Poplar stains VERY similar to pine.

Mahogany and walnut look nice in a varnished finish.
Cherry is nice, as a lighter colored wood.
Maple and pine are good lightest-colored woods.

Casey

While ash and (red) oak look very similar, I have found that some stains look radically different applied to each. Minwax "Golden Oak," for example, is definitely yellow on ash, but light brown-gold on oak. So before trimming your whole house and finding a problem, run some sample boards.

In addition, I think Ash may become hard to get soon. Our county is now under quarantine for emerald ash borer.

For that matter, try your intended stain and finish regimen on pine and poplar, as both of those are difficult to stain well, without blotching.

I would stay away from the Minwax pigment stains.
Try some aniline dye and top with Deft Clear wood finish (brushing lacquer).
Quick, easy, and looks very good compared coloring with pigment stains and top coating with poly.

Deft is dust free in less than 10 minutes and ready for another coat in about 30 minutes.

Thanks for your input. I will visit my local lumber yard and price out popular and pine. What sort of price difference should I expect in terms of labor - Staining v's Painting? I've had several people tell me that staining is not much more than painting.

Poplar is more of a wood for painting than staining. Reason being poplar has two colors, light and green, both can be present in the same piece of wood. Those two shades do not stain alike.

Straight grained pine can be expensive as well, sometimes more so than oak/soft maple.

As far as staining versus painting labor, it depends totally on the woods being treated. Actually, staining pine without blotching and getting the color done well is more time consuming than painting it.

The steps for staining pine start with sanding, then a prep coat(to eliminate blotching), then stain(which is generally a mixture of stain colors to get a good final color), a sanding, first coat of finish, sanding, and a second coat of finish is the minimum treatment.

Painting would be sanding, primer, first coat of paint, sanding(if needed) and second coat of paint.

I did the trim in a house that was rustic American---semi rough pine trim for the baseboards, door, and window trim. It was a 950 sq. ft. house, new construction and the trim was supplied in 12' pieces. The stain was also supplied. I ran out of the stain and had to contact the company for the recipe---turns out there were four stains mixed together to get that color. The window trim was already installed, since I was installing the flooring, doors and appliances, I had to install the base molding and door trim. It took me three days to stain, finish, and install base molding and molding for three exterior doors and three interior doors--no miters on the doors. I was charging $30 an hour back then----so that bill was around $750.That was pretty cheap.