Quercus stellata 26/2 Restock spotted an unusually full-flowered smooth

spotted an unusually full-flowered smooth hydrangea in the woods of Union County

and where the ranges of the two species meet along the Southern coastal plain

Photo courtesy of Allan Boatman

Rhododendron atlanticum

ran Norfolk's parks for nearly thirty years and

Quercus stellata 26/2 Restock spotted an unusually full-flowered smoothQuercus stellata, the post oak, is one of the great toughs of the eastern white oaks, a tree born to dry uplands, old fields, and rocky ridges from the sandy hills of the Carolinas and Georgia across the Piedmont and into the prairies of Texas and the Midwest. Where soils are thin and the summers unrelenting, post oak has made a living, holding ground against wind, sun, and time itself. The name stellata points to the star shaped hairs that once gave