Celtis sp.

Look right to me - Thanks so much Chris - I passed on the information and gave you the credit. Best wishes, jase

Looks like you have an old house like ours ;). We have the same type of windows. I see a lot of these here in central Austin in old neighborhoods. People do whack them back to get rid of them, but like bamboo they come back. I understand why people originally planted them but they are now considered to be pests. I was just writing a friend about my Chinaberry adventures. We had 12 huge ones on our tiny city lot. I loved the shade but learned quickly that they can be a nuisance. With the Chinaberry, once they are cut down like that, they eagerly regrow, but sprout many stems--those stems become trunks and eventually the whole tree grows akimbo, becoming quite fragile and unstable. I have a 5-trunked Chinaberry out back that is almost 50 feet tall and a windstorm last year cracked the whole thing in half. In addition the berries that grow from those flowers reseed everywhere, and you will see little chinaberry saplings next spring. I love the fragrance of those flowers but I'd cut them before they produce berries. The ligustrums don't get as huge but will grow back as fast as you can cut them. They get maybe 15 feet tall at most in my yard, but I've cut most of them back. The nice thing is that they are evergreen and I like the glossy leaves but they also reseed and send out underground runners that sprout new trees. If you are diligent in keeping up with the runners, it might be a nice tree-shrub for you. People originally planted them as hedges, I guess, but they they are not easy to control. The best way to get rid of them, I'm learning, without superhuman digging strength or chemicals, is to keep cutting until they give up the ghost. You might have to cut back a few times a year until they stop. I've seen others cover them with black plastic for a summer so they bake. Anyways, all this to say, don't fret because there's a good reason why the previous owner was trying to cut them down.

Thanks everyone. Neither of them are in their final place--this bed is just a holding pad that I moved a bunch of existing plants to when we redid the landscaping in the front beds. Neither the lilac nor the hydrangea would do that well being 2 feet or less from the foundation long term! Macranthos, you mention it being "goofy looking". I was also thrown off by the growth habit. Before we dug it out, this lilac was planted in an "almost but not quite" full sun area. If I moved it to full sun, do you think it would become more bushy or is there an issue with this plant?