The three most common pines in central Georgia are Long Leaf (yellow pine or hill pine), slash pine (the mose common) and loblolly or black pine.
It has the shortest of needles and lots of limbs with small burrs that are hard to pull off tree. Around here the professional growers normally grow long leaf for the straw, but plant loblollies in lower land where gathering straw is not an option.
I burn my woods off every spring and there was a loblolly that had a lot of needles & burrs in it. It caught on fire and was a giant torch. It died and we cut it down.
When I was a kid certain places would buy pine burrs (cones) and it was easy money. Most only bought slash as the loblolly was too hard to remove from tree.

Here is a link that will explain better.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loblolly_Pine

Shot

Loblolly pines (Pinus taeda) are probably the most common trees in the Atlanta area and the entire Southern Piedmont. That's where the yellow pollen comes from in spring. If your lot is wooded, you probably have some already. They are classic pioneer plants, and an abandoned lot or farm will have little loblollies within a few years (along with gums and tulip trees). Hard to find in nurseries - not glamorous enough - but easy, fast growing nice trees for groves in sun.

They are the fastest growing of the native pines and are often used for privacy screens.
Grows best in acidic (pH 6.0 or less), moisture retentive soils.
Has a short taproot and very shallow feeder roots, that extend well beyond the canopy.

You can order seedlings from the GA Forestry Commission (minimum quantity = 50). Very reasonably priced.
Check with your local County Agent for advice on type that is best for your location (probably Piedmont3) and see if you are able to pick them up at their office.

Here is a link that might be useful: GA Trees - Seedlings

shot, if by burs you mean cones, it is the Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) that has smaller cones that persist for several years on the tree. In fact, the only Pinus virginiana cones I find on the ground are the ones on fallen branches (still attached). Compared to loblolly, the needles are quite short (about half the length) - even shorter than the so called "shortleaf pine", Pinus echinata.

I love long leaf pine - enjoyed seeing them on the side of the road in South Carolina this past week. The young ones shoot up like rockets!

But back to loblolly, they are good short term or filler trees. I plant them thickly and then edit out the extras in the years ahead. Unlike hardwoods, they are easy to remove - just cut them down, they never sprout back.

Thanks. I no longer have a wooded lot, and from what I understand, in my area there are not a lot of loblollies. I am looking to wood (or partially wood) the lot and provide some evergreen living space for wildlife (and diversity of plant material).
50 pine trees would be 49 too many for me Esh, I can probably get a loblolly from someone elses yard. I just don't know how to tell the difference when they are babies. However, a friend of might might be able to (and dig up a few in her clients yards).

I just wanted to make sure they could be a city tree.

I have found loblollies impossible to transplant. I don't think I have ever had one live - I tried to transplant some of the babies in my yard.

You can identify them by examining the needles and the bundle arrangement of the needles:

Loblollies have needles that are 6-9 inches long, in bundles of 3 (occasionally 2).

Virginia pines have needles that are 1.5 to 3 inches long, in bundles of 2.

You will not find any seedling long leaf pines around here so I won't bother describing those.

ESH, thanks for the info. We have one of those short leafs in the corner of a field that my wife get the burrs (excuse me, cones) for Christmas decor.

Around here we call cones - burrs. I could hear the huffaa if one of my friends heard me calling pine burrs, cones.... remember we are in the country.

Hope you enjoyed your trip to S.C. My oldest step-daugher spent the same weekend there.

Glad you're back.

Shot

ESH, thank you for thinking of me when you saw a corn field/patch. :) Gives me a warm feeling. Sorry your trip was a bust with the ignition going out and the traffic jam. Seems a trip to Atlanta area always require waiting.

Glad to hear that you got a good rain while you were gone. Every cloud has a silver lining.... I am hoping for some more soon as I feel sorry for my wife mowing the yard with the dust flying, but that is her call...

Had to run a turkey out of the pea patch then the dogs took over and it took to flight. Deer getting so bold they are coming up before dark.

On the subject of pines, we need to eat pines because more farmers are setting their fields out in pines (long leaf, select slash and loblolly. They have really improved the slash. Most around here buy their seedling in 1000 count budles. When I started out in wood working I would use the oak stips used to keep the seedlings stablized. Made a couple of chairs from them. My first is on the front porch and the second is in my friends great room and I don't think money could buy it. I know I made two knives before retirement and gave him one. He keeps it in a display case along with his collection of arrow heads. Makes me feel good.

Shot

Here is a picture of my Atlanta CPA from last year. She is the one that went to Myrtle Beach. Now if I could just get her married off.... youngest daughter (step) is due to get married in August in our back yard. She lives near Nashville, but insists on having the wedding here so I can sit at the back door and watch.

Shot

I moved into new constrution 9 years ago. The yard was stripped of all vegetation and only some brush was left. Some loblollies has started to sprout up on the steep hill on the side of our yard. There was also a wooded section in our neighbors yard. When we had our yard landscaped, we wanted the hill to go 'native' and blend in with the wooded area. The landscaper planted both loblolly and Virginia pines. The LL do grow fast and will put down pine straw after a few years. You will not be able to collect it and use it elsewhere, but it will cover under the trees.

esh we have had limited success in transplanting the seedlings. I think if you do it early enough you can do it. But if you have a bunch of them, you really don't need to since they do produce a lot of seedlings. Mostly I have to take out seedlings that I don't want in that spot. The LL have done a great job screening out my neighbors yard and provinding both shade and support for the hill (it was eroding). They do probably need to be staked while young and we almost lost some of them in the December ice storm a few years ago. They became weighed down by the ice and a few were actually pulled from the ground and were laying down. They were too small at the time to break.

GG, I don't think one LL will be a good idea. THey do sway a lot in windy weather and unless you have a lot of other lls or hardwoods, it may come down in a storm. And whatever you do, don't plant it too close to your house. Every time we have a storm I see one that has come down on someones house. They get huge and we have lots of birds and squirrels nests in the (including a hawks nest this year) but they are best for wooded areas, not yards. I would go with a virginia pine, they are much prettier (look more like a Christmas tree). You can tell the LL as seedlings because their needles are long and look 'frizzy' if you know what I mean.

Buford, there's some good information. Thanks so much!

I was given some loblolly pines (left overs from someone who bought them from the forestry dept? anyway, I really wanted to plant them around the backend of my property, but never got around to it, meanwhile I potted these little guys up into large containers to keep them alive and they have grown at least a foot in there, and now I'm afraid they may have even grown together...any suggestions? I also dont want them to completely shade my raised bed garden area, will they do this or would i need a whole bunch of them close together to create a lot of shade?

GGG, if you dont get any locally, let me know you can have some of mine :) I live near Macon

How many acres of land would it take to plant 30,000 pine seedlings?