The saga of the pine cones continues. A few days ago, my last peanut-butter pine cone was nabbed by naughty squirrels, forcing me to resort to other means to put out high-protein winter bird treats. Then last night, a guerrilla squirrel left a package at our gate. The paper bag bore a note.
What tasty treats were hidden inside the bag? Why, Bur Oak acorns! Hurray!
If you aren’t familiar with Bur Oaks, I have to tell you they are one of my favorite tree species. They are gorgeous and oh so majestic, wth big lobed leaves that put other oak leaves to shame. They can get to be more than 100 feet tall AND wide. I’ve dreamed of having one. Of course, if I’m growing one from a baby seed, I can’t imagine it getting to its full size in my lifetime, but at least I know that it will be well on its way — assuming I can get one or more of these to germinate, that is! A new experience awaits me, and I love that.
Just to give you a size comparison on the acorns, I went scrounging in the backyard to find one of our “puny” live oak acorns (it was tough — the squirrels have pretty much devoured the acorn masses from last year). The Bur Oak is like the Hagrid of all acorns.
As pleasantly surprised as I am to learn that squirrels can write, I am rather suspicious of their motives. Let’s see… squirrels nest in Bur Oaks. Squirrels eat Bur Oak acorns. Hmmm. Yep, somehow me thinks the squirrels have a secret motive. It’s like when I make yummy cookies with nuts and coconut in them knowing full well that many people don’t like nuts and coconut — this means that there are more cookies for those of us that do! Even so…
Dear Squirrels,
If you promise not to dig up and eat these Bur Oak acorns, I promise to plant them. Maybe one day we will all have new trees to enjoy!
Hugs, Meredith
P.S. This does not mean it’s okay for you to steal any more peanut-butter pine cones. You are fat enough as it is.
To the wonderful drive-by Santa, I want to thank you properly for the acorns, but I’ve spoken to a couple of folks recently about Bur Oaks and I want to make sure I thank the correct person. Confess, confess! In the meantime, thank you SO MUCH for the acorns and the fun surprise! — Meredith
This is awesome!! =D
The critters around here just leave me their… um… “leavings”. Luckily not in a bag though.
I’ll take acorns any day over the other “gift” options!
How cute:) I planted a Bur oak in my front yard. It is still a small tree, however the man at the nursery made me aware of what a tasty treat these acorns are for squirrels.
Oh dear — sounds like they’ll want to dig them up.
Too cute! What a fun gift 🙂
Maybe you should plant the acorns in a chicken wire type basket so the squirrels can’t get to the nut.
Those are wonderful trees. And the acorns and acorn caps are decorative in themselves. When I lived in Dripping Springs, I saw them in Austin in the Academy parking lot and had to have them. I rescued a bunch of acorns and hauled them home.
When I put them in water, about a third of them were floaters (non-viable). I ended up with probably a dozen or more trees. This was at the time I was collecting and growing plants for my daughter’s property.
I think I ended up only planting one or two but the rest went to friends and neighbors. One went to Alabama. Hopefully, all are living good lives.
You may have to protect the seeds from the squirrels and the young trees from the deer. The best time to plant acorns is as soon as they drop. So you should grow a lot to be sure all of them will sprout. I think I remember mine were already about a foot tall when the first frosts came. But I expect these will wait until spring to grow. But planting them now will give them protection from drying out so much they won’t grow.
Good idea, Toni!
Great info, Marilyn — thank you. I will test them out right away. I found out where the acorns came from, so if these aren’t viable, I’ll run out and get some more and try again. So much fun!
Pesky squirrels! But I still think rabbits are more troublesome. Great info about Bur Oaks and I loved your cute story! Happy Holidays!