Seems like most online nurseries that sell them aren’t very trustworthy. Anybody have a good source for them? I’d prefer trees that are already a few feet tall.
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I’ve ordered some nice healthy trees from Nearly Native Nursery in GA: Nearly Native Nursery - Nursery specializing in growing and selling southeastern native plants for all landscaping needs.
Is this a Ty Ty nursery?
No, I don’t think so. Here’s their Dave’s Garden Watchdog review page - largely positive. https://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/759/
I think it’s a small family operation. Just happens to be in GA like Ty Ty, but otherwise very different. I ordered trees from them about 10 years ago and spoke with an owner on the phone. She was very helpful and gave me great advice. One of the chiquapins they sold me ended up being a chestnut, but I don’t think it would be easy to mix up sassafras!
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They grow wild in my woods… plenty.
I love the smell of crushed leaves twigs roots.
What do you do with sasafras trees ?
I used to enjoy tea occasionally in my younger days… but found out several years ago it is known to be somewhat poisonous.
Found this online…
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It definitely is not. I’ve been to their physical location more than once. Nice people, they grow some interesting stuff, their website looks like a relic from 2005.
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If you don’t need many Sassafras or are looking for 1 or 2, try to find them in containers vs. bareroot. They are very, very, unforgiving to plant; especially bare-root.
Very difficult to establish.
Start small if you go bareroot. I mean real small. 1 foot tall.
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I’m only looking for two. I did plant a bare root that was a couple inches two years ago. It barely grew at all its second year. Waiting to sew of it pulls through this year.
@TNHunter just a lovely tree all over! Good for the wild life as well. I really don’t care about the potential toxicity of safrole. Most people in this county ingest way worse things on a daily basis. Not to mention with anything moderation is the key.
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We would drink sassafras tea for many , many years. My grandmother would get sassafras tree bark to use from our relatives from Kentucky. Maye I am wrong but there seems to be a different sassafras tree height from sassafras trees I have seen in Kentucky area vs what is listed on sites selling sassafras trees. Maybe I am wrong here. In the area we are from they drank sassafras tea for hundreds of years.
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Sassafras is famous for forming clone clumps over time, so if you get one or two, site them for that eventuality.
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Maybe that is what they were, clone clumps. They were no where close to the tree height of a sassafras tree.
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I see sasafrass seedlings regular when hunting ginseng… North facing hillsides…
Have not tried to transplant one.
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The clone clumps mentioned are a real issue. Make sure you want the trees where you put them. I had one or two seedlings, bird planted. Pretty, smelled great, I liked them- initially. Too many suckers came up and made the area crowded, plus they ended up to close to the fence and well. I couldn’t keep them from taking over, tried to cut them down about two years ago. Suckers everywhere, including in the neighbor’s mow area. Finally got the stumps out and further away ground. Major roots were at least 20 feet away.
I wish I had lots of space, they looked pretty in autumn.
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I’ve tried several times to transplant small ones, and you are not kidding. Very unforgiving.
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I’d fall color is key, you might look into getting sourwood seedlings instead of sassafras.
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That one has been on my radar, but somehow I never have gotten around to finding some. Thanks for the reminder to put it on my list!
I also want it for tea / soda.
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My folks thought sassafras tea would thin the blood for spring and was therefore a sought-after seasonal tonic in moderation. Believing this implies you harvest a handful of roots with a pickax each year while the ground is still frozen.
“Since safrole, a key component of sassafras, was banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1960 due to its carcinogenicity, most commercial root beers have been flavored using artificial sassafras flavoring (Wikipedia).”
Took my wife to Nashville a couple years ago and we went down a street there that had several aspen trees lineing the roadway…
Talk about some gorgeous color… they were stunning. I had never seen those in TN before… they looked to be doing well.
Sasafrass and poplar are two of my favorite trees to smell of… snap off a small limb and crush it up a bit… very fragrant.
Caught many a beaver on nothing but poplar branches scraped a little and stuck in the bank of the river… with a Blake and lamb 44 set in the edge of the water.
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