Help me pick new trees

In My Humble Opinion
21

Yeah - take them out before they cause problems. Sheer dumb luck that our one remaining Leyland fell in such a way that it caused zero damage. We had already removed one a couple years ago, in addition to the one that fell during the hurricane - good riddance to the last of them!

We’re in northern VA, and the climate and soil conditions are (IIRC from when I lived in Chapel Hill) reasonably similar to what you have now, so anything that does well here should do well there. Your winters are on average a tad milder but not drastically so, your summers are a bit more humid and longer than here also, but again not drastically so.

22

My MIL has a horrible time with her Bradford pears. They get damage at the slightest storm. I sure like those redbud trees. I’d throw in a couple of those. I want to get one for myself.

23

The Leyland cypress is a truly majestic forest tree - there’s a group of them at the Blackwater Arboretum in the New Forest(UK) that is magnificent - when allowed to grow naturally in the right setting, they’re wonderful. In nearly all other places, and particularly in small to medium sized gardens, they’re bad news.

24

Yep - that’s the problem with the Bradfords. And while I like the redbuds, we already have a lot of them, and they too are understory trees - they don’t like full sun so much, so while they can tolerate it, they don’t grow very well with it.

The one thing I can say in favor of our cypresses is that the birds absolutely love them - they provide great cover. Of course, every time we go outside at night and get near the trees, we scare the crap out of a few birds, but I can see why (for the most part) they feel safe in sleeping in them.

25

If you’re anywhere near NC’s Arboretum, they should be able to give you good advice.

I’m in a similar situation, myself. We had to take down a dying birch in our front yard, plus part of an ironwood, some dying evergreens, and the majority of our ash trees in the back yard, due to the incoming Ash Borer. I’ll be visiting the arboretum here to find suitable replacements.

26

If you are looking for shade tree type trees little leaf lindens (Tilia cordata) might work out for you. They may eventually get over 30’ but are usually fairly slow growing. They normally have a conical, formal shape, especially some of the cultivars that are available. Some lindens have surprisingly fragrant flowers for shade trees (in June around here). They have kind of a winged fruit with a round seed pod attached but they usually don’t present much of a problem.

27

If I might pop in just to suggest that folks use the botanical (Latin) names for their suggestions? For example, the OP mentions a Red Maple (Acer rubrum), but then later corrects to a Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum). They are quite different trees, both in form and in requirements. Around here, folks sometimes refer to a Red Maple because of the red leaves, but it turns out that they really meant a Norway Maple which can be extraordinarily invasive and not at all what they wanted.

I’m in New England, so I’m not sure what will do well where you are. I’ll give it a shot, but you’ll want to make sure that these will do well where you are. And they may get taller in your area than here, so check that as well.

Flowering Dogwoods (Cornus florida) are subject to anthracnose, which is spreading up and down the East coast. Kousa Dogwoods (Cornus kousa) are resistant, and nurseries are having good luck with the Rutgers hybrids, if that tree appeals to you.

May I suggest a Magnolia? I know the ones around this area, and there are a large number of cultivars with varying flower color, size, and flowering period; you should be able to find one that fills your needs.

Redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are quite nice, and the number of cultivars is growing.

Stewartias (Stewartia pseudocamelia or koreana) bloom in the summer (always a nice change of pace) and have interesting bark because of exfoliation. Franklinias (Franklinia alatamaha) are similar, and have an interesting history, but tend to be multistemmed.

Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus) is interesting, but multi-stemmed, so it might not appeal to you.

Yellowwood (Cladrastis lutea) is a nice street tree, but can get a little taller than you requested.

Goldenrain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) has large yellow panicles of flowers.

Parrotia persica is an attractive tree that gets about as wide as it does tall. Nice autumn foliage, and pest resistant.

Any interest in fruit trees (apples, cherries, peaches, plums)? If you like growing your own, that might be something to consider, but they come with their own maintenance regime.

Good luck!

28

We planted one of these last fall, and it was magnificient this spring! Because of the unseasonably warm weather we had in March, I think it bloomed earlier than usual.

Right now it’s about nine feet tall with a trunk about three inches in diameter. Down the street from us there’s one that was planted about thirty years ago. It’s about 30 feet high with a trunk about a foot and a half in diameter.

I have found that this time of year is not idea for planting threes or shrubs. As the weather warms, the put more of their energy into developing leaves than they do creating roots. Mid-September seems to be be the best time for planting, in my expeience. YMMV.

29

Plynck, thanks for the suggestions. I’ll take a look at the ones I’ve not heard of.

I’ve already mentioned that redbuds and dogwoods are out. We’ve got too many of them already, and as understory trees they really don’t do well in full sun. I’ve also mentioned the possibility of cherry trees, but they are also rather common here. I already have a crabapple tree in the back yard and while it is pretty while it flowers, it does so for exactly one week and then all the flowers fall off, after which it’s not really a very attractive tree. And it gets infested with some sort of nasty caterpillar that spins great big webs in the branches. They’re gross.

I looked at MN_Maenad’s link to the arboretum, and they mention a certain type of ornamental peach tree. That might be a possibility, though I don’t know anything about them, really.

Magnolias suck. The leaves are a giant pain in the arse.

Montgomery Burns thanks for the linden suggestion. Those look like tough trees, which is great! I’m not sure I’ve seen any around here, which means they might be hard to come by, but I can ask at the nursery about them.

30

Very pretty! And yes, we won’t be planting for awhile. First of all, the pear trees need to be taken out, which won’t happen until this summer, and then the stumps need to be ground out. So we probably won’t actually plant until fall, but I’m trying to do my research now, since I’ll be going out to the nursery for some other things soon and I’ll have time to look around and see what’s available. I think this is going to take quite awhile for me to figure out. I want something that I’ll be happy with long term.

31

I don’t have a good one to suggest but am popping in to warn against silver maples. They’re fast growers and give a lot of shade in the summer, but they’re messy as hell in spring and fall, dropping twigs by the hundreds.

32

BTDT at our old house - we had 4 of them. They suck too, in all kinds of ways.

33

I stumbled across this site today: http://www.mobot.org/gardeninghelp/plantfinder/

There’s a search function where you can specify things like height, usage, colorful foliage, other attributes to help find plants, trees and shrubs. I’ve used it to look up some interesting-looking shrubs, ones that I’d never heard of, but that may eventually wind up in my back garden :slight_smile:

We’ve narrowed our tree choice down to:
Eastern Redbud
Forest Pansy Redbud (has purplish leaves)
Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry
Allegheny Serviceberry

It may come down to flipping a coin and choosing one (also, I listed them in increasing order of price… I have expensive tastes!).

34

Cool! Thanks.

35

Romansperson, another tree I love that grows well here in NC is Chamaecyparis, Japanese Cypress (the height is listed as taller than you specified, but there are smaller cultivars available) You can see a lot of great trees locally at the Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. Raulston’s mission was to test alternative landscape plants, and the arboretum is a great proving ground. Also, the Coker Arboretum and NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill are good places to scope out what will grow well here.

Duke Gardens is having their plant sale on Saturday, April 28th. There will be a lot of vendors there, and would be a good place to pick up some harder to find native trees. In addition to the commercial vendors, the Duke curator of the native plant garden usually puts together a nice selection of decent sized trees, at great prices. He’s a wealth of knowledge about best conditions for growing them, too. Check it out, but get there early to get the best selection.

36

Thanks, ellele! I do plan to wander down to Coker pretty soon, now that the weather is nicer; I work near there and can take my lunch with me. I appreciate the heads up on the plant sale too - not quite ready to buy, but it will help me figure out who has what.

37

I had the city’s Urban Forester come out the other day to check my big ash tree for Emerald Ash Borers (No EABs yet.) After the ash diagnosis, we talked about trees in general.

She said there are new varieties of decorative pear trees. They’re derived from the Bradford, which turned out to be so fragile due to its mostly vertical limbs and narrow crotches. The new ones have a more horizontal habit and thicker branches.

The Crimson King maple I mentioned before doesn’t get very tall, and it has purply-red leaves from spring to fall, never going green.

She talked about the importance of allowing for the full-grown size of the young tree. If it will be thirty feet wide, for example, don’t plant it 8 feet from the house or driveway. In this part of town, there’s a surprising number of blue spruces planted too close to driveways. Some have a big chunk cut out of the tree, some have all the branches up to 10 feet cut off, and some, like mine, were simply cut down.