Buy Maclura pomifera

Tolerant of environmental extremes, this 35-60' spiny tree can make an impenetrable hedge, in fact before barbed wire came about in the 1870's this was much used as fencing. The pretty, dark-green leaves of this southcentral U.S. native turn bright-yellow in fall. This shrub/tree is native to river valleys, but they will also tolerate drought and clay. The female trees (if a male is present) produce large, curiously-lobed yellow-orange fruit (not edible), the fruit is said to keep bugs out of the house and the timber of this tree makes rot-resistant, long lasting fence posts. Ours are seed grown unsexed seedlings. S/M-D

When dried, the wood has the highest BTU content of any commonly available North American wood, and burns long and hot. Once cut, the stump quickly produces multiple stems of new growth. Plus, once you cut down a hedge tree the stump quickly reproduces multiple thorny stems that grow vigorously to replace the existing tree. Tough, adaptable native tree. Normally short trunk, wide spreading branches occasionally pendulous. Bright green summer leaf, yellow fall color. Large, inedible fruit resembles a green orange. Hardwood prized for bow-making and rot resistant fence posts. Good for hedgerows (stock-proof), windbreaks and reclamation. Planted at a spacing of 1 foot, in three years it makes a fence that is “horse-high, bull-strong, and hog-tight.”

Naturally a dense thorny tree, it works well as a border hedge. Fruits are grapefruit-sized, green, and messy, so the tree should be placed away from walks or roads. The wood is an amazing orange/red color, resists rotting, and is hard, so it has been used for bows, turning on the lathe, and for fence posts. Rootstock for the thornless variety 'Whiteshield'.

Called the osage orange, actually fairly closely related to mulberries. One of the toughest, longest lived native trees that can take drought, heat, and anything else you throw at them, and has some of the most rot-resistant wood. Not exactly a showy tree by any standards, but mature specimens can be quite dramatic, and the fruits are huge green grape-fruit sized wrinkled balls that have a bright, clean scent. Folk lore holds that the fruits are repellent to spiders, though as far as I know there is no truth to that. Zone 3

A fast growing and adaptable deciduous native tree that can be grown as a small to medium sized tree with an upright to rounded habit or as a dense impenetrable thorny hedge. The hard strong rot and termite resistant wood was highly prized for fence posts and tool handles and was used by some Native Americans as bow wood and so it earned the name of Bois d'Arc. The Osage Orange is dioecious meaning that the large unusual fruit are produced only on female trees. Our trees are seed grown and so we cannot know whether they are male or female until they mature. The female Osage Orange will often produce a fair crop of seedless fruit even if there are no male trees growing in the near vicinity. Osage Orange is tolerant of drought, extended flooding, moderately tolerant of wind born salts, and is virtually pest and disease free. Extremely adaptable to soil types. Osage Orange can be used in urban settings as well as for soil erosion.