If you have room for all of them, plant em all and enjoy the faster growing ones as they get big fast and the slower growing ones will in time be worth the wait. I have a BURR oak that grows faster than my 2 Q. Alba's have, BUT, it was a special kind that came from a HUGE acorn that a fellow Garden web person gave me. I have several Red oak family oaks that have grown sorta fast BUT I also have some white oak family oaks that grow about as fast as the red oak family oaks. I think the site they are growing on also matters a good bit also. My 2 Q. Albas are pretty slow growing though, I must say, BUT, everybody has different planting sites. Sometimes with certain trees I do wonder, "is it the area the tree is in, or genetics?" I have 2 Q. Robur's I got at the same time from the same person, and 1 of them has grown like a freakin Jacks Beanstock and 1 has just done "average". Now, the "Beanstocks" place used to have some horse poop near it, BUT, the OTHER Q. Robur is really close to a, area where another but OLDER source of horse poop used to be, I have a shrub there that has been growing like wild in that space from that same soil where we used to have a horse barn for about 25 years, in other words that other Q. Robur that hasn't taken off like the "Beanstock" one has is very close to the area where that OLDER pile of poop was many years ago, and actually, once that Q. Roburs roots get to wandering around I thi nk that IT will also tap into that very rich soil. My "Beanstock Q. Robur was basically planted about 5 feet from where the horse poop pile had been about 10 years before I planted it, so, it surely had a nice amount of rich soil to tap into from the get go, PLUS, it was close to the house and I had surely watered it when it hadn't rained very often. That "Beanstock" Q, Robur has also put out a few acorns as of the last couple of years and it is pretty young, maybe 7-8 years old, that is a guess, I do have a bunch of pics with dates on them, BUT, for now, I'll just guess.

Thanks. The leaves aren't at the top. They are in the lower part of the tree... Watering it may be tough since it's surrounded by fence (in the corner of backyard) 8 feet spacing... Next door never waters yard. In the back, it's just empty lot. I do water deeply every week or so during the summer if no rain though. All of other trees including shantung maples look very healthy in rocky limestone soil. Bur came from Lowe's so I wouldn't be surprised if it had major girdling problem because I have seen others from lowe's when they were pulled out of ground. They both had big ball of circling roots... Oh well. That was my very first tree I planted. Didn't know any better back then. Dax, Come down to Texas this fall. Plenty of acorns from both trees! I love Q. Buckleyi. Probably my favorite oak tree. I collected a bunch of acorns from it but unfortunately they germinated in the fridge way too early. Need to do a better job of storing them over the winter. You can tell them apart by looking at their buds in fall/winter. Q. Buckleyi has buds that is all equal size (co-dominate). That's why they tend to have multiple trunks in the wild. Q. Shumardii has larger central bud while the lateral buds are smaller. I can also tell which is which that is not suitable for alkaline soil. if the buds are 1/8" of an inch, they will suffer badly in the alkaline soil. It's common around here unfortunately. Buds need to be at least 1/4" to do well here. My neighbor directly across the street has the wrong red oak and it's so ugly. All yellow leaves that are turning brown. Have to see that every day out of window. I provided info about it to them and they haven't done anything for 2 years! Getting worse every year... Damn shame. I need shade from there (hot afternoon sun). Not only that their next door neighbors somehow killed nice sized lacebark elm over last weekend! All leaves are brown right now... Oh well. Gonna be tough digging that bur oak out...

Lou and Phoenix-great information on red oaks. I appreciate it. They are gorgeous trees and would probably have been my first choice if not for the possibility of oak wilt. I would certainly consider one for the back yard where it isn't so devastating if it succumbs to oak wilt. The one thing that comes to mind is that there are no red oaks in my neighborhood, so commingling of root zones wouldn't be a problem; however, does the insect that spreads oak wilt exist only around oaks, or is its territory non-specific to oaks so that it could be in our area just waiting for a potential victim? Bostedo-I would love to have a pecan, but am worried about having so tall of a tree so close to the house. I've heard that they are weak-wooded trees and suffer from sudden limb drop. Plus, with it being in the front yard, I'd have every kid in the neighborhood hunting pecans in my yard in the Fall. Just wouldn't want the possibility of one of them getting hurt. I totally agree with your comment regarding the Arizona ash. It's a wonderful tree, just not suited for our area. These are all great suggestions and I really appreciate everyone's time and expertise. Please let me know if any others come to mind. We'll probably be haunting the nurseries to check out all of your recommendations over the next few weeks while we wait for Fall to plant the new tree. I hate losing my Arizona ash but it has been a worry over the last few years, so it will be nice to have the opportunity to have a quality tree suited to our area with less problems. Thanks again!

I agree that for the most part, what trees you like are a matter of taste. That said, there are some trees that, while having some nice ornamental properties are highly invasive. Chinaberry, Ligustrum and Chinese Tallow (another "evil" one) are extremely invasive around here, displacing native species. I think most of us can agree that's a bad thing. I also agree with Lou that over planting any variety of tree, native or not can be a bad thing. Ask anyone in the northern part of the country where American Elm was the dominant boulevard tree if a little more variety wouldn't have been nice when the majority of them succumbed to Dutch Elm disease in the 80's. Like the Live Oak around here, it was a quality, native tree that was just over-used. I hope our neighborhood never experiences Oak Wilt since the builder planted Live Oaks almost exclusively and they are mostly now 20' to 30' trees, along with some mature ones that were preserved. I'm seeing Monterrey Oaks planted more and more, which I find encouraging as they are supposed to be wilt resistant and are also evergreen or nearly so. Bug-the reason I dislike AZ Ash, above all else, is the root system. We have a neighbor that has one on the west side of their house that's about 25' tall, so it's giving off nice shade. The problem is the roots are on top of the ground everywhere, including large ones pushing up against their foundation. I can't see that situation getting any better... If in doubt, go over to Dave's Garden and check out some of the pictures and reviews of AZ Ash. I think if TX Ash was more widely available and it was more well known it would help. People are going to keep planting AZ Ash and its cultivars if nurseries and the big boxes keep selling them. After all, they wouldn't be selling it if it was a "trash" tree, would they? ;^)