American Smoke Tree Cotinus obovatus

American Yellowwood Tree Cladrastis kentukea

Sunburst Honey Locust Gleditsia triacanthos inermis 'suncole'

Golden Spirit Smoke Tree Cotinus coggygria 'ancot' PP13,082

Perhaps one of the variegated Ginkgo's. i.e. 'Summer Rainbow', 'Sunstream', 'Majestic Butterfly'.

Arktrees

How about a Parrotia persica 'Vanessa'?

Turkish Filbert?

I like the recomendation of Sunburst Honeylocust. But personally I like Skyline Honeylocusts better. Maybe Scotch Pine or Austrian Pine?

Thanks guys. My neighbors each have Honeylocusts. Look good. Leaves mow up easily in thr fall. Fine trees. Something subtle about the bark is even interesting. If they did not have them I might go that route.

How bad is the sunscald on Cladrastis kentukea? The yellow wood?

What kind of growth can I expect from the smoke tree?

Filbert huh whaas.....interesting to say the least. Gives me something to think about over christmas.

I don't have person experience with Golden Spirit Smoke Tree, but our American Smoke Tree seems to grow with the conditions. When adequate moisture is available it grows, and stops when there is not. Ours did not grow much this year, but it did not rain for months. Year I planted it, it grew 2-3' with regular rain all summer. I have seen others grow more than that. It can grow fast, or slow, depending upon weather conditions and fertility.

Here is a small recently planted one in a local park.

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And the biggest one I know of in the area. This tree has at least doubled in size the last 4 years or so.

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As for Yellowwood. Bark is pretty thin early, so would think that scald could be a problem initially. There were a number of them planted in a local parking lot, and several of those got scald, BUT I'm sure care was minimal, and the trees weren't in great shape when planted. Since then, they have not had any issues with scald (and all survived planting in the parking lot), and that includes last winters record cold with heavy snow. They seem to grow about 2'/yr, similar to a Redbud in growth rate.

Arktrees

We get about 6-9" of growth per year on the Yellowwood here. Not very common for that reason.

Thats a nice pic of a smoke tree!

The bark of Corylus colurna is very impressive. If it had nicer fall color it would be a knockout.

Spot 2 .... has the driest, seemingly worst soil in the yard

===>>> i am going to say.. playing devils advocate ... that the above statement is irrelevant to your decision ...

properly planted and mulched.. and 'established' ... all but the true swamp trees should not mind an otherwise dry soil .... [by now.. you should know how to deal with the worst clay .. and how can that be any worse than what you have]

which means.. the sky is the limit ... on choice ...

ken

ps: conifer???

Bit of clarification needed over errors in earlier posts - Filbert (Corylus maxima) is just a shrub. If you want a tree-sized hazel, you want Turkish Hazel (Corylus colurna), not Filbert.

Resin

No way I'm getting into a common name debate between Turkish Filbert and Turkish Hazel with you :P

Corylus colurna is what I'll stick to.

The Golden Rain Tree is very drought tolerant; as for your crepe myrtle, it is proly suffering from salt. I had two at my beach compound they suffered a lot from the salt; and I finally had to move them to behind the house to where they would be protected from the salt.

I have 2 filberts, they are slow growers, and of course small, as already mentioned. I would have to suggest a chestnut oak, still have a few acorns! They get huge and grow fast! But not fancy at all, unreliable fall color, bright yellow some years, crappy blotched yellow and brown other years. But can grow fast enough that your grand kids will probably be able to climb it. It's in the white oak family and is strong wooded. Bad thing is it seeds early and you'll have to rake unless you have squirrels.

Here's a link to an example of a mature open grown Chestnut oak

http://www.web2.cnre.vt.edu/4h/bigtree/pics/Upperville%20post%20oak%20042.jpg

It says post oak, but is on the Virginia big trees site as one of the Chestnut oaks of large size. Maybe post oak is a local name for chestnut oak? Oh whatever.... they're nice trees.