Well, If I had room for only one, I guess the Q. Rubra N. Red oak would be it. The branches will get thicker and not slope down. If you have room the Pin oak has great fall color for me as Beng has mentioned. The Nuttall's is a red oak family oak, and mine have still got their leaves on them although they are brownish red, I'm happy with them. I know fall color is nice to have, and is the reason some add certain trees to their yard, but, I have to say, I have a Quercus Velutina with great form, and it got kinda orange for a while this fall, one over the mountains had yellow fall color, but, the form of the tree was perfect, even if mine never has much fall color, I just love it's form, and can't wait for it to mature. I can't help but think that starting an oak from an acorn puts the tree at an advantage. I know they grow laterals etc. I know that they do, but, Dax sent me an acorn for a Burr oak, and I direct sowed the acorn, and I have seen articles saying Burr oak sometimes have taproots that go down 7 feet sometimes. Okay, whatever, maybe this one hasn't got a taproot that deep, but, I do know that, if there is a drought that lasts a while, I do not have to baby that seedling, and that Burr seedling doesn't have to take a year or 2 to replace roots instead of putting out growth. If I can choose, I'll choose direct sowing seed. I am going to direct sow Hickory seeds after seeing a post on here where the kid is holding a Hickory in a very long pot, and the taproot is longer than the pot. I am sure the trees will be okay in a rootmaker pot etc. But, I would rather keep that taproot in situ if I am not moving the seedling anyhoo, ya know? I am not knocking the way some peeps do it, but my choice is direct sow. There are situations it must be done in pots. Poaky1

If you have room for all of them, plant em all and enjoy the faster growing ones as they get big fast and the slower growing ones will in time be worth the wait. I have a BURR oak that grows faster than my 2 Q. Alba's have, BUT, it was a special kind that came from a HUGE acorn that a fellow Garden web person gave me. I have several Red oak family oaks that have grown sorta fast BUT I also have some white oak family oaks that grow about as fast as the red oak family oaks. I think the site they are growing on also matters a good bit also. My 2 Q. Albas are pretty slow growing though, I must say, BUT, everybody has different planting sites. Sometimes with certain trees I do wonder, "is it the area the tree is in, or genetics?" I have 2 Q. Robur's I got at the same time from the same person, and 1 of them has grown like a freakin Jacks Beanstock and 1 has just done "average". Now, the "Beanstocks" place used to have some horse poop near it, BUT, the OTHER Q. Robur is really close to a, area where another but OLDER source of horse poop used to be, I have a shrub there that has been growing like wild in that space from that same soil where we used to have a horse barn for about 25 years, in other words that other Q. Robur that hasn't taken off like the "Beanstock" one has is very close to the area where that OLDER pile of poop was many years ago, and actually, once that Q. Roburs roots get to wandering around I thi nk that IT will also tap into that very rich soil. My "Beanstock Q. Robur was basically planted about 5 feet from where the horse poop pile had been about 10 years before I planted it, so, it surely had a nice amount of rich soil to tap into from the get go, PLUS, it was close to the house and I had surely watered it when it hadn't rained very often. That "Beanstock" Q, Robur has also put out a few acorns as of the last couple of years and it is pretty young, maybe 7-8 years old, that is a guess, I do have a bunch of pics with dates on them, BUT, for now, I'll just guess.

I'd recommend a trip to Morton Arboretum, they'll have a nice variety of all these so you can really get a good feel for the differences. I've just never seen a scarlet oak in Chicago so I wouldn't feel safe recommending it (might just be a fluke). I mentioned the city proper thing as I've been told in Chicago that east of Damen the soil is more acidic, I'm west of that line, but I really heavily amended my entire yard (rototilled in tons of mushroom compost and manure) a few years before I planted the NRO, and it turned a great orangish-red last year. I suspect that buying a NRO (or scarlet, for that matter) from an established nursery gets more reliable fall color, as they know that's what people want/expect, even though the red in the title came from the wood/lumber industry. good luck, you can't go wrong with an oak no matter what, Chicago planted burr, shumard, swamp white and shingle oaks all over my neighborhood over the past few years, can't wait until they really get established.

Yardworker 1, I have all 3 in my yard, and I agree, it's tricky by leaf shape. The PIn oak tree, is pretty easy to spot if you go by the trees growing form. I have the red oak (Rubra) and the (Coccinea) Scarlet. I can pick out my Rubras VS my Shumard and Nuttalli's. I have 1 baby Scarlet oak. But by leaf shape it is difficult. My Rubras have a different shape now in their "teen years". If I had to choose between the PIN, SCARLET, OR RED. For a fast growing beautiful tree, in a yard with limited room, I would HAVE to say Pin Oak. Which NEEDS a PH of Neutral 7.0, or lower. The red oak Q. Rubra should be a 2nd choice for a large yard where you could plant 2 oak trees. I Just have actually spent some time under my Pin oak today. I saw it's nice form and I was in awe. I just was so happy i planted it, it is so wonderful. Yes, I am not joking. But I think that the Q. Nuttalli is a nice oak also. I really don't have an oak that I think isn't wonderful, really. I will add that the REd Oak is likely to grow to be more Massive than any of the other oaks mentioned. Unless you try a Compton's oak, that is,. The Compton's oak has no real fall color. It is in the "White oak family" anyways. Not like the Pin Scarlet or Red oaks. Well, all 3 of the oaks "Pin, Scarlet and Red" oaks are said to have red fall color. All 3 may be red in your area yardworker. I can remember the "pin oak" in my yard actually 2 of them, being a quite showy red leafed tree in fall. There are Scarlet and Rubra in my area. I will have to pester the neighbor with a Q. Rubra on what he remembers in fall from his giant Rubra which I planted in !997. I really don't recall how good the fall color is.