OK, so I'm looking for a tree to plant in the yard. I had a Red Maple get hit by lightening two springs ago. The following spring, we cut the dry and dead fork. The other side has not leafed out, and the other two trees that are the same age and similar in size have started showing small leaf buds & opening them a bit. I knew it was dying, we've already cut half the fork. The remaining fork lost it's leaves nearly a month before the other two trees.
Things about the area
1. I'm in the NC mountains, rarely see extended temps below 0F, but it does happen occasionally. Lots of frost though, it's not uncommon for blooms on flowering & fruit trees to be killed. So, cold hardy & frost hardy & snow hardy.
2. Looking for fast growing & shade providing, as this shaded one end of the house where my bedroom is.
3. The area in the yard where it will be planted is near the septic and a small pond. There is a bit more water available here than the rest of the yard.
4. We've had two years in a row that were considered "100-year-drought" years based on rainfall. Pond & septic help minimize this through.
Other notes: Maples are easy to find and grow here, all the local nurseries have Silver Maples and Red Maples in stock. Might be looking for something a bit less common though. I did notice a couple places had a type of Birch. Redbuds are common too, but might not get large enough to shade well.
Any input on tree types to consider is appreciated. I can do the research and figure out if they'll do well locally, I just need some ideas on different things available.
JM
I have personally planted most of what you listed:
- red maple in front yard - nice color, but isn't growing as fast I would like, might be tree or site.
- clump birch in front yard - very nice tree, growing fast, only average for solid shade since they are kind of sparse on leaves - it is kind of like a semi shade. Also kind of messy with a lot of shedding of small twigs and little leaves. They like wet areas.
- red bud on side yard - nice color and form, but yes, smallish and slower growing, not much shade.
- purple ash in back yard - very nice and fast growing with good shade, but I am afraid for its future as well as many other ash trees in the Midwest due to bugs & disease.
This is really a personal decision - I would just go to a good nursery, and get their opinion on some options, and then choose from there.
(My wife is a licensed landscape architect BTW)
mitt
we do prefer it if you call us Ents...
Quote from: KnightofNi on March 24, 2009, 02:01:18 PM
we do prefer it if you call us Ents...
[laugh] That's what I was thinking of when I saw the thread title.
Just take something regular and make it...odd.
Know how if you have a maple tree seed fall and it grows wayyyy up to get light (say, through a bush), and you end up with the narrowest of stalks that's about three feet long?
You need two of those. Transplant them to the desired place, and wrap them around each other, so you end up with a giant intertwined tree as it grows, enchanted forest style.
Quote from: MrIncredible on March 24, 2009, 05:51:31 PM
Just take something regular and make it...odd.
Know how if you have a maple tree seed fall and it grows wayyyy up to get light (say, through a bush), and you end up with the narrowest of stalks that's about three feet long?
You need two of those. Transplant them to the desired place, and wrap them around each other, so you end up with a giant intertwined tree as it grows, enchanted forest style.
my dad spliced a branch from a red maple onto a silver maple, it looked kinda cool, and is still alive 20+ years later. you could do many branches and have a big red and silver maple. unless it just dies. [laugh]
Not to Thread Jack ;D But anyone ever try to grow a Yuzu Tree?
A Japanese chef gave me a Yuzu and I germinated the seed and its finally growing. At this point I am just giving it sun and water.
I generally kill everything so I am not sure if there is anything special I need to do from here on out other than talk to it every once in a while and sing it Lullabies ;D
Quote from: ROBsS4R on March 24, 2009, 07:50:36 PM
Not to Thread Jack ;D But anyone ever try to grow a Yuzu Tree?
A Japanese chef gave me a Yuzu and I germinated the seed and its finally growing. At this point I am just giving it sun and water.
I generally kill everything so I am not sure if there is anything special I need to do from here on out other than talk to it every once in a while and sing it Lullabies ;D
They love sushi.
Bury some in the pot with it.
I'd plant some species of Oak.
They may not grow fast , but most like the White Oak do get large. I would get a 10-15 ft. one to plant. They are fairly drought hardy and the cold is no problem.
Also Red Oak, or Pin Oak
You'll have happy Squirrels at some point.
Tulip Poplars grow fast and large and they handle cold temps ok. I'm not sure about drought. Dolph :)
Quote from: MrIncredible on March 24, 2009, 08:02:54 PM
They love sushi.
Bury some in the pot with it.
No, no, it needs sake. [evil]
And for the OP, your local nursery would have the best recommendations.
Not a very pretty tree, but fast growing and hardy, wrongly called a Sycamore in NY:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_plane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_plane)
bamboo, it will make shade and you can't kill it
not sure how close the tree is to your house, but beware of acorns, seed balls - they thump against the side of the house when the wind is blowing.
We have sycamores, but they're messy so they're planted farther away from the house. (bark like the london plane)
Lots of great trees, but if the nursery doesn't carry them, no use falling in love with them. +1 on the nursery recommendation.
Thanks folks! I was looking around, but there's a serious lack of good nurseries in the area. I'm stuck with Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Food Lion as options for buying trees. There is one really small nursery, but it only has shurbs and flowers. I was most likely going to have to do my own looking & go to Lowe's since they have a year warranty. It's close enough to that the Maples keep my busy cleaning the gutters. I was thinking since it was near the septic & pond a Birch would be a good option. I'll probably go with either that or a Maple. Thanks for all the input!
JM
Quote from: the_Journeyman on March 25, 2009, 05:21:20 AM
Thanks folks! I was looking around, but there's a serious lack of good nurseries in the area. I'm stuck with Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Food Lion as options for buying trees. There is one really small nursery, but it only has shurbs and flowers. I was most likely going to have to do my own looking & go to Lowe's since they have a year warranty. It's close enough to that the Maples keep my busy cleaning the gutters. I was thinking since it was near the septic & pond a Birch would be a good option. I'll probably go with either that or a Maple. Thanks for all the input!
JM
That sucks. The pa & ma nursery's around here sell 'locally raised' tress, so even though you pay a little more, the warranty isn't needed because the survival rate is so much better than a big box store. Lowes might be selling trees that came from 1000 miles away.
Just out of curiosity, call a commercial landscaping company and ask them where they buy trees. They may use an out of town nursery. I highly doubt they would buy the spindly trees Lowes or Home Depot sells.
mitt
Having ran a nursery for a large landscaping company, I have to say my favorite tree, and one well suited for where you want to plant it is Betula Nigra or River Birch if you will. They look great, grow reasonably fast, are pretty resistant to most diseases and pest insects, and make a GREAT place to take a nap under late one a summer day (used to take my lunch under a stand of them we had at the shop everyday when the weather allowed).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_birch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_birch)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Betula_nigra.jpg)
Thanks ZL! I *think* that's the type my local Wal-Mart has. I was thinking it looked nice ~
JM
Only advice would be to keep the lower branches trimmed until it gets to about 10-15 feet tall. Once that's done, they canopy out nicely.
Worst case scenario, if you can't find a good clump locally, I can hit up the company I used to work for ($38 for a 6-8 foot 3 tree clump) and figure out a way to ship it to you...
Surely I can find some locally, as I have seen a few of them in recent landscaping jobs. Thanks!
JM
Quote from: Mother on March 25, 2009, 12:02:11 AM
bamboo, it will make shade and you can't kill it
Not being able to kill it is not always a good thing. I'd recommend against planting bamboo unless you use a container.
Quote from: somegirl on March 25, 2009, 10:13:50 AM
Not being able to kill it is not always a good thing. I'd recommend against planting bamboo unless you use a container.
This is why you got me a garage, isn't it?
Quote from: somegirl on March 25, 2009, 10:13:50 AM
Not being able to kill it is not always a good thing. I'd recommend against planting bamboo unless you use a container.
I looked into bamboo, and like some varieties. I had some creative ways in mind to control the spread. I was looking at making a barrier to extend about 24" into to soil. Anything outside of the barrier gets mowed. A clump of bamboo in the middle of of the yard would look odd IMO. I was going to use it as an edging ~
JM
I live at 5800 ft in the Nevada high desert and here are some of the trees that I've planted that have done well here. My reasoning is that if they do well here, they should do pretty well just about anywhere.
Silver Poplar. Fast growing and I like the look of the green/grey leaves. Problem with fast growing trees is that they are more susceptible to wind splitting since they are not strong. But so far no problems with the poplars. Poplars are invasive, we had an older clay pipe from the house to the septic and had to replace it with ABS to keep the roots out. We have a locust that split and I repaired it with some all-thread, fender washers and nuts.
Kentucky Coffee Tree. These are very interesting fast growing trees that I planted from seeds I got from a friend in Kentucky. They are probably available from internet mail order nurseries. That's where I get most of my trees. Getting advice from a nursery on what kind of tree to get is OK as long as you get more than one opinion. Some of the nurseries have their own agenda on selling trees. I don't know if it's true or not but there is a theory that a tree planted when fairly small will adapt faster and catch up and pass an older tree planted at the same time.
All kinds of Oaks. Nice trees. Hard to classify many trees as fast or slow growing since growth speed seems to be more of a function of soil.
Catalpa. Big shady leaves.
Nut trees. I have Northern Pecans, hickories, walnuts and butternuts. Also a few American Chestnuts - there is no chestnut blight in NV. The nut trees are a long term investment since they take quite awhile to bear and aren't as attractive as say oaks. Also no red fall color, they turn yellow.
Cherries. These were the first trees I planted and the full sized standard trees (as opposed to dwarf varieties) grow fast and are nice shade trees. Pretty blossoms and great fruit. My thoughts on trees are that if I'm going to plant them I might as well plant something that grows fruit or nuts.
Birch. It might be a local problem but here unless they have a lot of water they're susceptible to borer attack. But fast growing nice trees.
I'm probably not a lot of help picking a tree since I more or less like all of them.
sometimes those trees just get stunned, maybe thats the case how long has it been since you had to cut the fork?
Just plant some kudzu near the old tree. Within a year or two it will overgrow it and hold it up. Then it will cover your whole yard and it is really thick so shade will be ample. You can't kill it the stuff could withstand a nuclear holocaust.
Quote from: tcspeedfreak on March 28, 2009, 06:40:31 PM
sometimes those trees just get stunned, maybe thats the case how long has it been since you had to cut the fork?
Two years ago, it's been three springs since. There's no leaves starting to bud out, and both the others are showing leaf buds. it's gotten worse every year since removing the struck & dead fork.
JM
yup then shes terminal time for a bonfire, id go for a white oak myself