White oak just a few houses away from where I grew up in (Hagerstown, MD). Used to play around/under it. Estimated around 300 yrs old and still there and healthy.

Nice ben.

I'm surprised the utilities company hasn't butchered it for line clearance.

Pinus Strobus:

Blacks Grove park by Wadena.

Bill_minn, I had never heard of Wadena before, now I know where it is - about 40 miles southeast of "Detroit Lakes" - I'll have to check out that area sometime ;) Those mature white pines are certainly impressive.

Large catalpas may not be all that noteworthy, but there's a nice one near my house - it's about 4.5' dbh:

Dave, if you're every coming down/up Hwy 10 just shoot me a PM. :-)

Catalpas finished flowering about ten days ago, and as we passed one my spouse asked why I’ve never planted a Catalpa. It’s a good question. I’ve also never planted a Hackberry. The tried and true are right in front of me, but I’m drawn to Stewartia...or Katsura...or something else that will likely be short lived.

The Twin Cities area has some impressive Catalpas. Dave, you’ll have to check them out on your way to Wadena. :)

Big southern catalpa in PA:

http://pabigtrees.com/tree_detail.aspx?tree=TR20111121141233697

Nice Acer rubrum near Rock lake, north of Pillager MN. 77f rh 50%. Too tall to get the top.

Copper Beech

Aesculus indica

Northern Herald®, a redbud for cold zones from NDSU supposedly good to Zone 3b. J. Frank Schmidt has it in production now so hopefully it'll start showing up in garden centers. Probably a bit more reliable in Zone 4a/3b than the Minnesota strain.

https://www.jfschmidt.com/pdfs/JFS_New_2019.pdf

Mixed Forest here:

L to R: (excuse spell check).

Pincus strobus, Quercus ellipsoidalis, Pinus resinosa, Acer rubrum. A couple big red & white pines behind. Several small picea glauca, Fraxinus v., Betula papyrifera, Abies balsamea & Aspen mixed in. Understory too many to know but numerous Ostrya viginiana with seed pods to see.

Floral, would SW UK be Cornwall? We've been watching way too much TV since the arrival of Covid and just finished the series Poldark. The scenery, while beautiful, doesn't look nearly as lush as what's in your pictures. BTW, do you think the A. indica is 'Sydney Pearce'? Either way, it's a beautiful tree.

Pennlake, I'll be looking for Northern Herald redbud. I'd like to plant a few at the woodland edge where the plan is to build a gazebo. We don't have a lot of understory flowering tree options, with redbud and pagoda dogwood being the two that come to mind. I planted three of the MN strain at the old place, and they proved to be short lived. They quickly grew to about 10' and looked good for a few years, but then as quickly started to decline for one reason or another.

Bill, nice mixed forest picture. It captures much of what I've got growing at my place (minus Fraxinus).

In many parts of MN, Fraxinus looks pretty bad, some power companies are removing trees pre-emptively to stay ahead of the expected rush on tree extraction.

I too had no luck with MN strain in my windy exposed yard. I tried twice. The U of MN also released a clonal Selection that might help with the hardiness compared to the MN seed strain. JFS also has this one in production. Called Hearts desire

https://jfschmidt.com/pdfs/JFS_New_2020.pdf

No, I’m not as far SW as Cornwall. Poldark is set on the North Cornish coast, which faces the Atlantic. It’s great for surfers but not exactly sheltered. The South coast of the Cornish peninsular is very lush and is home to many fabulous gardens.

I don’t know if the Aesculus is a named cultivar. It’s just in a local park with no labels.

Well, my heart desires a hardy, durable redbud with nice form and deep magenta flowers, Mmm, I wonder which Redbud at the U of M arb it was selected from. Pennlake, do you know?

I’ve only been to northern England (Manchester and Liverpool) and southern Scotland, but I sure hope to make it south in the not too distant future. Great gardens need time, and England has had plenty of that. :)

Just an OT sub-thread...responding to Maackia and Floral. Although, of course, the north cornish coast isn't as sheltered as the south, it's all relative. It's still USDA zone 9 with mild temps and plentiful rain. I have read the book 'Tresco, Island of Flowers', and its abundantly clear that the 'lushness' needed to be catalyzed with the planting of shelter belts...and I think the same would apply to anywhere along the north cornish coast, as well. It just so happens that it was a little easier to do on the south coast, so that's why most of the famous cornish gardens are there.

Indianagardengirl, looking at the leaves, I don't think that's Kentucky coffeetree. They're compound but I don't think doubly-compound. What it is I'm not sure other than maybe black walnut or butternut.

Well...... I took some pics of my largest KCT from underneath, and you may be right -- it can be difficult to see the doubly-compound feature:

One more edit -- I now think you were indeed right, I'm pretty sure I can see the double-compound leaves in your pics. Sorry for doubting you -- here's my biggest KCT:

Hi David. Tresco Island (Isles of Sicily) is new to me and looks fascinating. I doubt I'll ever get there, but if I do you can bet Abbey Garden will be on my list of things to do.

BTW, I assumed the north coast was a bit harsher due to winds off the Atlantic. Have you been to Cornwall?

Here's the ubiquitous Quercus ellipsoidalis aka Northern Pin Oak growing along our driveway.

People visiting Cornish gardens have posted You Tube videos of what they have seen walking around in them with cameras. Some of them are done in such a way that a "you are here" experience is produced. For instance there is one where filming using a camera on a stick starts at the top of one of the famous planted properties and continues all the way down the valley to the beach, with stops to show various specimens encountered along the way.

Those interested in flowering trees and shrubs will definitely want to look for You Tube submissions showing Caerhays. The owners have their own promotional productions up - where specific plantings are shown and discussed - as well as there being segments on the site generated by others.

Totally willing to be corrected, Ben, but I’m pretty sure about this one. The neighbors woods had quite a few that were very fruitful, and they cut them down (sadly). Here is a pic of the bark.

Embothrium, I checked out a couple of those Caerhays videos. It would be worth the trip just to see the magnolia collection. A stop at Burncoose Nursery would be mandatory. If I spend any more time researching Cornwall I might end up booking a flight. Stop!!

And then there's the San Francisco Botanical Garden...

I now think you're right, Indianagardengirl -- trunk bark looks right too.

The bark on indianagardengirl's tree looks more like black walnut to me. Here's a photo from last winter of coffeetree bark at a nearby park, plus an impressive coffeetree from Arnoldia located in Aurora NY:

Although not as close as desirable, the opposite leaflets on the stems of IGG's second picture would lend evidence to being a black walnut, Juglans nigra.

Yes - the leaves in the first shots definitely don't have enough divisions to be Gymnocladus.

Big KCT Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown, MD. Form like an Amer elm:

Back again. I agree now that my tree is not KCT. I’ve looked closely and those leaflets are definitely opposite, and not alternate like they are on my little seedling KCTs. However, if this is walnut, I have never seen any fruit. I’ve been here more than 20 years. Is it possible that a walnut tree of that size doesn't fruit? The bark also looks different than my walnut trees; it is blocker, if that makes sense.

In any event, I am happy that I’ve got so many of you to post more big tree pics

:-) Keep them coming!

The coffee tree leaf is more complex, with dozens of leaflets in each leaf.

I find Kentucky Coffee Tree to be a most interesting tree. The specimen in New York posted by arbordave is spectacular. Its trunk reminds me of a conifer, the name of which I can’t come up with, but is amazing. Taxodium? Dawn Redwood? Anyhow, I wish it were planted more often, but if you see a young, container grow KCT at a nursery pre-foliage, you understand why the consumer is disinterested. It’s a stick figure tree at that point, and shinier objects usually win the day. The transformation of this tree in late spring (it doesn’t leaf out until around June 1 here) never ceases to amaze.

Low branch on my coffeetree (branch coming out of upper-left). Leaves are almost surreal:

Pinus strobus. Another area of Blacks Grove Park.

Really tall one.

Stunning white pines.....

Trees this size are even more impressive in pure stands, generally with little under story bc of the shade cast from the trees close proximity.

It's the same tree in both pictures btw.

100 ft bitternut hickory in Bedford Springs Resort, PA. Me for size comparison.

Forest-grown white oak, Bedford Springs Resort, PA.

Hickory and White Pine — that’s just wonderful. I’ve been away a few days camping, but nice to be home and check out GW. Thank you for the pics.

Superior is not my hometown, but I did get to visit its municipal forest. This small city of 26,000 at the far NW corner of the state has done something special.

Here’s a declining birch in the park undergoing some serious excavation.

And a small grove of aspen.

Not my 'hometown' or anywhere near but I had the chance to view some large Thuja occidentalis when on a trip lately. These were taken in town (fish creek wi) but the countryside had pure stands and large specimens scattered about.

Quite a few nice sugars to boot.

Isolated Amer elm in a cornfield just up the road from me into south-central PA. Quite rare to see one this size in this area. Have read that isolation from other trees/elms can help. Bill, Thuja occidentalis (tree-of-life) was commonly planted in cemeteries -- they have long lives & make nice, medium-size evergreens there:

DED is a fungus so distance no doubt helps in that respect. Nice that the tree has no competition from other trees where it's located. Probably gets in on the fertilizer also.

The story teller (guide) on our trip told about back when virgin timber was cut in door county, I think 1700's. Thuja o. was over 4 ft. diameter.

Some of what I saw were around 2' to 3' dbh. After only experiencing landscape trees, these were pretty impressive.

The bedrock was pure limestone and the topsoil was mere inches thick in places. They told me the roots go down into the cracks of the bedrock for some distance.

I was surprised Acer saccharum would grow in such limey conditions.

Pinus strobus, I believe.

Only rarely see this anywhere, but quite a number of them established in brother's wood-lot -- even a couple large ones up in the canopy. Smaller one here to see leaves -- many of them have trunk-suckers like this one. Sycamore maple -- Acer pseudoplatanus:

And there's also Norway maples -- big one here:

Nice sycamores you have there! ;-)

Are the norways crowding out the sugars?

Bill, there aren't a large number of Norways or sycamore maples, just in a few patches. Still, a bit surprised they are so shade tolerant and able to compete in an established "foreign" forest. However, there don't seem to be any small seedlings of them anywhere, perhaps because of the smothering layer of Japanese stilt grass covering the forest floor practically everywhere now (see it in the sycamore maple pic).

The only Norway maples I see here in town are the ones that have been planted.

Many people look at the leaves and swear they're Acer saccharum, I suppose bc of the similarities in leaf structure. Then there are the 'Red leafed' variety.

I do find a few 'Silver maple' (Acer saccharinum) from seed around my yard every year but never view this as a problem, just another nuisance. ;-)

Chestnut oak "sprout" (from previously cut tree) w/6 trunks in Rocky Gap (MD) park, growing on very thin. rocky soil as they commonly do:

Maackia said: 'Was the canopy of the red oak as impressive as the trunk?'

I got back to that red oak today. Might be a pin oak but didn't check out the leaves or anything else too closely. That's not me standing by it. ;-)

The crown wasn't spectacular and may be showing signs of decline.

As long as I was there, this was a full view shot of the Pinus strobus.

Here's a shot of the entire grove containing this pine (left). Some nice bur and red oak?

And a few noteworthty white pine as we left the park.

Bill, that first pic has all the traits and qualities of Q. ellipsoidalis, including a few dead branches for aesthetic appeal. BTW, wonderful white pines. I've got two large specimens near the house, which are in the annual needle drop process. We had gusty winds late this afternoon, and the unneeded needles piled up like a March snow storm. :)

That's right, needle drop in drifts in the park too, if you notice the ground looks 'brown' in the pictures with the White Pines. The picture with the big Red Oak shows green grass. :-)