For the names of the maples you'd have to ask the nursery owner. But he may not know; so what you can also do is look at the growth habit of the tree and try to project out 20 years... and maples also lend themselves to pruning. If you want a high canopy, then all the branches you are looking at today will eventually be pruned off and a similar shape will be over your head. That is why to me the second maple/third picture looks more like what your property needs. But you could accommodate them both, or all three, if you manage them (once the other Bradford is gone, and honestly, it will likely be a lot cheaper to get rid of both at once - on the other hand, letting a new tree grow in for a few years first means you won't have to go through a moonscape phase). It actually looks like you might have a little new tree by the fence? Maples aren't always appreciative of being gardened under so if you want a flower bed I would be more inclined to remove your foundation hedge and corner pyramid evergreen, and make a nice garden there - those plantings weren't genius choices to start with and are getting past their best-before date. Removing that corner evergreen especially would open up your front door area nicely. Tree removal is always a good opportunity to rethink the whole property landscaping. If you do a plan view diagram and draw circles on it to represent the future canopies of your trees you may find it easier to think of options and placements. Consider sun direction and where you want shade. True you don't have a lot of room but there is scope for much better use of what you have. KarinL

Crapemyrtles are actually fairly long lived and some cultivars can get 20-30 feet tall. It's a very well behaved tree and a safe choice for your front yard. Crapes are prettiest when allowed to make several trunks. Shade trees make a big difference: At the beginning of this summer I had my Mulberry tree cut down. It has been hotter than H E double toothpicks. The difference between tree and no tree has been dramatic. I don't remember being this miserable in a long time. So it was damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead: I did what I was not supposed to and planted not one, but two London Planes in my 30 foot deep front yard (It's 80' wide). They are situated fairly close to the fenceline and will shade my yard and a good part of the road. There are no powerlines or sewer over there for them to interfere with. Also being on a corner lot, they're not going to droop over into anyone else's yard. I was going for maximum overkill for shade and aircooling. Shading part of the street will also combat the hot pavement effect. They're growing quickly but they can't grow fast enough for me.

Congratulations on your new house! It's so much fun having a space to work with but it also can be overwhelming sometimes. Everyone is different when trying to design spaces. Some people can "see" the space they're creating as they learn about different plants, and some people have to see it for real. I'm definitely in the second group. So what I found to be the most helpful is to look at different spaces that I liked, take pictures, and then work backwards to ID the plants, where they work best, what type of soil, and water requirements they'd need. Where you live in makes a BIG difference. Acid or alkaline soil. Temp ranges, rainfall- lots of things that play into plant selection. There's a nice, basic book that I liked when I started out "Texas Home Landscaping" by Greg Grant and Roger Holmes. I see it in box stores a lot but your library might have a copy. And I don't know if you're near San Antonio, but the botanical gardens has a section called "Watersaver Walk" that has I think ? 8 houses mocked up with different landscape designs. Same space, totally different looks. Have fun. Take your time. Don't worry if you kill some of the plants- it's part of the process. Keep reading these boards- some of the nicest plant lovers you'll ever meet hang out here. Hope this helps- Lisa This post was edited by southofsa on Sat, May 24, 14 at 4:32

There comes a time when offering advice that one reaches a point of diminishing returns...........we may be approaching that point ;-) Planning ahead is great and is often a very wise thing to do. But determinedly holding on to some preconceived notion of how your life will be 30, 40 or 50 years down the road is unrealistic. Life happens.......and you need to learn how to roll with the punches and be flexible. Heruga is young and relatively inexperienced but has expressed an interest in pursuing horticulture as a career. And his passion for plants is obvious. But as an "old" gardener with decades of personal and professional gardening under my belt and lifetime full of life experiences, I can safely and assuredly make these observations: As your gardening/horticultural knowledge increases, your taste in plants will change. You cannot fully plot out what your road in life will be. Professions and job opportunities may change. You may wind up working in Texas. Or Florida. Or South America or Timbuktu. Statistics indicate that chances are VERY high that you will not live in the same house all your life, let alone the same general location. Preplanning to such detail now excludes the input one would expect from whomever may share your life. A life partner may have very strong feelings on the suitability of a particular house. Or location. Or may have career requirements of their own that will need to be addressed. And what about the possibility of a family? Kids will have their own requirements that will need to be addressed, both with a house and any landscape. And excluding all of these issues, there are just matters of practicality that are being overlooked. The resale value of a house with a garden crammed full of giant conifers. And with little care for the actual design. The difficulty of growing what will want to be large conifers in containers indefinitely. The future cost of the "perfect" property to accommodate the plant collection (keeping in mind the income a horticultural professional can expect). I could go on, but hopefully Heruga will get the point. I respect his interest and enthusiasm and don't care to dampen that. But at this point in time, I don't think he is thinking very realistically about the future.........time will tell! jumping off the soapbox..............