Please Recommend Small (10-15 ft) Deciduous Tree Zone 5
unclehippie
5 years ago
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HU-387781905
5 years agoDig Doug's Designs
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Help! Need a small to medium tree zone 5
Comments (16)Do you intend to continue using the fire pit? If so, I would discourage you planting any tree that would overhang it. However, disregarding that, I would say that one of your best choices in a deciduous tree would be a Yellowwood (Cladrastis lutea aka Cladrastis kentukea). Hardy to Zone 4. It would fit the space without overwhelming the house as it got older. Good fall color and shade. It is also a great flowering tree. The flowers look like white wisteria flowers. The seeds are in small pea pods and do not require much cleanup. This is a deep rooted tree that will not give you sidewalk or foundation problems. They are native to the Ohio valley area. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/a270/cladrastis-kentukea.aspx For an evergreen choice I would recommend a fir. In my area the Whit Fir (Abies concolor) would be our go to fir but in Michigan there may be others that are better for the area. The fir is a nice conical tree that would give you the same shape as the blue spruce you lost but is a better behaved tree. Blue spruce tend to get scraggy and sparse as they age. Firs do not. White firs will want to branch low to the ground like the spruce but will not spread a far wide as the spruce. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/c201/abies-concolor.aspx Because the tree would be close to your house, I would be worried about the shallow roots that most evergreen have. They tend to raise sidewalks and damage foundations. You can encourage a deeper root system by keeping the root zone moist but this is not going to overcome the nature of the tree to have shallow roots. There is a relatively deep rooted evergreen that you might consider. That would be the Incense Cedar (Libocedrus decurrens aka Calocedrus decurrens). This is a native of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. They have fronds like Arborvita rather than needles like other evergreens. This tree has deep roots and would not be a problem for sidewalks and foundations. It can get quite tall, 50 feet our so, but does not spread more that 10 or 15 feet in cultivation. It is very drought tolerant and can handle large snow loads. http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/gardens-gardening/your-garden/plant-finder/plant-details/kc/a156/calocedrus-decurrens.aspx I hope this helps....See MoreDeciduous tree in container? In zone 10?
Comments (5)You might want to try a crape myrtle. Here in Sarasota they grow real well and bloom on and off from May to October. Also, I was just down in Fort Lauderdale for several days and they are common there also which is a little more tropical than here. We are in zone 9b/10a, where Fort Lauderdale/Miami would be in zone 10b. They have beautiful blooms which resemble lilacs without a fragrance and have many varieties probably some that are dwarf varieties that would be suitable for a container. They usually lose their leaves for a few months then in April the new leaves come out. I'm also from near Chicago and have found that only a few plants from there will work here although Chicago didn't have Crape Myrtles....See MorePropigate or seeds? Small Deciduous sidewalk trees
Comments (9)hmm ok good, I was thinking ~4 ft starter trees would be at least $100 each. I will check local and online in a few weeks when Spring comes. Even if propigating is as simple as cut>hormone>plant>water, I prefer not to water daily especially in Spring to Summer instead of Fall when it's less likely to dry out and fail. So that alone is worth the cost of starter trees. I will need to water the starters on a timer but they should be a bit more forgiving than keeping propigated branches moist, in full sun. Starting from seed, is also basically a %100 no now, but for the columnars which won't be sidewalk or Full sun, maybe maybe I'll consider seed for those two if it's something sort of exotic or whatever, but I should be able to find pretty easily what I want as a starter tree. I've never seen shrubs near the sidewalk in my life, I'm talking about the strip of grass between the sidewalk and street, EDIT Actually I have seen shrubs and it was part of a very nice total install, in this same town, but is very rare. some of the OK'd trees for under powerlines are : cornelian cherry flowering cherry higan cherry service berry amur maple crepe myrtle english hawthorne winter king hawthorne dogwood crabapple paper bark maple japanese maple star/sweetbay magnolia etc I do want fragrant flowering or fruiting, and last time I looked into this was leaning towards Magnolia for scent, but am also planting korean spice viburnum for fragrance, so maybe get something like a serviceberry for street (something birds/squirrels/rabbits can enjoy without toxins which I have to look into). thank you...See More100+ years long lived Evergreen trees NJ zone 6 7 35ft max ?
Comments (10)Beyond that it's anyone's guess. It's not as simple as tree A will live to age X and tree B will live to age Y. Trees also don't just stop growing at some designated height or spread. You can find averages for these aspects, but while I'm pretty sure a parrot will outlive a dog, I don't know how old each will be with precision. I'm not sure what your goal is ... you said you plan to recommend these trees to lots of people. Are you trying to landscape a subdivision or something? Are you wanting to plant a single type of tree in every site? What is this list for? I'm not familiar with tons of varieties of evergreens, but whether something can come down without climbers or bucket trucks isn't solely dependent on size. The neighbor's last ailing tree (40'ish cherry) could have been dropped across our yard ... if we didn't mind it destroying our perennial garden and cobblestone paths; a bucket truck was brought in. Their current dead tree (50'ish hickory) is capable of hitting houses or wiping out the street, or it could kill several other trees on its way down if felled ... it will also need a bucket truck. The 35' branch that had to be removed off one of our 75'-100' white pines was removed by suspending it off of the pine itself and two nearby oaks and lowered (thankfully not just dropping on all the understory trees it was looming over). There were aerialists and a little vehicle (pulled lines and hauled log chunks) but not bucket truck on that removal. Our Eastern Red Cedar is about 35' tall and it was probably 20'ish in the early 80s, no idea how old it is, but we do know it's been hit by lightning twice (and had its top reshaped). Every mature tree on our property, except the serviceberry, requires an aerialist or bucket truck to prune. For a while the Bradford pear (no commentary on its existence, please) could be pruned with a pole, but it needs a bucket truck too now that it's probably 25'-30' tall. It was the last holdout. So I wouldn't count on any tree never requiring a bucket truck or climber. The birds love our yew shrub (we hate our yew ... though if it didn't have to be pruned multiple times a year/was in a different spot it might be more acceptable). They also love forsythias and quince, though. There's definitely nests in the cedar, and I'm pretty sure several of the oaks, maples, and cherries have nests in them. It depends on the bird what tree they'll build in. One word about hedge style planting, my grandfather planted a hedge hemlocks, and they were great and beautiful until one in the middle had an issue. It's nearly impossible to replace a tree that's 25' tall and planted tightly, and the two on the sides of the hole lacked green towards the hole because they had previously been growing into the missing tree. I don't recall whether they took down the whole hedge or moved and the next owners did it; the hedge no longer exists. Price of tree ... what's your definition of small?...See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
5 years agoMens Tortuosa(5b Omaha, NE)
5 years agoYardvaark
5 years agoEmbothrium
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoYardvaark
5 years agoechviola
5 years agogracie01 zone5 SW of Chicago
5 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
5 years agoenduring
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoLynn in Parkton, Maryland
5 years agowhaas_5a
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoDingo2001 - Z5 Chicagoland
5 years agoSydney (Zone 5B, DSM, Iowa)
5 years agobella rosa
5 years ago
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