Nyssa sylvatica or its cultivars. STunning fall color, nice glossy green leaves in summer. Dioecious, so if you get a female tree, very small dark blue fruit that birds love.

I would suggest weeping willow, too. I live in 9a. Our old house was built in a watershed, clay soil with a lot of wet areas. We had 3 young weeping willows in a low spot by the driveway that thrived and kept the area relatively dry. Had we not moved, we would've planted some in another low wet area.

That spot is way too close to the house to plant a weeping willow. They get enormous and then go roots up when a storm sweeps through. It's not worth the risk, IMO.

Would a root barrier help prevent that? Ours survived 2 major hurricanes (Ike & Harvey) and a 10 day flood where they were submerged in a foot of water.

Black gum tree is an interesting option. It’s a bummer that it’s a “slow growing” tree— I’m super sad that we lost a mature tree and semi impatient to get our shade back

Also, Arbor Day website suggest the tree prefers well drained soil—Should I be concerned that it will not thrive much like that oak?

Heritage ('Cully') river birch or a superior red maple cultivar such as October Glory, Red Sunset ('Franksred') or 'Sun Valley'.

Trees do not cause damp or wet places to dry out.

"Relatively dry" meaning not as wet as having nothing there. They did not dry out the area. The three willows soaked up more than enough water to keep beside our driveway from being a swamp and an arborist suggested planting some in the other problem area we had. (We had a consult to see if we could put a circle drive with our 150+ yr old oak tree. We couldn't. It would have killed the tree eventually being within 30 ft of it.)

Mine are in clay. I hav about 10 of them, all flourishing.

Nowhere near enough room for a weeping willow.

Agree that is not a suitable spot for a weeping willow. Bald cypress? Dawn redwood? Swamp white or pin oak?

you have to wonder how a tree got to that size and age ... if the soil was inappropriate????? .. something else had to change ....

can you give us a big city name.. zones can vary widely ....

lets think outside the box you are already in ... why do you need/want another large tree in between 2 houses??? .. seems to me.. that spot might be better for something in the smaller range ... something like a redbud ... or one of the shrubs that could be pruned into tree form????

and if you want the huge tree.. what about just where the truck is sitting in the pic???

ken

in case this might be a DIY project ... here is a good primer... note timing.. august is not DYI tree planting time fro most of us: I CANT GET TO THE SITE TO LINK.. I WILL TRY LATER ...

BTW.. AS TO THE TITLE ITSELF ....oops ...

clay soil is not an issue for most trees .. properly planted.. just look around your area ...

the trick is the planting and care for the first couple years .. so that you dont kill it.. and the tree can adapt to the soil... and put its roots where it needs them ..

i would not limit my selection on only swamp trees.. because frankly.. you arent living in a bog ...

and now that i look back at the pic .. wasnt the old tree like 4 feet higher than the bottom of the garage door ... how often was the garage floor wet??? .. or your basement if any ...

ken

I will try to get a better picture of the spot later today, after work.

I haven’t noted water in the garage, but there is a sump pump

Thanks you all for the comments! It will be DIY, but not planning on planting until late September/October

“Also, Arbor Day website suggest the tree prefers well drained soil—Should I be concerned that it will not thrive much like that oak?”

I wouldn’t consider the Arbor Day Foundation an “authoritative” source. Black Gum occurs naturally in low lying swamps and wet woods, and although it does occasionally grow in drier upland sites, I think it’s actually much more at home in wet, boggy spots. Try this description from the MO Botanical Garden plant database instead:

”Easily grown in average, medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Prefers moist, acidic soils. Tolerates poorly-drained soils and can grow in standing water. On the other end of the spectrum, tolerates some drought and adapts to some dryish soils, at least in the wild.”

Ours is in a low spot in our yard and sits in standing water for 2-3 months a year and it’s flourishing beautifully.

Is this a better picture of the space? Property line runs diagonally from the utility pole support cable on left all the way to the right of the shed

To answer an earlier question, I am west of Elizabeth, NJ

I have a redbud I planted two years ago in the backyard— I was hoping for something both showy and, eventually, a shade producer for the house (on left of picture)

I think weeping willows are really interesting looking— few in my area; that’s why I was initially looking in that direction

Black gum isn’t out of the running. Loving the ideas on this thread.

I’m kind of steering away from shrubs—for now. Deer are destroying them. I have Schip Lauels I planted in the back— they’re eating those down to stems—I had to put wire fencing around them. The deer are even eating my mature Nellie Stevens holly

I’m looking for something that will eventually have a canopy above the deer

Did the arborist tell you what kind of oak? This would be good to know eitherway.

If not can you get a leaf to show us?

Nyssa and Bald Cypress are decent options as they do well with dry and wet soils.

River Birch and Red Maple also fall into that category. So you don't have to be too concerned about soil moisture.

Please note all these require acidic to neutral ph soils. Nyssa and Red Maple the most sensitive.

You can go slightly alkaline with River Birch and Bald Cypress.

You do not have enough room for a weeping willow so I'd discard that option. And with the understanding that trees will never "soak up" any more water than they need to survive, just plant a species that is tolerant of wet or periodically wet soils - willow oak, red maple, tupelo or sour gum, river birch, hackberry, sweet bay magnolia, etc.

The new tree will need to have a wire enclosure built around it if there is deer pressure. Likewise your shrubs are going to continue to be interfered with unless and until you fence the deer out - you are paying property tax on a parcel you cannot utilize fully because wild animals are being allowed to dictate what gardening is possible there.

I’m planning on a soil test this fall. Not sure of alkalinity/ph

That is the remaining leaf from the oak, I think

My wife doesn’t want a fence 🤷‍♂️

Not sure what I did, but I had a long post with three not-so-great photos. So, now I will just say, Betula nigra (river birch) would be perfect. I have two and they are marvelous, beautiful trees.

On a prior soil test, I was at 6.1

6.1 is totally sufficient for most of the recommendations you've received. My property is in the 6.3-6.6 range and my Nyssa is thriving, as are several maples and birches.