I don't have personal experience with one, but Tulip tree (liriodendron) is supposed to be fast growing.

how about another maple?

some Ash's are prone to disease problems, not sure which ones, so check it out carefully.

Google "emerald ash borer" and do a little reading before you put one in.

Oxydendron is lovely, and, by all means, plant one, but keep in mind that it is quite slow growing and not really an ideal shade tree so you should be looking at other options as well if you have the room.

Liriodendron is a good suggestion. Maybe a red maple (NOT a norway maple or silver maple)? If you don't want acorns, then I can't imagine that you want sweet gum seed pods either, although liquidambar has a pretty speedy growth rate and, I think, makes a nice shade tree. Are you familiar with yellowwood (cladastras lutea) or black gum (nyssa sylvatica)? Both are very nice and, I think, underutilized trees.

I'm not familiar with yellowwood, black gum I know about. Red maple is the one I had that got ripped up by the ice. Don't know liriodendron either. I read about the emeral ash borer, thanks for pointing me to that.

Anything I should know about these. Marymd7, thanks for the google info. I found that the EAB was confirmed about 35 miles from where I live here in Missouri.

like the maple seed onslaught is any better than the acorn onslaught..

or the dead tulips that will fall out of the trees ...

you really ought to think out your bias over oaks.. IMHO ...

at 35 miles.. dont waste your money on a tree.. ash.. that CLAIMS to be resistant ...

and research gum balls on gum trees ...

ken

Birch trees don't provide a lot of shade, but they are fast growing. Many birch have problems and are short-lived, but the river birch is not one of them. It would prefer moist soil.

'October Glory' is a beautiful red maple.

Is there such a thing as a sterile maple or oak? One would think with all the hybridization going on for the "perfect" plant, that they could clean up these messy trees.

I second the tupelo amd Cladastris kentuckea (lutea). Being an urban forester, I can't recommend sweet gum if you don't want acorns or breaking branches, as these are the bane of those of us wanting decent street trees. Liriodendron is a nice tree, altho there is another forum recently going with a discussion about its fall color (or lack thereof). You may want to think about a lime (Linden spp.) as well.

Dan

Ive got two river birch trees. I like them but looking for more shade and something different. As for my bias against oaks..When I was a kid my parents had several, along with pecan trees, that were close enough to the pool to drive me crazy, since I was the oldest and most responsible for cleaning that pool. Ever step on an acorn in your bare feet? LOL Not to mention mowing the yard and worrying about slinging one through a window.

Ever step on an acorn in your bare feet?

Brief digression - when I had my house in Sacramento, there was a liquidambar down the street and I'd scoop up all the seed pods and put them in my front beds to keep the cats out.

Dan

"and research gum balls on gum trees ... "

Hey ken. Black gums don't have gumballs...they have little blue drupes (berries). Sweet Gums have the pricky gumballs.

smauk43,
I got the same ice storm you got. Those types of ice storms are extremely rare, and in those types of ice storms, it doesn't matter the tree. EVERYTHING took major damage. Pick your oak, it went down. Pick your maple, it went down. Pick anything you like, if it grows here, it went down in very large numbers. While some species were absolutely destroyed (birches and willows), I know many many "resistant to ice storms" tree reduced to trunks or worse, and almost all took some amount of significant to major damage. While others that some people on here swear as basically waiting to fall over, like Autumn Blaze, suffered relatively little damage. I see it with my own eyes, and yes I'm sure that is exactly what they are. Point being, is not to let this ice storm make you believe that every ice storm will be that way. So if you like something that normally survives just fine, but did not in that storm, don't let it stop you. Odds are you are not going to get the same thing for some time.

Still you need something that will grow vigorously. The tulip tree is a good start. But allot depends on how big a tree you want, and any other characteristic.

Larger Size Trees:
Sycamore
Tulip Tree
Plane Tree
Seedless Honey Locust maybe (not sure of the growth rate)
Red Maple cultivars
Catalpa
Purple Robie Locust (spelling?)
Bald Cypress
Dawn's Redwood
Various other conifers
Various elms
Zelkova's

Med Size Trees:
Shantung Maple (very tough tree, fast growing, and hard wood)
Chinese Pistache
Norwegian Sunset Maple
Pacific Sunset Maple
Oklahoma Redbud
Smoke Tree
Crepe Myrtle (Tree Form)
Amur Maple
Trident Maple (not sure of growth rate)
Many other medium size rarer maples

These are a few that comes to mind.

Also if I recall correctly, Yellowwood tends to have brittle wood, and prone to breakage. Also if I remember correctly, is not fast growing, or so thats literature says.

Hope something here helps.

Arktrees

Yes that storm was probably once in a lifetime, at least I hope. There is STILL a crew here from Florida cleaning up the parks and a few more residential areas. They just finished up my maple tree today. I may just go back with the Red Maple as it was a beautiful tree. I'll check out the Shantung also. Thanks everyone for all the info.

On the Shantung Maple be aware there is a cultivar named "Fire Dragon" that we have that gave us great glossy lipstick red color last fall. The downside it there is basically one supply at this point (though Greenleaf has supposedly just picked it up), that being Metro Maples in Ft. Worth (lots of Shantung maple info there), but he will ship smaller trees in winter. We LOVE ours.

Also Norwegian Sunset Maple, and Pacific Sunset Maple are Shantung hybrids with good color. The local botanical garden has about 4" caliper Pacific Sunset Maples in landscape island in the parking lot. NO storm damage, and here's the best part. They were planted and sat the first summer. The second summer half of them grew literally 5-6 FEET in multiple long leaders, that are now branching out the sides. Those long leaders are very impressive, and were not damaged by the ice storm. And half the trees apparently returned to normal growth after just one year even being about 4" in caliper at planting.

Whatever you do, let us know.
Arktrees

I really like Shantung maple, but it should not be considered an overstory tree. It won't replace one of those, which is what you want to keep the house cool, raise your property value, etc. Certainly underplant it on the sunny side of the replacement for the maple.

Dan

Most trees in the white oak group are extremely resistant to ice damage, in my experience.

As I said above, in this type ice storm, pick your Oak it DID NOT MATTER. They went down just like all the rest.