Is a septic tank or leach field located near where some of these will be planted? This is a big issue, especially for some big maple trees. I'd like to follow-up what Ken said - "i would NEVER.. plant one type of anything.. " This isn't just about aesthetics. Consider the devastation Dutch Elm Disease wrecked on the American Elm Trees that were heavily favored in some cities. Then be mindful that some diseases may spread via roots. While some diseases such as Oak Wilt and Sudden Oak Death, or Verticillium Wilt, don't seem to cause the mass casualties of Dutch Elm Disease, there is always that chance. Emerald Ash Borer destroys a lot of Ash Trees. American Chestnut is rare now due to Chestnut Blight. The impact could be greater if you plant all species of the same cultivar (e.g.: October Glory Red Maple, rather than a mix of Red Maples). This could lead to what amounts to a big interconnected row of clones, and anything that can kill one healthy one, can kill every one. Got an aesthetics question for the group. Would you do a big random mix, or consider symmetric rows of species (in which case you might want the same cultivar for a pair)? For example, each side having a matching row sequence of: 1.) October Glory Red Maple. 2.) Red Oak (northern or southern). 3.) Sugar Maple. 4.) Yellow Poplar. 5.) Swamp White Oak (or similar). 6.) Red Sunset Red Maple. 7.) Shumard Oak (similar to Red Oak). 8.) Sugar Maple (a different Cultivar). 9.) Ginkgo (warning: likely slower growing!). 10.) Scarlet Oak. I'm just giving some species to consider, not knowing what does best in your area. But when you do a mix, consider this: 1.) They don't grow at the same rate. That ginkgo might sit 2 years without visible growth getting established, then grow maybe 2 feet per year for awhile. During that 2 years, the October Glory might growth 4 or 5 feet, the Red Oak 3 or 4 feet, etc... 2.) If Fall color's a big deal, be mindful what the effect will be. Our red and sugar maples with turn prior to the oaks; the ginkgo will turn vivid yellow, then drop its leaves very quickly. 3.) Some oaks, like Shumard Oak, tend to hold onto their dead leaves through much of the winter. 4.) Some trees get larger than others. A Yellow Poplar will grow pretty fast, from what I understand, and can get very tall. In time it'll dwarf even a big red maple, I imagine. 5.) Young Ginkgos look like malformed hat racks to me until they get larger & bushier (and be mindful you get male Ginkgos so they don't produce stinking fruit someday, and avoid narrow columnar cultivars). Richard.

How long a drive, how much room is on either side, is it through lawn/pasture, if so, how wide, and what is the orientation - North, South, East, West? Are there any other trees near the drive, and what is your soil like - sandy, clay, rocky, deep? Do you want it very formal, or less so - think Versailles or an English stately home, or less formal shapes and some irregularity? Do you want tall trees, short trees, deciduous trees, evergreen trees or a mix? Answers to these questions would help with the suggestions - if you have only about 30', then a row of oaks is probably not good, if you have 100' or more, a row of oaks might be perfect. If rigidly formal and matching is wanted, hollies might be good.

Lou, I have ideas on what to plant for the OP provided more detail is forthcoming, including what I'm putting in our treelawn. Nonetheless, up at this elevation we have trouble with A. truncatum, even though I like it a lot and used it in CA. We tend to replace it with the more reliable Acer tataricum or A. ginnala. I just tried to talk the cousin-in-law into a Acer tataricum 'Hot Wings' for his small space but was unsuccessful. I would have recommended Shantung maple if we can be more sure we can keep it alive here. If you have a variety you think can grow over 5000 ft and these winters, a lot of ppl would be happy, including me. Dan

toronado makes a very good point. Here in my town, pin oak(Q.palustris) has been planted - almost to monoculture status, over the past 40 years - as 'street trees'lining major thoroughfares, and almost every new home built in the last 30-40 yrs has either a pin oak or a callery pear in its yard. All here know the problems Bradford and its ilk bring to the table, but no one foresaw the double whammy of heavy infestations of horny branch & stem gall wasps and bacterial leaf scorch decimating the pin oaks planted all around town. Nice 30-50 year old pin oaks filled with galls that functionally girdle the branches, disfiguring the tree, and eventually starving out the root system. Some of these trees take 5-10 years to reach the point of death or necessity of removal, but they're dying and being removed with increasing frequency. I like the idea of mixed plantings - I've got about 1000 ft of gravel drive; half is lined by alternating northern red oaks and pecans, the other by various bur oak & bur oak hybrids. A wide, low-lying area also hosts an assorted planting of pawpaws, mayhaws, a couple of select hickories, and some redbuds on the better-drained edges. Initial spacing of the large mature size oaks was initially 30-35 ft, 15 ft off the edges of the drive; the northern red oaks just 'sat there' for nearly 10 years(planted as 4 ft bareroot trees 2-3 yr old, and I'd largely given up on them, so I interplanted the grafted pecans between, with plans to take out the oaks once the canopies began to crowd - and will probably still follow that plan - but once I put in the pecans, the oaks 'took off' and really started growing. Even at 30-35 ft spacings, after 15 years, some of the bur oaks have attained sufficient size that it's getting to be a tight squeeze to get large/long vehicles, like the semi-loads of hay we buy in for the cattle, through some of the gaps to make their way to the unloading area, as canopies expand.