Need help with medium sized shade tree for patio

13 years ago

I live in zone 8 and need a 30 foot shade tree for my small back yard and patio. I have thought of a few, but not sure of them:

Flowering cherry (Okame)- seem high maintanance and probably not dense enough for shade. But they are pretty!

Bradford pear- I read all over the internet that they are guaranteed to break, yet I can't find a damaged one any where around charlotte (and we have thousands). What's up with that? Good patio shade or not?

Muskogee Crape Myrtle- will it get tall enough? Will it leave a mess on the patio?

quaking aspen- I heard they grow fast as a weed, and propogate like them too. Good choice, or forget about it? Or will they even grow in zone 8 clay?

I want something that wont be a monster, like an oak, or Maple, but will grow quick and to about 30 feet. Any help would be great.

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Comments (2)

haroldandcher17222_yahoo_com
13 years ago
Were you looking for a minimum height of 30'?
Flowering cherries usually don't get that tall. And they do best in a more moderate climate. They tend to be virtually leafless towards the end of the growing seasons in places with hot summers,

As for the bradford pears, most often when they break, they aactually split down the middle so if you're looking for some broken ones, they usually get carted away after they "self destruct". There are other reasons why they are undesirable however.

Crepe myrtles are usually a large shrub or small tree depending on the cultivar and there are many of them.Not a good choice if you want a 30' shade tree.

Quaking aspen won't grow there. They don't like the heat.

Unfortunately you're asking for a rapidly growing medium sized tree and that's something that we have a real shortage of. I think that you'd be quite happy with an October Glory red maple or maybe even a Lacebark elm cultivar. Those are both very adaptable and usually readily available in NC.
Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
13 years ago
Bradford flowers smell funny to some. I find one by itself to be little problem if I am walking by but make me sit by one on a non-windy day and I notice. You have to be able to do better.

The maples previously mentioned are acceptable. Even phenomenal in fall.

Crape myrtles...interesting. In my climate they are bushes. I am jealous of your ability to grow them as trees. I suspect they require some regular pruning if you are looking for a typical tree canopy.

You know, maples come in all shapes and sizes. Even the largest Japanese Maples are probably on the small size for what you want. The paperbark varieties though if they grow where you are...
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as i'm thinking about your question I'm imagining the space, and realizing that 3' x 8' is about the size of a sofa.I'm thinking you need bold visuals- rather than small fussy foliage-to play off the all-green back wall and to be seen across a distance from the walkway. I am thinking a small variegated weigela, which blooms a long time,along with a small deep purple presence- a patch of purple perilla or a mini dk. ppl.weigela or your ppl.heuchera idea.A 3-season patch of Yellow (that would also play nicely w/ the rozanne) could be provided by carex Bowles Golden or Hakonechloa or golden Tradescantia____ which would provide you some spiky form in the midst of mounded shapes.Also helpful for shape and color and height variety- would be the tall yellow flower spires of kirengeshoma and the ppl. foliage w/ white floral spires of cimicifiga black negligee. you might like 1 or 2 peonies next to your iris. best, mindy
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If you've gotten the idea that there are numerous choices, you got the right idea. If you haven't gotten that idea yet, we can bend your monitor for a long while yet. The first things that come to my mind: Apples aren't as disease prone as you might think in the drier summer climes of the upper midwest, and newer apple varieties don't get released unless they have a remarkable degree of resistance. There is a little bit of sliding scale here, but us it as a rule of thumb. If disease resistance is truly a matter of concern, I hesitate to recommend pears (due to fireblight), but they are otherwise free of the foliar problems that bother Malus, but the sweetmeat of the woods is a fall treat not to be missed. I have heard that Parker and Flemish Beauty (my personal fav) are the same thing, but would request confirmation. If redbud really is of interest, do not buy single stem redbud in the Twin Cities, regardless of the strain. Odds are you are going to have a clump sooner rather anyway. And look for the NDSU release, the only Cercis canadensis that survives on the plains of Absaraka (a little NW of Fargo). And finally, when you've made a choice, run with it. Options exist. Many options exist. Establish your criteria, made your decision, and enjoy.
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I think the link below will help answer your question! It gives some good distance ideas for trees, and suggests some trees I think could work for your zone. Here is a link that might be useful: Trees for septic fields
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5x7 seems awfully small. The roots of anything you plant will quickly fill that area and begin to grow into the surrounding soil, under the paving. We have a Trident maple in our yard, planted as a tiny seedling about thirteen years ago. It was selected from a collection of volunteers from a gorgeous mother tree and we hoped that the gene pool was a strong one. We crossed our fingers for a great natural infrastructure or beautiful fall color.....we got both. The seedling was about two feet tall when I transplanted it into a bark based potting medium to grow for a year before planting it in our side yard. It was about three feet tall when planted in the ground. It's now approx. 30 feet tall by 25 feet wide, with a diameter of 14 inches. (I asked my husband to go out and look.) We plant directly into hard, red Alabama clay soil with no irrigation under two to three inch layer of mixed wood mulch that we increase the radius of every year as the tree shades out more of the lawn. It does get watered during periods of serious drought, maybe a handful of times a year, at most. I live in Northern Alabama (6b-7a), with coldish winters and I consider this a pretty sunny part of the country.....certainly not gloomy. There are no visible surface roots and no driveway buckling. I asked my husband about the mature Tridents where he works and he said that there are no pesky surface roots. He's the Director of Horticulture and Landscaping at a local university in our city, so notices those kinds of things. However, all bets are off regarding behavior of any kind considering that very small planting site.
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Need help with medium sized shade tree for patio

Comments (2)

haroldandcher17222_yahoo_com

Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis

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