My best variegated trees are Silver King Sweetgum, Zelkova Serrata Goshiki. If you want something fast and Showy Look for a Gold Rush Dawn redwood. It is very fast growing and bright yellow. It would stand out great against a wooded area.

For summer interest condition a summer blooming tree like Sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum. And it has great fall color too.

"condition" was supposed to be "consider"

Back to the kitchen for more coffee!

The Silver King sweetgum is on the list. I would like to keep it native so that takes the zelkova off. We have a lot of sweetgum around here so that should do fine.

Esh I would be happy to try sourwood again. I need a good source that will sell one with a good root system included. I killed 4 last year that all came from Arbor Day and had next to nothing for a root system. Only 2 of the 4 leafed out and 1 hung on till June then croaked.

I feel I should add here that I will in all likelihood have to add more than 1 to feed this darn addiction! One other thing going in my favor for this is there are a TON of smallish cedar trees in the background that will highlight any flowers or variegation in the new trees.

Near the woodland edge, I lost 1 30-40' post oak for whatever reason and 1 same size southern red oak from a lightening strike at the wood edge out back.

===>>> most likely due to that pink suit and your morning dance ...

ken

No way Ken! That dance is visual fertilizer to all woody plants who bear witness hahaha

If conditioning (oops - considering!) a Sourwood, I'd make sure it was container grown (rootmaker style preferably) so that you ensure that you have ALL the roots and plenty of them. There are a number of nurseries growing Oxydendrum this way.

Additionally, if you like that tree anyway - and it seems you do - cast about seeds and enlarge your holdings in that manner as well (albeit more slowly). Given all your free time (!) you could attempt growing out seed under more controlled circumstances, too.

Sourwood is a great tree for longer season interest than just summer, with the persistent floral structure holding the seeds on into the full fall color period - nice contrast of creamy white against the fluorescent reds/oranges.

Your description of the site (south-facing, full sun, no water) sounds like the antithesis of where Liquidambar wants to be. Not to rag on picea's choice, but 'Silver King' has its day in the sun in spring leaf out. It is generally a dog in many landscapes for the summer/fall period, and that is likely to be amplified in the conditions you describe. Not what you'd probably aim for in your center line vista.

Sorry about the loss of the Post Oak; that's a great underappreciated tree for those that aren't familiar with it, and likely an overlooked species for those who have it in the mix of their native plant communities.

Look into Sherri's Cloud Blackgum. A variegated Blackgum that I'm pretty sure it can take full sun. Fantastic story behind it as well. Parent tree was discovered by a Park Ranger on Magazine Mountain. Yes that Magazine Mountain that is almost in your back yard. As the discoverer, he got to name the selection. He named it after his wife. Google it up, it's a worth while read.

John, just consider this payback for that Showtime Crabapple you got my S.O. hooked on. She LOVES it. Looks like that one is going to be costly. :-P

Arktrees

As you mentioned, they are taken for granted for the most part despite being among the two most hardy oaks in this area along with q. falcata.

Germinating collected seed sounds like fun. I already have a couple of seedbeds with some locally collected stuff along with some seed from Arktrees.

Below are pics of how nice q. stellata can look in fall. And the last one is a pic of the largest one on my property (stealing Ken's shovel idea). Unfortunately, when the septic lines from my house were installed, they were run about 15' from the base of the tree and most of the top half is already dead...

Edit: Sorry the last pic is so big...

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By jp_42_82 at 2011-11-13

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By jp_42_82 at 2011-11-13

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By jp_42_82 at 2011-11-13

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By jp_42_82 at 2012-01-28

I think whaas has that one... well I know someone on here does... maybe it wasn't him. Anyways, I'll look it up

Good luck with the crabapple search! Payback for the 6, no 7, ... heck I can't remember how many trees you MADE me buy now lol

Had to delete that one pic, it was just too big. Here is a smaller one

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By jp_42_82 at 2012-01-28

did you forget how to edit pix size???

i am surprised imageshack wont do it automatically on upload???

are those poison ivy vines???

for the kids sake.. if so .. i cut them at ground level.. apply generic roundup .. and then cut them at about 6 feet ... so that there was nothing left for the kids to play with ... and then reapplied the round up two or three times per year [or every time i saw that it regenerated green tissue] .. until it finally died ...

and dont burn the waste.. let me know if i need explain

ken

When uploading to imageshack from a hard drive you can resize the pics but that is not possible when the image is uploaded directly from my phone. Once uploaded, the only option I find to edit the image is "rotate" which is disappointing...

I don't know if they are poison ivy or not but I already severed them with the loppers a couple of years ago and they didn't resprout. This tree is about a football field away from the house and the kid(s) are not allowed to play over there.

This one was shaded from the south but got west sun. Nice variegation all season. Turned a pinkish red in fall.

Its still quite young.

How does Cornus kousa do by you? 'Samzam' is by far the best variegated cultivar.

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Sorry missed the dogwood pic. There are few trees that can compete with this one for multi-season interest (maybe viburnum).

Large white blooms - check!
Season song foilage interest - check!
Vibrant pinkish red fall color - check!
Winter branching siloutte - check!

I like it so much I have two!

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I think I'd be collecting all the acorns I could from that reddish one shown above, and evaluating selections from the future generations.

That's Quercus stellata John's Jackpot⢠- or at least a Scarlet Sensationâ¢.

Hmmm...looks like trademark symbol gets lost in translation.

So whaas that last one is the samzam? It is indeed southern exposure but if I tuck in in a little into the forest it will get plenty of shade.

VV while not as brilliant as this year, it was a very deep attractive red last year as well. It is around 50' tall and is a little more than 50' in spread. It has the most attractive form of any tree on our property IMO

How about Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn'? Very long flowering season spring to fall. Any downsides to this one?

For the record, I am going to put a sourwood in the focal point I mentioned earlier but I am going to put more than one tree back there (obviously). Right now the woodline is just oaks with foliage up high and ERC about 12' in a solid line in the understory. They will be removed eventually.

I am still looking into the Samzam in a place that gets more shade back there.