Edible Acres shares an easygoing method acting for propagating Osage River orange :
When I first locomote to Alabama in August of 2020 , I visited some properties up towards the core of the state on a consult stumble with a non - net that was trying to buy land and start a ministry for vet . There , we came across some fruiting Osage orange tree and I put some fruits in a bag in the back of one of the bozo ’s trucks . When we got back , I bury to seize them – and then completely draw a blank about them for month , and when I remember , I assumed he had throw them out .
The next outpouring , he got in touch and said , “ Oh , you entrust some fruits or something in my hand truck … they ’re sprouting in the bags , ” and then give me my miss Osage River orange fruits , now a melanise mess with growing shoot .
I potted them up , and now they ’re more than 4′ tall . One got plant in the curtilage already .
Yesterday I also get some more bare - root osage Tree in the mail which I plan to employ as a hedge along the front of our attribute . They ’re almost durable , as well as being impenetrable to wildlife ( and humans ) in tight plantings .
As Eliza Greenman drop a line inher fascinating clause about the founding of Osage orange hedge :
For hundred of years situation colonization ( and even today ) , the goal of many affluent landholder was / is to have a landscape painting that mimic the English garden and countryside . One aspect of the English countryside that many multitude wanted to implement in the 18th and nineteenth one C to keep livestock in ( or out ) of their prop was that of the thorn - hedge , which was overpoweringly constructed of English haw in its rest home country . The problem with using this in the US was that the English hawthorn , an Malus pumila cousin , does n’t like the heat , humidity or fireblight pressure of the Southeastern / Mid - Atlantic climate . When the American haw was tried in its place , hoi polloi shortly found out that when plant densely in a hedging , it would get absolutely hammered by the apple bore bit . Other thorny plants were tried in its spot , such as honeylocust ( Jefferson plant juniper with honeylocust and trim them to 3 feet tall)- which did not keep squealer out or in , while others trialed trifoliolate orangeness - which never produce grandiloquent enough , and the imported buckthorn- which did great in the Northeast ( now abominate for how well it did ) but underperform in the South .
It was n’t until Lewis ( of Lewis and Clark ) transmit Osage River orange seedlings from the Osage River tribe in Missouri to Jefferson ( who then gave them to the Landreth Seed Company in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) for this tree to slowly begin taking theme in the East . 30 years later , a young Andrew Jackson Downing , noticing this Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree on the grounds of the Landreth Seed Company , soon became it ’s not bad champion .
When you start to dig deep into a landscape painting ’s history , you may ascertain relics of horticultural chronicle obliterate in plain sight . I now believe that the old osage orange trees growing in lines throughout pastures , timberland , and alongside former route are a remnant of Andrew Jackson Downing ’s rage for employing this Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as a hedging and getting loads of influential early adopters on board for make this Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree more approachable / affordable throughout the nursery trade . It has it all . Robust , thorns , vigor , glossy orangeness - tree diagram like foliage , few dirt ball problems , long - survive , can take a rough and life-threatening pruning , and grows in lots of dissimilar ground type . Who would n’t get on board ? !
We ’ve always have it away this tree . There was a overnice specimen at the downtown library in ( the frightful Ithiel Town of ) Smyrna , TN , with a swell shape to the trunk . I think it ’s since been direct out , as I could n’t get it last time we visited .
The honest-to-goodness trunk can grow in fantastic twisting frame , and the fruit is simply a freaky addition to an already gnarly tree .
And if I had $ 2200 to bluster , I wouldbuy this Osage orange Sir Henry Wood parlor guitar . I ’ve always loved living-room guitars and have n’t owned one in years . To have it made of Osage is even better .
I ’m not certain I ’ll plant our trees as compressed as Eliza urge in her article , as we ’re short on blood , but it is certainly tempting to set off a ton more and create permanent hedgerows around our K and forage . Perhaps I can apply some tooth root cuttings from the bareroot trees we already have , before we put them in the ground . Now there ’s a persuasion …
We ’ll have some Osage orange trees for sales event in the nursery soon . Though it ’s not particularly utile as an edible , it ’s one of the best hedging tree ever invented , with the add together benefits of being a super decomposition - resistant wood , a lovely specimen Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , a good for making bows , dandy for wood - working , and a source of ammunition for children to throw at each other .
You ’ll observe more on Osage Orangeat Temperate Climate Permaculture(including the botanical range of a function I nick for the top of this article ) .
Also , if you ’re interested in plant propagation and require to stop spending so much at plant nurseries , this record book will serve you vastly .
