the Arborday Foundation.

Getting them for next to nothing as seedlings is great but it is a long wait until you have a tree of value - like what you want. Wait until end of summer/fall and get a great discount at your local garden center. In addition, you can try Craigslist for an idea of what else its out there. $25 for 3 footers is not too bad...but that is near me...

http://newyork.craigslist.org/wch/grd/2473683365.html

Anything the Arbor Day Foundation sends out are essentially worthless--unless you wanna wait 30 years. I signed up and paid a bit extra and I received a couple sticks in the mail. My dog ate 'em right out the ground.

S

My "sticks" are good looking trees now, I've had people ask me why even bother planting tres as it takes a long time for them to grow, that was 30 years ago and guess what they are big trees now, go figure.

Right, but 30 years is a long time to wait for something you want. OP: "We live by a major highway, and the sound break would be great…plus it will keep the kids off the road and give us some privacy." By the time the trees are big enough, the OP's hearing is shot and the kids are out the house!

S

Well its not going to take 30 years for what he wants to grow to 5 or 6 feet, some of those grow fairly fast, he wants bigger trees get a bigger wallet.

There are a couple arborvitae "farms" around here (I can think of two) - they advertise on Craigslist and maybe in the local paper.
They dig once or twice a year and you put your order in ahead of time.
They don't dig any more than they have orders for.
Less than Home Depot.
Usually 3 footers and up.

They are quite shallow rooted and have to be watered a LOT and OFTEN to compensate for the massive loss of roots.

Look for "elegantisimo" arborvitae. They are much more deer resistant. In western PA, check out Carinos, Strathmyers, Pikes Peak, and Mussers.

Good luck,
Bill

Check out http://www.arborday.org/index.cfm You can join for $10 bucks and they will send you 10 free trees. They also have very reasonable prices on all other trees

There is a very logical reason why they ship only to times per year.