"At Your Service" Newspaper Column

 

Michael R. Milam

Agronomy Specialist and County Program Director

For Daily Dunklin Democrat-At Your Service

December 10, 2007

Conservation trees and shrub seedling order form

Missouri residents have an opportunity to buy low-cost conservation trees and shrubs to provide windbreaks for their property and to attract a variety of wildlife.  Order forms are now available for low-cost tree and shrub seedlings for wildlife and conservation plantings at the Dunklin County University of Missouri Extension Center and at the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Kennett. Forms are also available in the forestry section of the Missouri Department of Conservation web site: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/forest/nursery/seedling/. These forms may be returned by fax (573) 674-4047 to speed processing.

The Forestry Division of the Missouri Department of Conservation operates the George O. White Nursery near Licking, Missouri. A variety of seedlings suitable for forestry, wildlife food and cover, farmstead and field windbreaks, erosion control, and other environmental practices are grown for annual distribution to Missouri residents. All seedlings are 1, 2 or 3 years old and sizes vary greatly depending on species.

It should be noted that this year, some species are not available. This is due to the warm temperatures followed by the extreme freeze in April. The result was that hundreds of thousands of new seedlings died. All of the Washington Hawthorn, hackberry, and red cedar seedlings died. Severely damaged were the chokeberry, aromatic sumac, blackberry, white ash, ninebark, and flowering, gray, silky, and roughleaf dogwoods. For some of these species, there are only enough available for the special bundles.

            This year over sixty species of trees and shrubs are available at costs ranging from $3 to $ 14 for a bundle of 25. This year the nursery is offering a Pitch x Loblolly pine hybrid and Paw paws. In addition, a conservation bundle is available for $13.00 (30 seedlings).  This bundle consists of 5 plants each of the following: eastern white pine, flowering dogwood, Ohio buckeye, redbud, red osier dogwood, and service berry. A wildlife cover bundle is available for $16.00 (50 seedlings) and consists of 10 plants each of the following: choke cherry, eastern red cedar, hazelnut, post oak, and roughleaf dogwood. There is an extra-large nut tree bundle available for $15 for 30 seedlings, fifteen each for black walnut and pecan. A quail cover bundle is available for $24 for a total of 75 plants. There are 15 each of aromatic sumac, blackberry, false indigo, gray dogwood, and wild plum. This year there is a pecan variety bundle with 10 each of Colby, Mullahy, Peruque, and Posey.

There is a $5.00 handling charge for each order. Holders of the Missouri Conservation Heritage Card can receive a 15% discount (up to $20) off their seedling purchase. Heritage Cards can be purchased for $2 wherever hunting and fishing permits are sold. The card is similar in appearance to a credit card and makes applying for permits easier because of the information stored on a magnetic strip. This card also allows the owner to receive a 15 percent discount on selected retail merchandise sold at Conservation Department Facilities. To order a Heritage Card by phone, call 1-800-392-4115.

Do not send payment with your order. You will be billed later. After the order is processed, you will receive an acknowledgement card. This card is the billing notice and the total includes the 5.725 percent sales tax.  

A separate order form is available for two nature bundles available from the Forrest Keeling Nursery. The Nature Bundle #1 consists of ornamental plants that will attract a variety of wildlife. The six plants grown and shipped in pots are one American cranberry, one pawpaw, one redbud, one sugar maple, one shadblow serviceberry, and one white flowering dogwood for a cost of $ 24.00. The Nature Bundle #2 contains a variety of ornamental native perennial forbs that produce showy flowers during the summer. These plants attract bees, butterflies, and birds. They contain a mix of two blazing stars, two pale purple coneflowers and two purple coneflowers. These six pots also cost $24.00. The prices for these bundles include the shipping cost but the sales tax is $1.55 per bundle.

The seedling bundles described on this order form are suitable for attracting a variety of wildlife and improving the beauty of standard-sized residential lots. These plants listed are designed to supplement rather than substitute for traditional ornamental landscaping.

Order forms may be obtained in person at the Dunklin County University of Missouri Extension Office in the Courthouse Annex (entrance on St. Francis Street) in Kennett or to receive by mail, please phone 888-4722.

            You will be notified by postcard about one week before your order will be shipped. All trees will be shipped by May 15 unless other arrangements have been made.

 

University of Missouri Extension programs are open to all.

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University of Missouri Extension Dr. Michael R. Milam Agronomy Specialist                                                                          University of Missouri Extension
Dunklin County
MilamMR@missouri.edu
Updated 06/12/08		 Find a University of Missouri Extension Office