I would leave out red maple...those are valuable landscape and native forest trees. Definitely agree with norway and especially silver maple!!!!!

Pin oaks in improper areas.
tree of heaven (people don't plant it but let it grow thinking it is a good tree).
honey locust.
blue spruce.

There are way too many silver maples around here. They grow like weeds. Not nearly as many Norway Maples, and Norway maples around here are in general a keeper. Too many honey locust, I planted one and now I wish I choose something different after I saw how many their are around.

Cleveland / bradford pear -- too many.

Pine / Spruce trees -- Planted in the wrong location - there is heavy clay in my city and they all do poorly.

Silver maple bug me the most, but some are well pruned and do look quite nice.

Siberian Elm out here in the high desert... that damn tree is EVERYWHERE!

Leyland Cypress

'Kanzan' Cherry and other double-flowered cherry cultivars that don't produce any fruit (it's cherry season now, and I like eating cherries!)

Resin

Around here, there are Japanese Maples everywhere.

Some varieties are nice (I have an Emperor I as a small shade tree and a Coonara Pygmy (standard) as an ornamental).

But there are red-leaved, weeping JM's all over the place around here. Everyone has one...makes them not so special anymore.

There are three neighbors near me that have green-leaved upright JM's (about 20' tall) and those things spread their seeds far and wide. Each spring/summer, I have to pull hundreds, literally, of seedlings out of my yard, the cracks in my driveway, even in the cracks in the street. I've never seen anything like it...and I grew up (high New Mexico desert) where Siberian Elms are the most commonly-found tree in town. The Siberian Elms have nothing on these Japanese Maples.

Another tree that was way overplanted around here is the European Weeping Birch. They are extremely common around here, but many are dying from Bronze Birch Borer.

A couple of other trees starting to be overused...
* Red Sunset Maple
* Kwanzan Flowering Cherry
* Dwarf Alberta Spruce
* Jacquemonti Birch (I like them, but they are all dying around here... them Borers again, or so I've been told... yet people are still planting them right and left)

"Not nearly as many Norway Maples, and Norway maples around here are in general a keeper". Not sure where you're located, Jamie, but Norway maples are considered invasive across most of, if not all, the northern half of the country. Planting them should be discouraged wherever there is significant potential for native plants to be displaced.

Tophers - European birches are borer magnets around here, too, and I suspect jacquemonti, as you indicated, will likely be just as susceptible (jacquemonti is relatively new here - not many have been in the ground more than a few years). The native paper birch is actually relatively resistant to borers here - because it has co-evolved with the bronze birch borer (a native pest). (comparable to the emerald ash borer and the susceptibility of native ash vs Asian ash). Paper birch tends to be more susceptible to borers in regions with warmer, drier summers (south & west of the Great Lakes area) where it experiences a higher level of stress.

Here is a link that might be useful: invasive Norway maple

Sometimes just seeing a tree planted in the wrong location or circumstances bothers me, whereas it wouldn't if it were placed somewhere else. I drive along and just ask myself what they were thinking.

I am sick of the little dwarf weeping trees, probably cherry, simply because they are used to death here and most of the homeowners trim the weeping branches like fringe on a forehead so that all the branches are exactly X feet off the ground. That's gotta be right up there with bowling ball pruned forsythia.

I wonder if anyone plants a full-sized tree anymore? A mcMansion with a dwarf crabapple or two in a five acre lot. My God, they could have gotten away with sycamores. The house looks out of proportion to begin with so lets make it look larger yet with lilliputian plantings. LOL.

Have a property up the road with an allee of plum trees. Red leaf, green leaf, red leaf, green leaf, red leaf, green leaf. All in a row like the Rockettes.

The shopping mall strips with each restaurant having their crabapple trees sheared heavily on a regular basis like large lollipops. Poor trees. I feel their pain.

Yes, I am getting sick of gleditsia tricanthos inermis. It's a nice tree, but doesn't belong in every other subdivision lot.

Bradford pear. Anywhere.

too many honey locusts of late have been getting planted and river birches have become too popular of late, too.

This guy wrote a similar commentary awhile back. For those who don't want to bother with the link, the trees are

Acer palmatum
Cercidiphyllum
Cornus kousa
Stewartia
Prunus spp.

Here is a link that might be useful: Overplanted in Seattle

Stewartia and Cercidiphyllum, really??

You folks in the PNW are so spoiled!lol!

Reasons for each listing stated in article. Spring here is Feb. to about July 4th, after which it turns real dry - too dry (without generous watering) for east Asian monsoon climate plants like Kousa etc. on many sites. This year spring sometimes seemed almost an extension of winter, followed right on cue by a warming on July 5th that rapidly became the 90s F. we have been having past few days. Native tree species all drought adapted and/or mostly limited to sites receiving or collecting water.

silver maple I,m astonished how far the keys (seed) will spread from neighbors yard to my tree islands.

Probably should have read on...but that means the trees are not situated to their cultural requirments and should not be included on a "overplanted and despised" tree list...just my opinion.

There's also a lot of them around, particularly the Japanese maples, the Kousa, and the Prunus. When you see the same thing over and over, it gets old whether they look happy or not. Garden plants are subject to fashions and mass merchandising, resulting in monotony.

I think poor choice of plant material for location is just as legitimate a reason for despising a tree as not. LOL. Cultural requirements can often be modified to accommodate those poor choices. All you have to do is travel to the South West and watch irrigation in action instead of xeriscaping. There may be a place or two where it's warranted, but not on a wholesale scale.

"I think poor choice of plant material for location is just as legitimate a reason for despising a tree as not."

I get what your saying but the person planting should take responsbility. Its like saying I'm going to plant Cercidiphyllum in a hot dry location and as it suffers from drought...dang you Cercidiphyllum, I hate you for not prospering!lol!

bboy, overplanting definitely get it...all depends on the locale. I just don't want a newbie who never heard of Cercidiphyllum think its not a good choice because it showed up on a "trees to despise" list when they have the proper cutural requirements. Do you want them to plant a pear? lol

i wish that someone would work on an improved cultivar of bradford pear. they really are beautiful trees.

Isn't 'Autumn Blaze' an improved Pyrus Calleryana?

Genetically I don't think Pyrus Calleryana can get better.

Oh well, we planted one in our field so we could enjoy the beauty but it won't bother anyone when/if it splits. It's a good compromise.

callery pear and other variants are widely planted here and very invasive. mimosa are also allowed to grow here in yards and invade wherever they can.

my building at work has the lot edges and islands planted with brradford and norway maple, imagine that! the guys who heavily trim them probably like the contract though.

others are pin oak, silver maple and leyland (or similar)

In California overplanted and despised in my book are:

Chinese Tallow tree
Pink locust thing
Some short lived alder thing.
Mulberry
Tree of heaven
Bead tree
Some big limb dropping pine thing

Probably overplanted but I like 'em:

Crape Myrtle
London Plane
California Sycamore
Deodar Cedar
Fan palms, both Mexican and California
Date palms
Canary Island Date Palm
Queen Palm
California Pepper tree.

Well, I live in the very epicenter of the Emerald Ash Borer infestation, and we lost millions of ash trees.

Surprise, surprise, some people DID learn from this experience. Several communities and subdivisions in the area really impressed me by replanting with a big diversity of things rather than just monocultures or near monocultures.

Katsura trees are now common here, no big loss of diversity if fewer are planted. That's why his article was titled "Overplanted", everything mentioned by him has become a fashion item being planted over and over - regardless of how suitable our conditions are.

If you don't live in western North America you don't know just how dry much or most of the growing season is, and how you have to pour the water on to keep moist climate plants happy - or alive. Even here, in "rainy" Seattle etc. where summer does not start until July, the soil has been drying for some time before then (on water-shedding sites) and when the spring does finally end it gets real dry - typical July precipitation (Seattle) may not total even 1". From that point it often may not become wet enough for dried out turf to green up again until November.

A bumper sticker that was around for awhile read "Seattle Rain Festival - November to May".

bboy, that's a good way of putting it..."fashion item". Some overplanted plants are just popular plantings while others are the "ultimate accessory" for your home.

I have noticed that there are a lot of trees around here that are overplanted because people are led to believe that the tree is the latest and greatest. The Siberian Elm seemed to have been planted in the past, down in the Southwest and in the Midwest, because people were sold on the tree. It seems the various Maples, such as Red Sunset and Autumn Blaze are becoming that way, as well. The parking lots around here are full of those Maples.

I have also noticed that there are trees that people feel is a "must-have" in their yard because that's what's en vogue. The Japanese Maple is the first one that comes to mind. When you go to the "Street of Dreams" events, you will notice that just about every house has several JM's in various forms there. Hinoki Cypress and Junipers (cut into pom-pom's) are others that I see a lot at these events. Again, they're not all bad...just too many of them.

How true about the dry PNW summers. I was very surprised when I moved to Portland from Albuquerque 13 years ago. I figured that there would be no need for watering your lawn/plants up here, but I was WRONG. By mid-July, you need a jack-hammer to get through the dried clay soil. Most years, I dont even bother watering the lawn...it's no use. I water my plants in the planting beds and heavily mulch them, but that's it.