Beech and hornbeam are often used as hedges over here for this very trait. They are effective screens even in mid winter. Personally I love the warm tones when then sun hits them.

I love them. I don’t have many evergreens, because of the seasonally wet landscapes round me. These trees that hang on to their leaves provide relief from the bare landscape.

I like them. Our woods tend to be fairly starkly black (or almost like the dark green of winter white pine) and white, so the soft browns and tans of young beech and white oak leaves still clinging to branches provides a nice contrast.

Why would one hate them?

Possibly because, in winter, they can look more like a dead tree than the typical leafless trees commonly seen during that season. Another possibility is the need to rake again after initial fall leaf collection.

I love them but I am careful what I plant next to them. There is a stand of pin oaks near here that are planted next to ornamental plums. In January, when the plums bloom, and the oaks are still loaded with papery brown leaves, it is not a nice combination.

When it’s a tree that isn’t “supposed” to be, I hate it.

Japanese maples have been marescent around here this fall, the leaves were killed by a freeze in situ and never fell off.

agree with winter interest ...

but crikey what a nightmare .. in an extended heavy ice storm ... all you can do .... is hope the sun comes out soon ... if you want/need exercise ... you can go knock snow off ... but not ice ...

ken

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=marcescent+treess+heavy+ice+storm+damage&t=ffcm&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

While not a tree, I am not fond of dead leaves on my blooming witch hazels since it takes away from the bloom.

Not a huge fan of the hanging on dead leaves for my yard. But I guess I can appreciate them in a forest setting or in someone else's yard. Mature beeches have notoriously shallow troublesome roots in the home yard. You cannot plant anything under them. Mowing is a nightmare. In my zone though, I prefer broad-leaf evergreens.

Broad-leaf Evergreens in the Mid-Atlantic Facebook

I agree with the witchhazel and A. palmatum comments. With that I’ve planted the song sparrow cultivars that shed their leaves then go with Korean maples and theit hybrids instead of palmatum.

Someone would definitely need to commit to a massive mulch ring of a mature beech. In my case right tree right locaction. Planted on the back 40 in a tree line that isnt mowed.

None of my trees have done this. I have q. rubra and q. ellipsiodalis which I have read are supposed to do it. Guess it's too windy here? I have a sorbus that did it this year, but I think it's because it got frozen while green and is in a state of hideous suspended animation. A. gradititatium (however it's spelled) does this with beautiful orange-red leaves. beautiful.

I saw a double row of Pinus resinosa trees about 20 ft tall, along the road today with some red oaks in between, showing bows of brown oak leaves filling the gaps in branches of the pines.

Never noticed it when everything was green and not something I would strive to achieve but interesting and somewhat eye catching, all the same.

I couldn't get a picture, sorry. :-)

We had a lot of mornings with heavy frosts in the last two weeks covering everything. I thought the stucks on leaves, especially on some of the oaks that have some red tint still to the leaves, were especially pretty when hit by the rising sun.

Speaking of frosts it was pretty frosty the other day

I like seeing the skeletons of trees in winter, so I prefer when they lose leaves. Plus, we have so many conifers that winter is nearly as green as summer.

Molly, you might want to add your general location and zone as part of your name as displayed on your Houzz page. If it’s part of your name it will appear automatically when you post. I am wondering of your conifers are in the upper Midwest, the western mountains, or northern New England like me.

Great tip, NHBabs. I did it.

I'm OK with marcescent trees but I'm not very fond of trees with other stuff hanging on over the winter. Like seed stalks and some remaining seeds. Black alder might be the worst with all those little "cones". It makes them look untidy.

So interesting the different perspectives, perhaps at least partly influenced by where we live. I love the little cones on alders, but then around here they grow in wetlands which are untidy by their very nature. For me, anything that provides texture or color during 5 months of winter is good by me. I might feel differently if I lived in a space with limited area for growing or that had a more suburban/finished look than my quite rural area.

I like Alder cones too. Makes them look like trees off a willow pattern plate. Along river banks and slightly weeping in appearance. But I didn't like my Golden Hornet crabapple. The fruit rotted but wouldn't fall off the tree until the spring buds pushed them off.

The dead leaves hanging on bother me. I keep thinking its a silly risk if an ice storm comes along and for some reason that bothers me lol

Here, we usually have SOME green leaves on deciduous trees till December, then in late February or early March, some start leafing again. So the time of leaflessness is generally short.

I like the oaks that hang onto leaves for variety.

I like trees to hang onto their dead leaves in winter. I'm not fond of the 'skeletal' look, and otherwise we've got deciduous 'skeleton's and conifers to choose from. While masses of brown dead leaves aren't gorgeous, they do give some body to the canopies. Makes winter a smidge less dreary.

Richard.

I'm a low maintenance sort of guy and like to get what little raking I have to do over with in one time. Leaves that straggle off intermittently all Winter long doesn't fit with that program. Besides, they look bad hanging up in the tree. You can call it russet colored, but to me it's plain old dead brown. It can ruin an otherwise colorful picture. Can you imagine a Pin Oak in this picture with dead brown leaves?

I see the word marcescent and I say no.

Wouldn’t the pin oak have red color at that point?

Looks like the love hate is somewhat regional based on how open your yard may be along with the mix of evergreens you can grow.

swamp oak appears to be the species that holds their leaves the longest here but I don’t think that continues as the tree ages. Leaves are a light tan.

raking is never finished here..I don't even try to keep it leaf free..to be honest I don't want to..I think leaf litter is healthy for my wooded lot..so for me a few more leaves hanging around isn't a big deal..

I agree about the leaves. I only rake the paths. I see them as trees fertilizing themselves and creating more topsoil, which is really needed in my environs. The soil is healthiest under the trees.. I do uncover areas for brief periods in spring to encourage annual germination in specific areas.

Some red ( Spanish and Shumard) Oaks go straight to brown and never turn red. They get edited around my house when they are saplings. I am lucky, very few of them. I learned early to buy my oaks in fall when they are actively turning color. I My first oak was a straight to brown one. I don't mind them turning brown later and not falling. I can't be angry at nature. That definitely comes under the heading of things I can not control..

Some remain attractive. But two have become my nemesis. Acre bungeranium (Trident Maple) doesn’t’ so much hold its leaves as it holds copious amounts of its samaras. They do not all fall in the spring either. Very unattractive and they eventually germinate everywhere. I fear I may have introduced an alien species. i had a pin oak which held its leaves all winter. Quite attractive, I thought. But the leaves dessicate and come off the tree like tissue in the spring, hiding in other vegetation, and make cleanup difficult. So annoying that I cut the pin oak down. A few Acer palmatums hold dead leaves but they disappear at spring bud out.

Mike, I spot your Monkey Puzzle in the far right right side of your photo :). Does it get full sun with all those tree's around it?

Almost full sun now. I took out a Lawson Cypress this last Summer To give it more sun. The picture is looking west.

I'm hoping the marcescent nature of my red oaks will soften the wind and act as a snow fence as the trees increase in size and maturity. The leaves stay on until spring generally but so far the one on the right has done a better job of doing that.