Brewer's OakQuercus garryana breweriHeight: 10' average mature height Zones: 5-8 Find my zone Aspect: mostly sun to full sun Watering: needs little to no summer water once established, one or two deep watering cycles per summer Maximum Water: tolerates occasional winter flooding but needs drier soil in the summer Habit: clump forming with multiple stems Foliage: deciduous Growth Rate: medium Native To: CA, OR, WA
This plant can't be shipped to California
Size Availability
Out of season.
Our main crop of most plants is available starting in late fall.
Additional batches of plugs and quarts are added throughout the year.
Many of our plants are propagated in limited quantities and can sell out quickly when posted, get on the notification list below so you don't miss out. Add your email to be notified as soon as we have them back in stock:
This does NOT subscribe your email to any mailing lists, our system will only send an inventory notification message.
Production notes: in production most years but is unavailable in some due to limited seed/division material or finicky propagation Brewer's Oak is a dwarf form of the Western White Oak that typically is found growing at higher elevations or in harsher environments than typical White Oaks. Unlike the standard single trunk tree form of the White Oak, Brewer's Oak grows as a shorter shrub that slowly expands over time to form clumps. The multi stem shrub form of the Brewer Oak allows the plants to recover quickly from frequent high intensity fires that are common to chaparral ecosystems and plants can produce acorns in as little as three years following fire. This is a huge difference from the White Oak in that they are typically adapted to frequent low intensity fires that burn through the short grass as opposed to tall, oily vegetation such as Manzanita. In these low intensity fires the White Oaks typically are not top killed and continue to reproduce via acorns each year, but with high intensity top killing fires the White Oaks typically take several decades to resprout and produce acorns again. Brewer's Oak is also better adapted to poor soils including heavy-metal rich soils like serpentine, with many Brewer Oaks growing well in toxic soils across the Klamath-Siskiyou mountains.
Brewer's Oak plants are excellent shrubs for dry landscapes and host a large number of native butterfly species as well as provide valuable acorns to larger wildlife in the fall. The dense branches can be used to create an impenetrable hedge if the shrubs are planted about five feet apart. Although the plants typically grow fairly slowly in the wild, Brewer's Oaks can establish quite quickly if given some summer irrigation and slow release fertilizer.
There is some debate as to the relation of Brewer's Oak to White Oak. Many sources seem to list it as a standard subspecies of White Oak but some also believe that Brewer's Oak is a naturally occurring and stable hybrid that might have some genetics from Sadler's Oak. Sadler's Oak has a spreading, suckering habit and also an affinity for growing in serpentine soils, the two main traits that distinguish Brewer's Oak from the standard White Oak. The stable hybrid idea seems to be supported by the fact that Brewer's Oak and White Oaks will occasionally grow together in the same location and in these cases all of the seedlings seem to be easily distinguishable as a Brewer's Oak or a White Oak. If the Brewer's Oak was simply a variety of White Oak then they should easily cross pollinate when growing near each other and produce a large number of seedlings with intermediate characteristics.
Quercus garryana breweri - Brewer's Oak showing its smaller foliage and dense, shrubby form
Quercus garryana breweri - Brewer's Oak
Packing Plants For ShippingWe pack our plants depending on the needs of each species and size, most plants ship best with the roots packed in moist sawdust or bark fines but some species don't like root disturbance and are shipped in a soil-less growing media. Excess soil is washed from the roots in preparation for shipping (18-24" White Pines)  Plants are bundled together to fit in boxes  Bundles of plants are secured in long boxes. Plant Sizes 3 gallon Dawn Redwood  Standard quart shrub  Standard 14-18" multi-stem tree size  Standard deep plug pine tree Bamboo Plants Are Shipped In Their ContainersBamboo roots are not flexible and so plants have to be shipped in their containers. These plants are heavier and are shipped separately from bare root plants. Because they are potted they can handle longer transit times so can ship via UPS Ground instead of USPS Air Mail. Potted plants can also be shipped year-round.We regularly top our 1 gallon bamboo plants at 24-30 inches tall throughout the growing season. This results in dense, bushy foliage while allowing for economical shipping. From this size most running species will grow to 5-6 feet tall in the first spring and clumping species will usually grow to 4-5 feet tall.  1 gallon bamboo plants strapped in and ready to be sealed. Unpacking Bare Root PlantsYou will be sent tracking details as soon as your plants are shipped. Unpack your plants as quickly as possible after they are delivered. We use two types of boxes, side-sealing and top-sealing. For boxes that are taped along the whole length you can cut the tape on either side and remove the plant bundles by cutting the tape holding the bundle to the bottom. For boxes that are sealed on the top and bottom, it is easiet to open the bottom of the box (the shipping label is at the top) and pull the bundle of plants out straight out. Check that the box is empty as there can be a second bundle of plants stuck towards the top. A bundle of trees. What if I am not able to plant right away?You can usually leave the plants in their shipping container unopened for 1-2 days if there were no shipping delays and you have received your plants from late November through February. Plants shipped when it is warmer can't stay in their packages for as long.For longer term storage of plants you can pot them up or plant them in rows close together temporarily and then pull them out later in the spring to be planted again. This keeps the roots moist while allowing for air flow to the tops. The roots should have good contact with the soil to ensure they have access to adequate moisture. |
Size Availability
Out of season.
Our main crop of most plants is available starting in late fall.
Additional batches of plugs and quarts are added throughout the year.
Many of our plants are propagated in limited quantities and can sell out quickly when posted, get on the notification list below so you don't miss out. Add your email to be notified as soon as we have them back in stock:
This does NOT subscribe your email to any mailing lists, our system will only send an inventory notification message.
Production notes: in production most years but is unavailable in some due to limited seed/division material or finicky propagation
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Red Panda Nursery