Neither hold up to hurricane force winds very well. The tulip tree has the stronger wood of the two, but they get so tall that they catch alot of wind and uproot when the ground is saturated. The Empress tree is weak wooded and is also invasive in some areas. Have you considered a Magnolia? Or maybe a Southern Catalpa?

I did think of the Magnolia, although it was only for a short time considering that the info given on it said it was a tree that liked partial to full shade which I do not have.

The Southern Catalpa is an interesting one though, it looks very pretty but it seems the complaints are tons of worms, the huge seed pods, and they do not have any color in the fall (grey leaves), I would say the seed pods are not a problem and neither are the large leaves (mulching mower), the worms don't seem bad unless they are all over the place.

have you had a Catalpa, and if so where can I get one?

now with other trees, My neighbor says Red Oak, Mexican sycamore, Drummond red maple, Shumard red oak, River Birch, Bur Oak.

The Red Maple and the Mexican Sycamore sound great but will their height be a problem, also is there anything I can do with the Acorns off of the Bur Oak?

thanks,
dan

You can find the Southern Catalpa at many of the online nurseries, try the link below. The "worms" are actually caterpillars, and they are not a problem on every tree.

You could try Bald Cypress for a good wind resistant tree too.

For the acorns, soak them in a bucket of water for an hour, if they sink to the bottom they should be good. Plant them in the ground where you want them and use something to prevent animals from digging them up.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nearly Native Nursery

You can try 'Shawnee Brave' bald cypress or 'Nanjing Beauty' hybrid cypress. If you want fast grower for shade rather sooner than later, 'Nanjing Beauty' would be my choice. You can order them from Botany Shop. Supposedly a lot faster than bald cypress, if I remember correctly, an average of 159% more growth than BCs. Boy, they sure grew fast for me in the containers in hot weather this year. I just planted one in front yard this fall and it's still green despite multiple freezes (may be evergreen at your location).

Or you can just pick up Montezuma cypress (evergreen version of bald cypress) somewhere in your location. Enchanted Garden has them in Richmond. Fastest quality tree you can buy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nanjing Beauty

I found this list of trees on the LSU website for hurricane resistant trees, I hope this helps you out.

Bald Cypress - Taxodium distichum

Live Oak - Quercus virginiana

Cabbage (or Sabal) Palm - Sabal palmetto

Windmill Palm - Trachycarpus fortunei

Mexican Washington Palm - Washington robusta

Black Gum - Nyssa sylvatica

Cow Oak - Quercus michauxii

Ironwood - Carpinus caroliniana

Shumard Oak - Quercus shumardii

Winged Elm - Ulmus alata

Some others to consider are American Holly, Black Walnut, Dahoon Holly, River Birch, Savannah Holly, Southern Magnolia, Sweetbay Magnolia.

Thank you for the help, I really like the Catalpa so I am almost positive that is going in (pending my wife's approval of course) and with the other ideas you've given I am going to have some real trouble deciding on what the second one is going to be.

The one I did not even think about (the cypress) has quickly become one of my favorites although I think like the idea of the Montezuma cypress with it being an evergreen but would like to know why the Nanjing Beauty (other then it's faster growth) would be a good pick over the Bald Cypress.

lsu 27, Thank you for the list, there are some on there that I was not very sure of, now I have even more choices.

thanks, dan

The planning stages are as much fun as anything! Dan, what kind of spot are these trees going in? Is it lower and moist or pretty average?

I love Nyssa Sylvatica (black gum). They're not the fastest growing trees and don't have showy flowers, but have good structure and EXCELLENT fall color.

Here is a link that might be useful: tree info site which doesn't sell anything

I would say the spot I am thinking of putting these are pretty average and I am not that worried about it being a slow/moderate grower but I do like the idea of a faster growing tree that would help put some shade on my house a bit quicker since I will be getting rid of the trees that are currently in front of my house, They are some type of pine (30 to 40 years old) with a grouping of 3 on one side of my front yard and a grouping of 2 (it was three but my neighbor sayed pine bark beetles got to it quite a few years back) on the other side of my front yard, I would say the pines are about 5 feet apart.

Some of the reasons I am getting rid of these pines (not sure on the type) are, People in my neighborhood that are garden/tree people tell me that 35 to 40 years of age is about what they last (I guess they wear out or retire and move to florida after that, I don't know), also these trees are starting to drop branchs quite often in any strong wind (Hurricane Ike really cleared them up) and that brings us to the 3rd reason which is there just is not much left of them, they are starting to lose any shading abilities they had and are just starting to look like an eye sore for the front of the house.

The thing I will miss most about them though is that they are a nice long needled pine that in the fall when they drop their nice orange needles I use them for mulching my flower beds. There are other trees like this in the neighbor hood (the people I talked to were not sure what they were) but a couple times each year they put four or 5 bags of pine needles out at the curb in trash bags but then they buy bagged mulch or have the people who mow their lawn bring it, Just thought it was a strange habit to throw away what you get for free (must be my old miserish ways >>>>>> I'm 32)

thanks,
dan

Dan, what you most likely have is Loblolly pines, and they do get damaged by drought, pine beetles, and hurricanes.

If you want another pine I highly recommend the Longleaf Pine, they are stronger, longer lived (100+ yrs), very drought tolerant, and more resistant to beetles. The needles of Longleaf are twice the length of the ones of Loblolly, so they're even better for landscaping.

That Loblolly Pine looks like what I have and the Longleaf is a really nice (Thanks for increasing my choices - JK).

I say the Longleaf is nice but the pictures of the entire tree (while healthy) looks really close (but I could not find great pictures of either). Can I plant a group of three like the Loblolly and what is the growth rate like.

I have also been reading as much as I cab here and I saw some mention of smaller trees (7 Gal) being a better choice then going larger, I can see why some people have really large tree brought in with special equipment, with the slower growth rate of some of the trees you will never get to enjoy the benefits or looks of the larger tree.

Yes, you can make a grouping of Longleafs just like the Loblollys. They will look like a clump of grass for a year or two while they get their roots established, but after that they grow really fast, up to 3ft a year. It's best to start with small seedlings, that way you wont have to worry about them being rootbound. Longleaf Pine is my #1 favorite tree. : )

How are longleafs against hurricane? I was in Houston right after Hurricane Ike hit to check on my mother's house. I was quite bit surprised that none of Loblolly pines on her property didn't fall but quite numerous of them fell elsewhere including next door's pine falling onto mother's backyard. Talk about a mess. Pine cones everywhere...

Lou, from my experience longleaf withstands hurricanes better than loblolly. Longleaf has stronger wood and also a much deeper root system. The deeper roots is also what makes them more drought tolerant.

Who sells Longleaf in plugs? I may be interested in trying them on my property along the property line facing west. The soil appears to be slity/clay type where post oak trees are common along with red oak, etc. Drainage may be a problem if it rains too much.

The "plugs" common to the timber industry are hard to get unfortunately. MailOrderNatives does sell bareroot seedlings though, I have ordered a few from them and they grew just as well as the plugs. These trees can withstand temporary flooding just as well as drought.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mail Order Natives

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the help, I thought about it and think I am going for Longleaf Pines, I just can't turn down that free mulch everytime I rake and nobody else uses their pine needles so our flower beds always look a little different.

Just a couple questions though.

1. Plugs were mentioned above, just wanted to know what tree plugs are?

2. I have been reading and I keep getting comflicting information about growth rate, for slow, medium, and fast growing tress what would the range of growth be for each one?

Thank you for the help,
dan

(1) The link below shows what "plugs" look like. The purpose to to air prune the taproot which grows out of the bottom.

(2) I consider slow growing trees to grow less than 1ft per year, throughout it's life. Medium trees should grow 1-2ft per year, and fast growing trees should grow 2+ft per year. Keep in mind that some "fast growing" trees will seem to grow slowly until they get established.

Here is a link that might be useful: plugs

Dan, with all the sun exposure your house must get, it should be well worth the cost to have shade screens installed on the outside of the windows, which allow in lots of summer excessive heat-up into our house. Such windows could be eastern, western and some southern exposures.

It takes time for any tree you plant to grow from seed. It also takes time for any potted tree you plant to become established well enough to begin it's fast to moderate fast growth rate.

Planting a 1 gallon nursery pot size fast growing tree could take at least 3 - 5 years to grow tall and full enough to provide the amount of filtered light needed for cutting the summer sun's excessive heat-up effects through some of your windows.

That is why shade screen use is so beneficial. Installing those might even allow the motivation to plant a better quality slow to moderately-slow growing tree in some of the area's around your house; where otherwise, you might only think a fast growing tree would be prefered.

I have already started making solar screens for the windows, I only have three windows on the west side of the house (someone was thinking), the bad news is that they are over 30 year old single glaze aluminium frame windows and when I decide what windows I want (which could take years) I will be replacing them with some type of double glazed windows. I think I am also going to put radiant barrier on the roof decking and that should should be better then what the pines are doing.

The other reason I really wanted something that would come up a bit faster is so I get to see the front of my house someday with some mature trees, I'm 32 and I bought my first house when I was 22 and the second one was a condo, with this being our third purchase we want to stay here for the long haul so the Wife and I are trying to plans with that goal in mind.

As of a few days ago I found out a squirrel decided to plant a tree for me, It looks like an Oak has started growing in the area we were going to plant one of the trees, I guess I am just going to let it go and see what happens.

dan - Longleaf pines are very beautiful trees. The wood is stronger than other southern pines so they withstand hurricanes better. I planted 100 containerized seedlings (plugs) last spring. They did fairly well but I had some losses due to drought. I ordered more containerized seedlings this year to replace the losses and expand the longleaf pine groves this year.

LLPs are very sensitive to provenance so it's best to buy seedlings grown from trees in your area. As Alabama says, they spend a year or two in the grass stage while they grow a long taproot (several feet long), then they take off. When they are in the grass stage, keep the weeds down around them - they need sun. I've seen 2-3 ft seedlings in pots that were too small to accommodate the taproot so I didn't buy them.

Most magnolias don't need much or any shade. There are exceptions so do research on the varieties. I planted several magnolias planted in full sun as part of a wind screen - they are tough. They are reported to do well in hurricanes - mine were flooded this year during a Cat 1 hurricane - they were fine afterwards.

If fall color is on your list, consider a tupelo/black gum tree. They have spectacular color that continues into December here. People say they grow slow but my small (3-4') trees put on at least 2 ft of new growth in their first year, during a drought. They also have long taproots. I didn't lose any tupelos during the last big hurricane.

A quick question about what I believe is the Red Oak that started growing in my front yard, I can take some pictures and maybe someone can let me know for sure what it is.

Is there any reason I should pull this guy out and plant something else (hurricane hardiness or any other reasons) or should I let the little guy go and see what happens.

thanks,
dan

Depends on what type of red oak it is, if it's a Southern Red Oak or a Shumard Oak, I'd say to leave it. If it's a Water Oak I recommend getting rid of it.

Dan,

I live in Sienna Plantation in Missouri City. If you look around our area, there are not that many pine trees around. The ones that are here seem to struggle a bit. When driving around other areas of TX we notice there are more pines and they look much healthier. I was told we have a ton of clay in our soil. I don't know if that could be the problem. We decided not to bother trying to grow them.