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True Root Nursery

Shining Sumac

Shining Sumac

Species: Rhus copallinum

History: Shining sumac is native to eastern North America, although it can only be found in small pockets in Ontario. It has been used to create wildlife habitat and as an ornamental plant.

Why We Grow It: With a tendency to form groves, it is prized for its ability to provide habitat wildlife and, according to Steph, a prime environment for kids to build forts! The fuzzy red berries can be made into a rosy drink akin to lemonade and when dried the berries can also be used as a seasoning (Za'atar).

Fruit Specs

Recommended Use: Juice, cooking, naturalization, ornamental

Fruit Size:

Storage:

Harvest: August

Growing Specs

Canadian Hardiness Zone: 5

Soil Preference: Prefers loam but adaptable to different soil types

Flowering Time: Summer

Bloom Colour: Greenish-yellow

Pollination Requirements:

Sun/Shade Requirements:

Partial shade to full sun (approx. 6-10 hours of sun daily)

General Growth Habits:

Tree reaches 3.5-5.5m tall. Flowers July to August. Harvest in August, pick before rain for best flavour

Shipping vs. Pick Up

CLICK HERE to see how shipping compares to pick up.

Shipping: Every year we ship thousands of trees across Canada (except BC due to CFIA regulations). We carefully bag roots in damp sawdust, then box them and send them out via courrier. CLICK HERE to see our shipping policy.

Pick-up: We also have thousands of trees picked up from our nursery each year. The pick-up options is free, though you must wait until you have been emailed a confirmation that your order is ready to pick up, which will have further information such as hours, locations, etc. We really appreciate if you can make an appointment to pick up, then we can be as organized as possible during our busy season.

Size at Purchase

Our ungrafted fruit tree seedlings, nut tree seedlings, berries, and other miscellaneous plants are categorized into the following sizes excluding the roots:

  • 5-15cm
  • 15cm+
  • 30cm+
  • 60cm+
  • 90cm+

All of these heights exclude the roots since seedlings and some berries will often have a lot of root growth but relatively little vegetative growth (ex. our Shagbark Hickories seedlings are often 5-15cm above the soil but will have roots that reach 20cm+ in length).

Not all of our berries and seedlings will be available in all of these grades since growth rate can vary significantly across species and even varieties. While we remain competitive in our plant size, it's also worth noting we don't use synthetic chemicals to push vegetative growth, therefore you may find conventional nursery stock larger in some instances comparatively. 

Why plant small? It's best to transplant when a plant is young so it can establish its roots before it has a lot of vegetative growth. This is much less stressful on it and bareroot plants tend to catch up and even surpass larger potted ones planted at the same time, after a few years.

Orders that are cancelled last minute due to size (being "too small"), will still incur the applicable cancellation fees if the plants are true to our grading standards as per the agreement of sale when the order was placed.

Regular price $10.00 CAD
Regular price Sale price $10.00 CAD
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