Backyard Forest Restoration: Tulip Tree

My wife and I transplanted a tulip tree we found at her father's property. For now, it is living in a pot of compost. We're trying to keep it in full sunlight all day. It starts the day on our driveway which gets full sun for most of the day and we're moving it closer to our house around midday so it isn't in the shadow of our neighbor's house.

We've been watering it daily. It was outside for some heavy rains a few days ago and the soil became saturated. We have not watered it since then and it continues to grow. A new leaf has appeared on the stem also. It's the first leaf that has the familiar tulip tree shape but is tiny. The original leaves only had two lobes. If you didn't know how a tulip tree seedling looks, you would think it was some other plant.

When it gets larger, we will plant it in a dry and well lit part of our backyard. Most of our backyard becomes saturated and swampy after snow thaws and heavy rains. Tulip trees don't like wet soil and they are not common trees where we live. We still suspect they grow natively in our area based on some tulip trees that are thriving in a drier section of swamp forest near us called Bradley Wood Reservation. We also have some neighbors a few houses away from us that have some decent sized tulip trees on their property which is near a creek.

The next tree species we will try to grow is swamp white oak. From the research I have done, swamp white oak was once a larger part of the forest where I live. The wood is more valuable than red oak, so most of them were harvested for lumber. The acorns are also preferred by wildlife since they are less bitter than red oak acorns. They have had the double whammy of being harvest by people and having their seeds eaten before new trees can establish themselves. I suspect the seedlings that germinate naturally get eaten by deer.

I found 4 mature swamp white oaks in my neighborhood that are near sidewalks. They all have green acorns. I will start harvesting and planting them when they start falling in the next month.