Nursery

Named by early Kentucky settlers because its fruit resembles a coffee bean, this unique but underutilized tree should be planted in both urban and rural landscapes. During cold weather months, its course branches with few twigs allow warm sunlight in, while in the summer heat, its dense foliage creates wonderful shade. The tree is very adaptive to different conditions and its fall color, a brilliant yellow.

This tree bleeds blue like so many of us in the Bluegrass. Native people combined the inner bark with water to yield a blue dye. Its unique square branches help to identify the Blue Ash from the other, more common Ash species. Some of our most ancient trees in the Central Kentucky landscape are Blue Ash, but sadly, because of mowing practices, there are few young trees to replace the old. We need to plant more of these trees. They love our limestone soils and are more resilient to Emerald Ash Borer than other Ash varieties.

Chinkapin Oak, a prized native Ky Oak tree loves the Bluegrass and can grow to be ancient. One Bluegrass Chinkapin is believed to be 400 years old and the National Champion resides in Clark County, KY. Chinkapin hard wood was used extensively for fence rows in early Kentucky and was often repurposed, being utilized by engineers for construction. This medium-sized Oak has lovely orange to yellowish fall color.

Persimmon is a beautiful ornamental tree with fall colors of orange, yellow, and red. On mature trees, the distinctive scaly bark looks like alligator skin. Early settlers and Native Americans valued the Persimmon for its tough wood and sweet, vitamin-packed fruit which could be harvested throughout the winter. Requiring little maintenance and care, this tree will be a delight in your landscape.