Shrubs

[Robert86]

I'm looking at planting some shrubs next spring, wondering what you all plant? I live in Wisconsin so they have to be cold hardy, I would like something that made some sort of berries for deer, turkeys and birds. Any suggestions would be great thanks!

 

[SD51555]

I'm looking at planting some shrubs next spring, wondering what you all plant? I live in Wisconsin so they have to be cold hardy, I would like something that made some sort of berries for deer, turkeys and birds. Any suggestions would be great thanks!

I'm the anti-planting guy, so keep that in mind as you read this...

Odds are, your property is already covered in shrubs. I'd look at finding those first and identifying them, and then get to work releasing and promoting their advancement. Get out the chainsaw, do some strategic caging in various places around your property to create sentry bushes. Make some large brush piles nearby that deer cannot penetrate and birds will deposit native seeds into those piles as they perch there and take a dump. This is how fenceline trees and shrubs come into being.

If you haven't caught this thread, take a gander. Put the checkbook down, and grab some tools instead. Strategically promoting what you've already got will go infinitely faster than any amount of introduced plantings.

SD’s Buy-no-trees forest ease

I grabbed a bunch of pics from my feature this weekend. The rest of my saw work is in my sanctuary, and that is closed until after rifle now. The feature is a pie piece of intensely managed natural vegetation in one of my food plots. The big idea behind this is to show what I’ve been able to do...

habitat-talk.com

That's how I feel anyway.

 

[ruskbucks]

American plum, high bush cranberry, elderberry, hazelnut, and dogwoods are all used by deer and turkey and will survive in northern climates

 

[4wanderingeyes]

This was my focus this year and next. I have been planting, and caging a lot of American plum, choke cherries, and Red Osier Dogwoods. I will be doing the same next year. Mostly filling in wetting areas that have openings. I have also planted a few others as well, those 3 were the ones I went crazy on.

Chokecherry, Elderberry, or Wild Plum in NW Wisconsin

Now that I live on my land in North West Wisconsin, I want to start planting more then apple trees, and food plots. A few years ago I had planted 500 white pine bare root, and not a single one made it through winter. I will admit I planted them in small pockets of 6-8 trees in open areas of my...

habitat-talk.com

 

[cavey]

A modified version of what SD said; fence in a small garden/nursery area... go find and make cuttings of wild stock you have or can find, dig some up as well depending on the variety, buy shrubs and reserve some for planting in your nursery for future cuttings, plant some in the nursery to get bigger before transplanting and direct plant the balance of your orders - preferably caged or in volume in the field.

it can be very challenging getting shrubs and trees to grow - frustrating might be a better word. Volume or smaller focused efforts - the in between stuff IMO is ripe with failure. If you have low deer numbers and even less rodents that may be a different story .

 

[PatinPA]

I'm interested in some shrubbery now too. Since I've timbered all the dying hemlock, the black birch is taking over everything. I left all the remaining oak stand. I'd like to keep all that and plant some shrubs that can survive partly shaded areas. The birch makes good cover in the summer and early fall but it loses it's leaves quickly in the fall and the deer don't really seem to browse it much. There is some green briar along with some black berry and raspberry but I don't really want that stuff taking over too. I want a deer buffet with as many options as I can give them.

 

[cavey]

with deer variety is the spice of life, give them a little bit of everything - they are browsers and nibblers - from weeds to alfalfa - corn to water, apple/crabs back to mowed paths of clovers and grasses.

A solid mix of shrubs - berry and or nut producers as well as just something for them to chew on is key.

The trick is to get them to grow and establish to the point that they will not be browsed to death, and can maintain and or spread. But then not get out of control too.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

PatinPA -
Partly-shaded cuts the numbers of things that will grow well. A native Pa. understory shrub that grows well in shade / partial shade is witch hazel. In my experience, it's not so much a deer browse item as an attraction of sorts for other reasons for deer. Bucks love to rub on the multi-trunked shrubs, and also make scrapes under the mature, drooping limbs. The seeds shoot out of the seed capsules in October & November here in Pa., and are food for grouse, turkeys, birds of all sorts, chipmunks, squirrels, etc. They typically grow to about 10 ft. tall in mature woods, and as they mature, they take on a "bending over" look to them. They'll help thicken up an otherwise open forest floor. I haven't seen evidence of deer browsing on witch hazel.

I've used witch hazel in Pa. as a scouting tool of sorts, because bucks seem to love rubbing on them (it doesn't kill the WH) and making scrapes under the drooping branches. If I see a cluster(s) of WH, I go over to take a look for deer sign. Many times I've found current rubs / scrapes, or old ones from previous falls. Whatever the reason, deer seem to like WH here in Pa.

From published info on WH, the easiest, quickest way to establish it is to plant seedlings from a nursery. Supposedly, trying to start it yourself from seed is a time-consuming effort that isn't very successful. I've bought WH seedlings from Cold Stream nursery with good success.

 

[PatinPA]

PatinPA -
Partly-shaded cuts the numbers of things that will grow well. A native Pa. understory shrub that grows well in shade / partial shade is witch hazel. In my experience, it's not so much a deer browse item as an attraction of sorts for other reasons for deer. Bucks love to rub on the multi-trunked shrubs, and also make scrapes under the mature, drooping limbs. The seeds shoot out of the seed capsules in October & November here in Pa., and are food for grouse, turkeys, birds of all sorts, chipmunks, squirrels, etc. They typically grow to about 10 ft. tall in mature woods, and as they mature, they take on a "bending over" look to them. They'll help thicken up an otherwise open forest floor. I haven't seen evidence of deer browsing on witch hazel.

I've used witch hazel in Pa. as a scouting tool of sorts, because bucks seem to love rubbing on them (it doesn't kill the WH) and making scrapes under the drooping branches. If I see a cluster(s) of WH, I go over to take a look for deer sign. Many times I've found current rubs / scrapes, or old ones from previous falls. Whatever the reason, deer seem to like WH here in Pa.

From published info on WH, the easiest, quickest way to establish it is to plant seedlings from a nursery. Supposedly, trying to start it yourself from seed is a time-consuming effort that isn't very successful. I've bought WH seedlings from Cold Stream nursery with good success.

Ya definitely going to include witch hazel. I would like to try and get some turkeys back on my property instead of skirting it every chance they get.

 

[TreeDaddy]

I'm the anti-planting guy, so keep that in mind as you read this...

Odds are, your property is already covered in shrubs. I'd look at finding those first and identifying them, and then get to work releasing and promoting their advancement. Get out the chainsaw, do some strategic caging in various places around your property to create sentry bushes. Make some large brush piles nearby that deer cannot penetrate and birds will deposit native seeds into those piles as they perch there and take a dump. This is how fenceline trees and shrubs come into being.

If you haven't caught this thread, take a gander. Put the checkbook down, and grab some tools instead. Strategically promoting what you've already got will go infinitely faster than any amount of introduced plantings.

SD’s Buy-no-trees forest ease

I grabbed a bunch of pics from my feature this weekend. The rest of my saw work is in my sanctuary, and that is closed until after rifle now. The feature is a pie piece of intensely managed natural vegetation in one of my food plots. The big idea behind this is to show what I’ve been able to do...

habitat-talk.com

That's how I feel anyway.

Inspired by that thread, I went out and " discovered" multiple mexican plum trees,elderberry, and red mulberry.....all bearing fruit

I took the SD challenge to identify every tree/plant/shrub on the ranch

Its been a real "Aha!!!" moment

bill

 

[Robert86]

Thanks for all the replies, I have done some of the cutting like mentioned in the first post, I have a fair amount of ash in my hardwoods that have died, so I was look at filling in those spots with a mix of shrubs and white oaks. Trying to create more browse in my woods besides the hinge cutting I've done.

 

[H20fwler]

Hazelnut
Pin Oak
Elderberry
High bush Cranberry
Snow berry
ROD
American plum
Crab apples
Chokecherry
Indian currant
Ninebark

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^^^^^ Great list.

 

[Ruffdude]

How about some arrow wood viburnum?
Hawthorns
Any species crabapple
I’ve had good luck in my sandy soils with high bush cranberry and ninebark.
Black chokeberry too.

 

[g squared 23]

I have hazelnut, wild plum, elderberry and dogwoods native on my land so my plantings have revolved around those and they have done remarkably well. This year I branched out and planted different shrubs like chokecherry, nanny berry and arrowwood along with some of the old reliables.

Mix of hazelnut and wild plum. If you look close you can see the slightly lighter colored nut clusters of the former.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Wild Thing]

I have planted quite a variety of shrubs over the years with pretty much zero success for those that were planted and not protected. Hawthorn would be the only exception, except that even though it wasn't browsed it never grew here in Upper Michigan. I planted some in 2018 and none of them have grown more than an inch or two in all those years so I consider Hawhorn a complete failure here.

These are naturally occurring shrubs that the deer apparently don't browse but I have no idea what it is?


A closeup of the same shrub?


Here is another which I have no clue about?


I planted and tubed some hazelnut and they came out of the tubes but I need to get some cages around them because the deer do like them.


Another Hazelnut - I am thinking about using only a 2' diameter cage for both these Hazelnuts and Red Osier Dogwoods, which would allow the deer to browse what comes through the cage but not completely devastate the rest of the shrub?


I have had success growing Red Osier Dogwood if I cage them. Seedlings generally make it out of the tubes within 2 years. I need to get these caged now


More ROD


Here is what happens to ROD when it doesn't get caged soon enough...


I am having good success with growing crabapples from seed. I found a wild crabapple on my property which I never knew I had. It produces large fruit so I want to plant more of them around the property. I have grafted some scions from it but I also collected some seed from the crabapples and have some of them going now. They went from a seed to coming out of a 4' tube in only 2 years.


I pulled the tubes up some to protect them a little longer until I can make cages for them (which I am doing this week) but the deer beat me to this one...

 

[SD51555]

I think your mystery shrub is a winterberry holly. I've got a few of them on my place too.

 

[Wild Thing]

I think your mystery shrub is a winterberry holly. I've got a few of them on my place too.

Not sure SD - The first guess from the iNaturalist app I just downloaded says Red-Berried Elder. The next guesses were Mountain Ash varieties but I know it isn't a Mountain Ash.

red-berried elder (Sambucus racemosa)

... (Source: Wikipedia, '', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_racemosa, CC BY-SA 3.0 . Photo: (c) sarahggage, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC))

www.inaturalist.org

Found this on Winterberry Holly - and it does also look very close?

How to Grow and Care for Winterberry Holly - The Sprucehttps://www.thespruce.com › Plants & Flowers › Shrubs

 

[SD51555]

Not sure SD - The first guess from the iNaturalist app I just downloaded says Red-Berried Elder. The next guesses were Mountain Ash varieties but I know it isn't a Mountain Ash.

red-berried elder (Sambucus racemosa)

... (Source: Wikipedia, '', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_racemosa, CC BY-SA 3.0 . Photo: (c) sarahggage, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC))

www.inaturalist.org

Found this on Winterberry Holly - and it does also look very close?

How to Grow and Care for Winterberry Holly - The Sprucehttps://www.thespruce.com › Plants & Flowers › Shrubs

You know what, I think you're right on the red berried elder. I think you nailed it there.

 

[Wild Thing]

You know what, I think you're right on the red berried elder. I think you nailed it there.

Not me...it was the iNaturalist app