You imagine that small tree in its plastic bucket growing into a dynamic beauty in your yard, tracking the change in seasons by its foliage display and spreading branches.
But is that tiny tree destined to become a monster with gangly growth patterns, unruly thorns, or dirty droppings?
Truth is, much of the landscaping bought ends up being a disappointment because it's chosen unwisely. There's homework to do in choosing the best types of trees that will give you pleasure and bring the right look to your yard or landscape. Before buying the tree, you need to learn about it; and not only the space it will be planted in but what you should expect as it grows and matures.
Thorny Issues
Several "ornamental" trees, which are sold mostly for their brief show of spring blooms, grow seriously sharp thorns on their branches. This makes pruning these types of trees tricky, including ornamental varietals of Hawthorn and Pear, some of which have thorns two to three inches long. Ornamentals often fall victim to storms too; the Bradbury Pear tree is quite susceptible to losing limbs in high winds.
Thorny ornamentals are best planted along perimeters of open spaces. Trim once a year or prune as a hedge, as they make for a good windbreak. As trees, any thorny varietal should be planted away from areas of activity.
Bug Magnets
The Box Elder tree has a soft bark, which makes it a target for boring insects. As well, female box elders draw high numbers of box elder bugs—winged, black and orange critters that, while not harmful, are a nuisance and can infiltrate an area quickly.
The lovely Maple tree will also draw box elder bugs, which can lay waste to any nearby fruit plantings. Native Northeastern trees like ash, oak and maples have seen widespread damage in the past several years from boring insects, like Emerald Ash Borer, and Asian beetles, which travel to the U.S. courtesy of packing crates from overseas. The Ash Borer has infested ashes from lower Michigan through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Deeply Rooted Problems
If you don't have much yard or an area far removed from underground pipes and sewar systems, eliminate Silver Maples, Willows, and Box Elders. These trees will aggressively seek out water and are culprits to blocked pipes. These trees grow quickly. As such, their support systems are not as sturdy as other trees. Damage from wind and dropped branches will have you doing regular clean up after storms.
Pine is better left to the woods, not your yard. It will grow unwieldy, unless well tended, in no time. It suffers root problems, and is loaded with pollen. Grass has a tendency not to grow under pines.
Dirty Droppings
It would be hard to find dirtier trees than Black Walnut and various Hickory varietals. Being nut trees they drop large quantities of dirty, thick-shelled nuts from summer into fall. Walnuts will stain concrete on driveways and patios. It requires power washing to release the oils from stains, but often the stains can't be budged easily. The rotting hulls also draw flies.
Oak trees too litter the areas around them with hundreds of tiny acorns. Not bad if you're a squirrel, but a plentiful problem for clean up. Sycamore trees shed their bark, often in swaths, like large paint peelings, and drop ping-pong-ball size hairy pods in spring.
Sweetgum trees dispense spiny-edged, woody capsules, sometimes referred to as "porcupines," that are rough to the touch. They imbed themselves into your lawn, making for difficult raking and mowing. If the colorful fall foliage sweetgums put out isn't worth the mess created most of the year by its shrapnel-like clusters, this tree isn't for you.
And a really messy contender: the Mulberry. In early June it will drop hundreds of elongated, raspberry-like, purple fruit that stains anything it comes into contact with. Beware putting this tree near any spaces you'd like to use during the month, because you won't be using them. This is a terrible choice of tree for existence near a patio, pool or grill area.
For related planting ideas for your home and yard see the article Window Box Gardening
Chris Conard-Shultz - Contributing editor with Homes & Gardens of South Central PA. Regular contributor to "Go" magazine, monthly inflight pub of AirTran ...
