If you could post a picture, it would help greatly, especially if you could have one picture of the whole tree and one that showed some detail of the leaves. Maybe another to show some detail of the bark.

Right. I'll go take one. It really looks a lot like a weeping willow (to me, anyway).

Susanka, I thought of this site when looking for info for Mary_Max's linden but it has more to do with selection of trees for landscaping than specific cultural information on trees.

Mostly as an example of the use of the site: clicking "Tree Selection by Attribute," I selected "Leaves: Lanceolate Medium Green. Gold in Fall" or something close to that - thinking of your description of "very much like a willow tree." What came up was a birch bark cherry - the distinctive bark would be a defining feature for that one.

Anyway, CalyPoly's Urban Forest Ecosystems has provided a fun-to-use and informative way to explore tree ideas for your landscaping. Don't be concerned that these trees are solely for California. All of Colorado is in either Sunset zone 1 or 2 and Sunset factors in "length of growing season, timing and amount of rainfall, winter lows, summer highs, humidity."

digitS'

Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Forest Sectree site

I'm taking a very big guess here, but could it be a maytens tree? Maytenus Borea, or something like that. They are everywhere in CA, zillions of them in san francisco and they look very much to me like willows. One difference is that even though they send up suckers, they don't seem to send up as many as a willow. Also, they seem to be less likely to have disease. One good way to tell if it is a maytens is to look fairly closely at the leaves. If they are all over the place rather than neatly alternate or opposite, then it is probably a maytens. I'll try to post a link......

Oh, if it is a maytens, double check to see if it is invasive here. In CA in is considered so and they recommend not planting it in certain areas.

I did find a fairly good close up of the foliage. The general shape of the whole tree is very much like a weeping willow.

hope you find out what it is...

J.

Here is a link that might be useful:

digit and jchaber, thanks. I haven't had time yet to look at your links, but they look helpful. Here are pix. You know, this tree is going to be way too big to plant in our yard, it would fill up the whole thing (which would be okay except we want the view). I'd still like to know what it is. Thanks everybody. Here are the best pix I could get without being too creepy about it, the camera flash going right in the people's window!

That's a willow.

It's a willow, weeping. Lots of water needed, a good tree for inside the lawn area where the irrigation takes care of it. Am surprised it is so beautiful in your area.

The tree is very old (50 yrs?), so you wouldn't see it grow that large unless planning on being in your house for that long. I love Willows, especially the curly. Planted two last year and they are growing well. As beautiful as they are, remember they are messy. Am surprised the lawn is a nice as it is under that tree. The people must take really good care of their landscape.

"remember they are messy". When I moved into my place, there were 7 well-established 20 year old globe willows. They start shedding leaves and branches in late September, and usually I could finally finish raking the leaves by the week of Thanksgiving. Then they shed dead branches all winter, and it would take a couple of days hauling them off every spring; it was almost too thick to walk if I just left them.

I finally got the last one cut down 2 years ago. There are a lot of better alternatives tree-wise than willows.

I do have a dozen or so golden willows but they are all planted along the fence in a drainage area, or down in the swamp where they can shed branches their hearts content. There, I like them. Its more of their natural habitat anyway.

Thanks, everybody.

I really like my Chinese Elm (aka Lacebark Elm or Ulmus parvifolia), which has a semi-weeping shape but is much, much better than a willow! Don't confuse it with the weed tree, Siberian Elm, which a lot of people around here call Chinese Elm mistakenly. You might consider it for your new landscape if you like the weeping shape. I planted mine next to our patio, hoping it will eventually arch over much of the patio and provide shade. It's now partway there, and we put a patio swing under it and enjoy the coolness of being under the tree.

If you click this, you can see a larger view of the tree, with my lovely wife sitting on the swing. :-) (I'm starting to get like Cnetter now, huh?)

Anyway, this tree is resistant to Dutch Elm disease, has beautiful flaky bark, and really has gracefully weeping branches. I pruned some off that were bending almost to the ground.

I like the elm a lot. Thanks. We probably need to get something smaller, actually.

Before I gave away my bonsai collection, I had a dwarf ulmus parvifolia-Chinese elm!! Maybe they have a smaller version of the typical one for use in your garden?

I was also thinking about trees with weeping habits that might work for you, but I have no idea if they are small or if they are even appropriate for this zone.

Besides the Mayten, I was thinking of all the different trees in the Myrtaceae family (myrtle, melaleuca, eucalyptus...) and maybe even the dwarf weeping willow-- Salix caprea pendula.

Then I decided that there must be a ton of good choices out there, so I did a quick google image search and look at what there was!!!

http://images.google.com/images?um=1&tab=wi&client=firefox-a&hl=en&hs=ONr&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=weeping%20tree%20small

you'll probably have to copy and paste the link, but it is worth it :)

Weeping cherries are nice small trees, too. There are evergreens, like weeping larch, as well.

I like the weeping cherries too Steve. They grow into wonderful shapes. Many plant resources carry them, usually about 5' high.

thanks so much, everyone. Jchaber, what a great link!

Susanka