Is climbing an essential criteria - after all, by the time any tree has enough girth and strength to take the weight of children of climbing age, those children will be young adults...unless you are thinking of grandchildren.

My immediate thought is of some sort of pinus.

LOL! I agree that planting a tree for climbing purposes requires a lot of premeditation :-) Like a decade or so before the children are even conceived! Kids grow much faster than trees so planting anything now with young kids already family members is highly unlikely to provide anything sufficiently stable and strong enough to support that sort of activity until the kids are well beyond the tree climbing phase. Generally one takes advantage of any suitable mature trees already established on the property for this purpose rather than growing their own....the time lines just don't mesh.

If you can remove that criteria, your choices widen significantly.

Not being at all familiar with plant growth rates in Perth, I'd add only that in my experience, this "slow growth" of trees is a bit of an exaggeration. If anything, the rapid development of plants in the landscape is usually what surprises folks, trees included. Yes, some careful planning required, lol, but especially where growing seasons are long, I'd revise my expectations downward insofar as how long it will take to get a tree to climbing size.

i hope you are planting a climbing tree for your grandchildren .... because nothing you plant.. will grow fast enough for current kinds ...

been there.. done that.. 15 years later .... kids almost gone ... trees almost big enough to climb ...

maybe its different in A .... ??

ken

What you need is a jungle gym instead of a live tree.

Jungle gymnosperm? There were times with my kids I would've had them climbing a Monkey Puzzle tree if available. ;)

That's a lot of requirements!

Pitch pine has a twisted form...I imagine that would make it a good climbing tree, I guess. It grows fairly fast but it's growth slows when it gets medium sized, it has no flowers to attract bees, and it even retains it's pine cones...so low mess? Kind of an ugly tree, and drips lots of pine pitch that damages the paint jobs of cars.

Oaks are decent for climbing and have no flowers...maybe a live oak? Or if you are in an arid area, a blue oak? Bit bigger then you were thinking.

The "no deciduous trees" bit is throwing me. Most conifers aren't great for climbing...and there aren't many evergreen trees without flowers that can survive in my climate, so I have limited familiarity with those. Ordinarily I would go to the web, but "climbability" isn't a criteria most websites rate trees on.

Honestly, I have little idea what your climate is like. Most people on these boards are from the US. Are you in an arid area?

Maybe post in the Australian and conifer forums?

The best climbing tree in my parent's yard was an American Basswood, and I never noticed many bees on it, but it was deciduous and was a medium sized to large tree.

Why a shallow root system? I ask because what's driving that may be more important than you know.

Richard.

There are a couple of magnolias that are evergreen and grow rather quickly. However, in my yard, the kids prefer to play hide and seek and their favorite place to hide is in a large rhododendron that is missing a lower branch so they have access to the interior of the shrub. They also like to go inside the shrub to just get away from siblings and read a book.

Thankyou for your input everyone. I actually searched for an Australian forum and this came up so not sure what happened there! There is actually a fast growing climbing tree called Rosewood or Tipuana. I have seen it grow at a friends house to a great climber in 5 years. Unfortunately it is unsuitable for our house. Anyway thanks again for your advice!

3. shallow-ish root system

==>>> wonder why this is an issue

ken

Mmm, good climbing trees? There was an American Elm at the U of Minnesota Landscape Arb that served as host tree for a technical climbing competition. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it grows very fast, is nicely branched, and...well, you'd be planting an amazing tree. Anyone know how U. a. does in Australia?

I'm very surprised the basswood you had didn't have a little of bees. That is like a bee magnet tree. The ones around here are covered in honeybees every year.

bottlebrush tree

Which Bottlebrush are you thinking of viper? The ones I know are floppy branched and shrubby.

Callistemon sp. bottlebrush can be trained into a small tree

pohutukawa...or metrosideros excelsa (New Zealand Christmas Tree) - as a myrtle relative, the branches should be strong, interestingly twisty...although neither deciduous nor bee free.

For speed - there are the eucalypts.

Yep, Callistemon spp. are what I was envisioning. Not what I'd class as a good climbing tree and definitely not bee-free, although probably well suited to the location.

I'd really like to hear from the OP. Do any of the options mentioned sound good? What is the reason for a "shallow root system"? Which items on the "wish list" are negotiable? Do you live in an arid reason.

Growing up on the east coast of Oz as a kid, my brothers and I regularly climbed and even built a rough tree house (couple of wobbly planks nailed to branches!) in a good sized Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii).

Like most Acacias, very fast growing, yet longer-lived than many. Also shallow rooted. Bees do like its flowers, but it only blooms for a month or so in late spring.

Can be invasive on east coast, not sure about Perth? Maybe check with a local nursery...