Wanted-I know this is ridiculus...but

[robbobbin]

I want SUMAC, please!
Here is why-I was recently at a master garden function and overheard a couple fellow MGs going on and on about this plant they were looking at. As I passed by I said 'omg that's Sumac, I grew up with that stuff growing in the ditches-it a weed AND it's poisonious'
Tact is not one of my strong points, obviously!

Anyway-last week I was over at one of the ladies houses and she had a baby Sumac potted up to sale. I asked her to sale it to me-and she said NO because it was the Sumac I had made fun of her for having.

I felt terrible, I did try to explain-I never meant to hurt. And with my big mouth, spoke before I considered anything.
Just like the Mimosas I've recently requested here, the Sumac is nostalgic for me. AS is sasserfras trees and persimmons and spider lilies.....

So long story even longer, sry guys
I want SUMAC.
I am begging you southerns for plants or seed of any variety. I know they readily put up knew sprouts so hoping someone here wont care about my tactless manner and HELP! hehehe

and yes I also know their are NOT all poisonious-DUH!
Being only 42 years old, all my fellow MGs give me a break for being so young, hehehe I'm probably second youngest in the group-so I'm blaming it on nativity.

Thank you everyone!


*edited* to add: I will pay all shipping and/or have plants and seeds to offer in trade

 

[silkieboxerluv]

Im laughing hard right now-that stuff made me out of school for a whole week when I was younger. We were playing house with the "berrys". I know were to get it but I dont want to touch it.

 

[patandchickens]

LOL - lesson learned?

The simplest thing, frankly, would be to drive around out in the country til you see someone with sumac in the road allowance out in front of their house, or in an uncultivated part of their property, and go knock on the door and ask if you can dig up a couple suckers.

There are Fancy Cultivars of some of the sumacs available, now, but that may not be what you want.

BTW the mature berry clusters (not of poison sumac, obviously -- of the other, 'regular' ones) make a really tasty pink-lemonade-like drink. You just smash 'em all up in some water and let them soak a good while, then strain (not just to get out the berries, but to get out all the little bristly hairs on 'em too ), chill and drink. (Add sugar if you want, but I like it tart, myself). Mmmmmm


Pat

 

[aquarose]

I want a sumac too for sentimental reasons! We had one next to my back porch when I was a kid. We played with the long sticks left when the leaves fell off. We had one come up in a bed and I was going to keep it and my husband insisted it be pulled out because he was worried that it would take over. Now that I think about it, I bet it would grow well in the back of my property where the soil is practically impenetrable and its very shady. I wonder.....

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Call me a dumb country boy but I thought that only thing that stuff was good for was a landing strip for round up and 2-4D? What on earth would you want to grow it on purpose for? You must not be allergic to it?

 

[freshfood]

I'm a little puzzled by the original post specifying southerners...I'm in upstate NY and we have sumac all over the place (the lemonade kind, not the poisonous kind). If that's what you mean and you can't just dig it somewhere, we have tons of it. I could probably find a small specimen, not sure how to mail it safely but I'd be happy to try.

 

[patandchickens]

I have to wonder whether everyone is talking about the same thing, here

Sure, there is poison sumac (and poison ivy, which is closely related, and I *think* poison oak is too). Which nobody is likely to want to grow.

However there are also the sorta palm-tree-lookin' sumacs you see along roadsides and on other (as the wildflower books like to say) "waste places", ranging from maybe 3' tall to 30'. They are perfectly harmless. There are at least two, possibly more but I'm too lazy to look it up, species of them, with at least a couple of named cultivars you can get at garden centers if you search hard enough.

They prefer full sun (not shade) and do ok with poor soil as long as it is well drained and not too insanely dry. They have sort of 'flame shaped' flower clusters that turn to darkish red bristly berry clusters in the fall. They sucker like crazy!

They get at LEAST as far north as here (an hour north of Toronto), I dunno how far west they go but they're certainly pretty much everywhere east of the Mississippi at least.

There is also 'fragrant sumac', the latin name of which escapes me at the moment, which looks vaguely like poison ivy (low shrub with rounded blobby-edged leaves) but isn't at all. It is in the garden trade mainly as a candidate to fill shady dry areas in Large Landscapes.

If anyone is talking about anything other than the above ones, I'm not sure what it would be

I actually wouldn't mind getting some growing on our property somewhere, for the purposes of ready access to non roadside source of berries for 'lemon'ade in the Fall.

P.s. - aquarose, if you want something for shady dry clay, consider snowberry or coralberry (pretty much any Symphoricarpos sp.), they are the likeliest things I can think of to do ok in those conditions.

Pat

 

[SewingDiva]

Sumac is all over eastern MA; it grows wild in my yard. We have the regular as well as Staghorn, which is really quite handsome.

~Phyllis

 

[aquarose]

I am pretty sure that the one I am remembering is staghorn sumac. Poison sumac, I was surprised to learn (just now on the internet), is far more poisonous than poison ivy, and grows almost exclusively in swampy or flooded ground. I don't know that I have ever seen it. And I hope I never do! (Thanks Patandchickens for the tip. I will keep a lookout for snowberry at the garden center!)

 

[robbobbin]

WOW everybody.
Pat's right there are several types of sumac and not all are poisonious. I've researched the different ones and thought I'd just see what was offered. I was hoping for staghorn and possible rubias glarbuius (spelled terriblly) but any kind would have been appreciated.

I have driven around here, and only seen it once on private property. Theres just some plants that do not catch on even though you'd think they'd be here.

FRESHFOOD-I'd sure be will to pay shipping...jes sayin'-lol

I bought a new variety called 'tiger eye' online and paid a pretty penny for it-crazy I know but it's "new"...hehehe. Can't wait til it comes.

thanks all