HELP!!! Picking a tree for a front yard parking stip!!!!

13 years ago

We recently removed a large liquid amber from the park strip in front of our house, its roots began to lift up the sidewalk and even punctured our sewer line TWICE!!!! The city agreed to let us remove it and provided us with the following list but I have no idea how to choose!!! We are looking for a medium sized tree to eventually provide shade, we are hoping to avoid an aggresive root system, we dont want any tree that will drop spikey balls/sticky flowers/etc. We are open to a flowering tree but dont want one that will attract a ton of bees... We live in northen california and the parkstrip gets lots of late afternoon sun... PLEASE HELP!!!!

Aristocrat Pear

Australian Willow

Big Leaf Maple

Black Tupelo

Bradford Pear

Cajeput Tree

California Bay

California Buckeye

California Sycamore

Camphor

Canary Island Pine

Carolina Cherry

Chinese Pistachio

Coast Live Oak

Coast Redwood

Crape Myrtle

Dawn Redwood

European Hackberry

Flaxleaf Paperbark

Flowering Pear

Goldenrain

Holly Oak

Jacaranda

London Plane

Madrone

Maidenhair

Gingko Biloba (male only)

Marina Madrone

Purple Leaf Plum

Red Maple

Sawleaf Zelkova

Southern Magnolia

Valley Oak

Western Redbud

White Alder

White Birch

Featured Answer

lou_spicewood_tx

13 years ago

If you're going with Chinese Pistachio, try and find a male cultivar. A female tree can produce a lot of little berries and can be messy on the street and sidewalk.

Here is a link that might be useful: CHINESE PISTACHE 'KEITH DAVEY'

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Comments (14)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
no pear ...

the sycamore in MI heave sidewalks .. i dont know if they are all alike.. question whether a plane would be much different ...

my birch are very shallow rooted ...

IMHO.. all maple are problematic .... dad has been battling them in his septic lines for decades ...

purple leaf plum has its own black knot disease ...

dawn redwood is not a small tree ... see link

willow is not high on many list of 'quality' trees ...

take any name on your list.. and go to google images.. and plug in the name.. like the link.. and 'see' what might become of the suggested trees ...

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link
haroldandcher17222_yahoo_com
13 years ago
You gotta be kidding me.
There isn't a tree on that list that I'd plant if you're having problems with roots getting into your damaged pipes.

That list has like the worst trees for aggressive roots. Willow, Birch, Pear, maple, magnolia... Oh my goodness. Stay away from those.

My advice would be if you want a tree from that list, get those pipes fixed and make sure they are far enough away from the planting area. Tree roots generally only get into pipes that are already broken.
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I got my trees today, they came in bundles like this: I transferred them to pots, here are all 15 of the trees: They are sitting under another tree, they will get sun from 7 AM until around 11 AM. This is my favorite so far(a Shumard): I plan on letting them acclimate for a week or so before I do anything, next week is supposed to be hot, then it should start cooling off. Most of them had pretty good roots, but the ShuWillow trees were the worst of the bunch. The Chinkapin and Shumard had solid root systems, the ShuWillow looked like they just came from plugs, some had roots that were just an inch deep. Very depressing. I plan on picking a Chinkapin and Shumard/ShuWillow for planting in September, the rest will be grown out in the 1 gallon containers, then transferred to 3 gallon containers while dormant. How long do you think it will take them to fill the 1 gallon containers? Will it take a few weeks or will it be after winter?
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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
OMG!!!!! What a terrible list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No wonder such a panic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nevertheless, what a cr*ppy list. I can't believe that list is so horrible there in N CA (where? who knows?) with all that knowledge around there.

Of course we have no clue where the OP lives, size of the treelawn, watering regime, so the best we can do to match plant to climate is....nothing. So we can only winnow out the cr*ptacular trees and give a list of the remaining few that aren't horrible in a treelawn of at least 6ft width and presumably regular pruning schedule and irrigation present:
Black Tupelo
California Sycamore (maybe)
Camphor
Chinese Pistach[e] (if male)
European Hackberry
Flaxleaf Paperbark (maybe)
Holly Oak
London Plane (maybe)
Maidenhair (ummmm....this is the same as gingko)
Gingko Biloba (male only)
Red Maple
Sawleaf Zelkova

What a horrible set of choices. I bet a landscape architect put that together rather than someone with plant knowledge.

That poor town surely is going to pay for that poor decision somewhere down the line. Don't they have a forestry department?!?

Dan
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
Ah. That looks like it might be Los Gatos. One would think with all that money they'd at least hire a decent consultant to save them from themselves. Sheesh, there are enough good RCAs around there.

Dan
dsieber
13 years ago
Gingko Biloba (male only) Is a great match. Used for street plantings (sometimes male only was not used criteria....phew) Tap roots, fantastic upright shape so you will not have overhanging branches, and fall colour.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
In those parts, the OP needs to know hardly anything will happen with a gingko for several years. It will just sit there. THEN you'll be happy.

I'm still constipated over how cr*ptacular that tree list is. Fer chrissakes, they can hire an RCA to do better for the cost of what the residents spend on lattes in about 44 hours.

Dan
dsieber
13 years ago
Agreed Gingkos are for the patient!!! Heck I went back to my first house after 10 years to see how smart I was in planting my first two gingkos.
dsieber
13 years ago
To see how fantastic they eventually look page down to Biloba 2008's shots in Illinois.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/trees/msg1108393610978.html
philinsydney1
13 years ago
The "Australian willow" might be worth checking out. It's not a willow, but a small weeping tree in the citrus family. It likes dry climates. There's some info here:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/st272
botann
13 years ago
It looks like a list of what not to plant.
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
The "Australian willow" might be worth checking out.

The OP is planting in a treelawn, not a garden area.

And botann has an interesting point: it does look more like a 'no-plant' list!

Dan
Aiden09
Original Author
13 years ago
Thank you so much for the input...after putting in the names of all the tree in the image search I think I have narrowed it down to the Crape Myrtle and the Chinese Pistachio...any thoughts?!?! Does anyone know if the Crape Myrtle flowers attract tons of bees? (I have an allergic son) We plan on living at this house for many years and I'm really hoping to avoid a lifetime of tree frustration!!!! Thank you everyone for taking the time to help!!!
Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
13 years ago
Crape myrtles as a street tree tend to get branch damage on the street side as sweepers, mail trucks, vehicles run into the low branches!!!!!!!!! Since crape myrtles bloom prolifically, and bees are attracted to flowers, you'll have to teach you son how to deal with bees! A good idea in any case!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan

HELP!!! Picking a tree for a front yard parking stip!!!!

lou_spicewood_tx

Comments (14)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

haroldandcher17222_yahoo_com

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