I have a volunteer sweetgum I haven't yet culled, but if it again fails to provide decent fall color, it's getting yanked out. It's about 2" caliper now, about 12' tall, and in its fifth season of growth. Until now I never got more than a chartreuse color around Thanksgiving w/some red tints on a few upper leaves.

However, this year it's got a nice red patina developing on its outer leaves...we'll see what happens.

In my area weedy trees and shrubs are common. Except for natives coming in from places where they still grow nearby the usual suspects are of Eurasian origin.

They come in, I yank them out. Mostly Siberian elms from over the fence. I cannot tell you how much I hate those things. There is no word that carries enough invective.

Hey, a free tree is a free tree, and the volunteers require no babying like the ones we plant intentionally.

We have two red oaks, now about 5-ft tall, several eastern redbuds which have quickly grown to 8- ft tall and have bloomed twice -- and a black mulberry that was too large to pull, found growing through a patch of ditch lilies a few years ago. It's way out at the end of our three acres, so I spared it, and it really is a beautiful tree now, easily 15-ft tall. The elm in the front near the street -- it's too early to tell if it's a Chinese or a Sibe, but either way, I want it gone.

Just one...

Montezuma cypress... at my mom's. It's funny how that turned out. My brother had grown enough MC seedlings so he just threw seeds into garden bed a few years ago. Somehow one seed managed to germinate and grew into nice looking maybe 10 ft(?) tree. That's the only volunteer tree we kept out of thousands from oak,elm and pecan trees.

It just happens to be in the perfect spot because there's a loblolly pine nearby that needs to be cut down. Just doesn't look very good and risk of falling on the houses if a strong hurricane comes through.

So far I have left a white walnut (butternut?) that came in but several tree of heaven have been yanked.

I have a soft spot for many of the oaks that come in, but some are just in the wrong place. So about 50-50.

I get Lawson Cypress, Cornus kousa, and Japanese Maples popping up all over. Some I keep where they're at, some I move and some get pulled. A few even get potted up.
Here's some Cornus kousas.

I get Lawson Cypress, Cornus kousa, and Japanese Maples popping up all over. Some I keep where they're at, some I move and some get pulled. A few even get potted up.
Here's some Cornus kousas.

{{!gwi}}

toronado, like you I've allowed a B walnut volunteer to grow to 20' tall, for the present. In fact, I have B walnuts sprouting everywhere on my lot. Siberian elm, black cherry & sugar maple too, but all get whacked eventually.

Also a pagoda dogwood sprouted in the deep shade of a sugar maple. Left that one alone as it's small & little else will grow there.

I had to cut a very vigorous little sugar maple down this summer. It was right against a fence and I couldn't figure out a way to dig it with enough roots without killing my wife's azalea (I'd just as soon yank the damn azalea, it's misshapen and kind of a dud but she loves it), and it was too big for it's area.

Damn shame too, it had the nicest burnt-orange-red fall color last year. It was about 8' tall but very few side branches.

I had a Sekkin Sugi Cryptomeria that volunteered last year. I potted it up this spring, nursed it all summer, and just planted it at the in-law's house. I have some Mahonia japonica 'Bealei' that just sprouted and I hope to pot and nurse to maturity. We also have several Blue Satin Rose of Sharon that are growing around the parent. I will leave them so they fill in the area better.

Volunteers are great except when they are Silver Maple or Red Maple ones...those are just a pain and a half...

Mahonia japonica 'Bealei'

I thought the name of that is Mahonia bealei? Pretty invasive here further south of you. Weeds! I pull 'em out and hack 'em down constantly.

Willow Oak, Scarlet Oak, Northern Red Oak and Several hickory (probably Mockernut).

It's amazing how people would kill for volunteers in their area that are so common in other areas.

Many volunteers come up on our property some stay, some go. The redbuds grow like weeds and we've left them when their sites are appropriate. We let a shingle oak mature and remain. More than a few pine, but eventually had to cull out the Austrians as they contract diplodia eventually. Several fruit trees of harvestable quality........an apple and a peach were saved. A sugar maple I prize and a few hybrid maples were even transplanted to new sites. Several liriodendron. We always have robinia and bird cherry coming up everywhere and if one comes up near a tree we know is coming down we may leave it as an eventual replacment. I'm sure those decisions are driven by how much land you steward and this also impacts what varieties you will treasure/tolerate.

between oaks.. cherry [serotina] and redbud....

probably 50 to 75 ...

ken

I also get a lot of English Holly, Ilex aquifolium. It's only a problem if I let it get too big to pull.
Sorbus aucuparia, is another weed. The English call it Rowan and we call it Mountain Ash.
Prunus laurocerasus, English Laurel, pops up here and there.
English Ivy and the ever present English sparrow are two more imports.
So you don't think I'm picking on the English I get Prunus lusitanica from Portugal and Spain. It's a minor inconvenience.
I'm on ten acres on a bluff, surrounded by woods on three sides. One side is forty acres with no one living on it but deer and a few elk.
All of the above like our climate.
Bo...the fog is so thick this morning, the ground is wet.

Visiting GardenWeb for the first time in months and catching up.

We live in a somewhat wooded area and also had a neighbor years ago who cultivated nut trees. So, we get walnut and a variety of oak trees (especially burr and red) each year along with an occasional hickory.

Many years ago, a neighbor had a mature C. florida. We had one come up from seed 25-30 years ago. It came up under a mature red oak and has fantastic blossoms. Except for an intolerance to severe drought, it's doing very well. It bears fruit every year, but I've never found a seedling.

Redbuds are a dime a dozen as are white ash, hackberry and black cherry (serotina). Boxelder were once common as well, but all the mature trees in the neighbors' yards are now gone. We get several tulip tree seedlings each year from the neighbors' trees.

It's fun to leave areas of the yard alone for 2-4 years and just watch what comes up!

We've had two sweetgum seedlings come up along the little dry stream in the yard. They must have come in with the floodwaters.

Dad gave me a butternut seedling several years ago. It has produced one seedling, but it only survived two years. The parent tree is diseased and I suppose the same disease took the younger tree.

We get a few C. kousa and C. mas seedlings every few years, but they're uncommon.

I get tons....mostly elms (winged & slippery), sweetgum, oaks (willow & pin), black cherry, red maple, cedar and loblolly pine.
I keep all the volunteers in the wooded areas, pull the ones in the beds or transplant.

A friend gave me a California Sycamore that volunteered in one of her flowerpots. In winter, I just took the whole ball of dirt out of the pot while it was dormant and plopped it in a hole. The tree was maybe 18 inches tall.

It`s first year it shot up another 7 or 8 feet. This last year, I think it grew five. I love the spicy smell of it.

Too early to know if it worked, but I discovered a bunch of Rose of Sharon Saplings between my parent's house and their hedge (in a spot with little light). I dug up three and planted them elsewhere...we'll see if it worked.

There is also an offshoot from some kind of locust and an Eastern Red Cedar I'm thinking about moving.

It seems like 90% of the native seedlings I find here are Water Oak, Sweetgum, Loblolly Pine, and Pecan. I have too many of those already, so I ditch them.

Most of the volunteers that I have kept are Southern Magnolia, Sweetbay Magnolia, Slash Pine, Blackgum, and Wax Myrtle.