Great tree, I can only think of one drawback ... aphids. One of my favorites. I suggest planting in spring or you'll lose an entire season to establishment. As you know t.p. is a major player in N.GA fall color. The ones I have really did thrive in this past heat spell. The foliage remained high quality with minimal (once every 10 days) irrigation. Growth rate 4-6' per year when established. They are difficult to find at nurseries here in the metro. Lowes in Buford had a few of them in the spring but they are gone now. I have been on the lookout for some in large containers but have not been able to find locally. (Should have bought from lowes when I had the chance!) There are many around on roadsides or future walmart supercenter plots that would like to be rescued but not until late winter would I attempt it. They can be widespreading in an open site with age. In their youth, they are more like an oval. There is a house next sub over that has a naturalistic planting of them in their large front yard in varying sizes, all with very light bark and it's beautiful.

A grower I use sells columnar and semi-dwarf varieties of tulip poplar for smaller yards.

Post a photo of the site.

I've got a few in my yard I keep trying to get rid of if anyone wants them.

My landscaper told me they were garbage trees.

That's just because your landscaper wanted to sell you new trees? I don't think they're garbage trees and I have not noticed a problem with aphids. They do lose their leaves early in the fall.

They are a member of the magnolia family, have attractive flowers, grow fast and very straight. Not far from me is a nursery that has a huge one (the trunk is at least 3 feet wide). I like 'em. They are very common around here and I think that is the reason that people take them for granted. But if I didn't have any, I'd sure buy one!

Your lanscaper probably wanted to put in bradford pears.

I would argue their leafdrop is right when it should be. Not too early, not too late. It's amongst the first to leaf out in spring.

buford, you know I didn't mean to bash your landscaper, the comment was tongue in cheek. Still, I am skeptical of comments from professionals that have a vested interest in the outcome (that is, removing undesirable trees can equal an opportunity to purchase more trees).

rosiew, is there a maximum size or width that you're willing for the new tree to be? I know you want it to provide shade, but are there any other characteristics that you desire or want to avoid? For example, maples can have a lot of surface roots and be somewhat of a water hog so you may want to avoid those if you want to garden around it.

What about River Birch? They grow fast and are very pretty with their peeling bark. Plant one with three trunks for more interest. They are vase-shaped. Don't be seduced by anyone to plant a Bradford Pear. They're awful trees with weak branches and horrible leaf fall.

River birch is another great tree. I'm lucky to have them growing wild around my house and quite a few volunteers. I prefer the single stemmed ones over the clumps you find in the garden centers but often times in the wild they are multi-stem. I'm more concerned with their foliage than bark.

As for the landscaper's comment I struggle to think of any trees more desirable than a tulip poplar. It's truly one of the great hardwoods and should be a valued part of any Atlanta/N georgia property. When people visit from out of state and say "wow, look how green it is here", the reason they are saying that is because of trees like tulip poplar. Trust me, it's not because of the willow oaks that the city of buford planted under all the powerlines.

I wonder where this discussion would have gone had I not mentioned tulip poplar. LOL.

Here's the deal, as reported, small front yard, cul de sac lot. The tree would be planted dead in the middle of the lawn, which is bermuda. I may drag my ficus out there just to better visualize, but it's only 6' tall, 4' wide. Bed across the front is centered with two large lorapetalums and is 12' deep. Beyond the lorapetalums, toward the property line, is a crape myrtle, then two topped leylands running front to back.

I'm wondering if really good shade cloth screens would help keep the two front rooms cooler. I've let the lorapetalums grow to 6' so far. They afford privacy but not protection from sun. The front door is recessed via covered walkway.

Wish I could send a picture. Perhaps my neighbor will help with that.

Enuf from me for now although I have a lot more to say.

Thanks, everyone,
Rosie in Sugar Hill

I think he meant they were fast growing and would fall down in a storm. I did let some grow and they all were destroyed when we had those 3 hurricanes 3 years ago. So now I cut them back. My neighbor has a few mature ones in his yard so I get lots of seedlings.

I'm puzzled when someone says they had "hurricane damage" in NE georgia. Do you mean flooding or wind?

I'll give you a more probable threat scenario. Ice storms. The tp's around here suffered no damage in the ice storm year before last. They are not "poplars". They are magnolias. Their common name is tulip poplar or tulip tree but it is of no relation to quaking aspens, cottonwood or willows that would experience the most amount of damage from a wind or ice storm.

Rosie,
without seeing the yard or a pic, it sounds like you might be better off with a dwarf variety in a typical subdiv lot. See the link below

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Little volunteer'

No, it was from the hurricanes (remember Charlie and Ivan?), the wind mostly. The trees just bent over. Maybe the ground was also softened by the rain, who knows. But the landscaper told me they would fall over in wind and they did. They were not on flat ground, I have a very steep hill in my yard and part of what the landscaper did was try to stabilize it. I had 2 dozen pines planted which have grown quite well. I did almost lose some of them in the ice storm in Dec 2005, but we were able to right them and stake them.

Yes I remember them very clearly because I was temporarily living in Florida that year and got a direct hit by Frances & Jeanne just two weeks apart. That is why I kind of don't understand how someone so far inland can say they were hit by a hurricane. You were hit by remnants! :-)

I suppose TECHNICALLY they were tropical storms. But They were pretty wild.

You know, I've been looking on the net at tulip populars, and maybe we don't have a nice cultivar here. For one, I've never seen flowers on them and two, the shape is different.

Frankly, the trees are usually so tall that I see the flowers on the GROUND, not so much on the tree! But I do have one next to the deck and I can see those flowers.

Are you saying the leaf shape is different, buford? Until Quirky mentioned it, I didn't even know that they had cultivars of this tree.

I certainly remember Ivan. My neighbor's huge white oak got blown over. We attributed it to the fact that strong winds came from the EAST with Ivan and usually our severe weather comes from the West (via Alabama). So the trees were unprepared. :) The tree wasn't in perfect shape either, no doubt damaged by construction in the decade before.

The ones I googled appeared to be single trunk with a roundish shape. The ones that grow in my yard seem to be multiple trunks, and more fleshy than woody. Or maybe those are suckers and if I shaped the trees, they'd look better.

The leaves are certainly the right shape.

Tulip poplars ARE magnificent trees with wonderful foliage, and one we used to have in the open had low branches with flowers that could be admired at eye level. However, they grow quickly very tall and would soon be out of scale for a small property in a neighborhood of single-family homes. My neighbors say they drop branches in storms, too.

For alternatives, how about a Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Katsura tree), maybe a multi-trunked one, although check on the roots, same for Acer buergerianum, which also has lovely early spring leafing out and great fall color. ?

Rosie, thanks so much for this recommendation:

"For alternatives, how about a Cercidiphyllum japonicum (Katsura tree), maybe a multi-trunked one, although check on the roots, same for Acer buergerianum, which also has lovely early spring leafing out and great fall color."

Please tell me what you mean about checking on the roots of the Katsura. And can anyone tell me where I could find one and if it should be a fall or spring planting?? One problem I should consider though is that it is said to have trouble in hot dry spots, which perfectly describes my west facing front yard. See link for info.

Many thanks,
Rosie in Sugar Hill

Here is a link that might be useful: Katsura tree

I would think a katsura would be difficult to site in my yard which is why I don't have one. I looked for them and nobody had any although scottsdale famrs (.com) which is outside of alpharetta had it listed on their site so you might try them if you don't find it elsewhere.

Just a reminder there are cultivars of tulip poplar that don't get as big as the species. I mentioned them earlier in this thread I think. Little volunteer, Astis and Arnold

Rosie, I have both trees but still very young, so my personal experience is limited. I mention root depth only in case you might want to plant the sort of shrubs and perennials that need a kind and gentle host under them someday, making that an issue. Trident maple is a great tree and a lovely bright fresh green here at the end of a hard summer, but it is a maple as far as roots go.

I purchased my katsura at The Pottery for a really good price. Only one source suggested it's relatively shallow rooted, but I sat up and took notice since I would like to be able grow more delicate things than grass and ivy under it, but oh, well. I look forward to sitting up in our living room looking out into its branches some day and smelling the autumn foliage (which I never have).

Quirky, I LOVE tulip poplars but can't put the species by the house where I'd like it because of our windy hilltop and our neighbors' warnings about branches breaking off. This is also a dry hardpanish hill and not friendly enough to have something that tall close to the house. Have you seen any of those smaller varieties with some growth on them? I'd really like to know what their shape/growth habit is like. One would be just right out in the corner of the front terrace if it had a graceful form.

Now I am really confused. There is a "rosie" and a "rosiew"

Rosie without the W, I think you'd be wise not to plant any big tree too close to a house but i think your fear of randomly falling branches reall isn't something i think you have to worry about.

I have two arnolds and may adopt a 3rd in the spring. Mine have performed great.
take a look at the link below

Here is a link that might be useful: check me out

And Nosierosie, whom I've actually met, and... I'm just a half hour or so further up, on the other side of Gainesville, from RosieW.

Quirky, 'Little Volunteer' looks really wonderful and should be a good height for a single-story house, which ours also basically is on the uphill side. One of the things I love the best about tulip poplars is the early yellow-green foliage kicking spring off. Do you know who has it around here, or does it have to be sent for?

Stay away from River Birch, they get too messy and unkempt. Tulip poplars are just another ok tree. Someone said that maples, which are probably the best shade tree (especially red maples like October Glory), have shallow roots and need water, which is true. So I'd suggest either an oak, maybe red or white (not Pin) or, better yet, the Lace Bark Elm (allee'). Google it or look it up in Dirr. It's a great tree, interesting bark, super shape , and tough as nails.

and invasive.

Rosie I'm sorry I didn't see your reply ther until just now. I know of only one place in the area that has little volunteer and it is a grower in Monroe. Shoot me an email and I will check their prices and inventory.

Hi there. Thanks. I'm shooting now.

William, no personal experience, but I was looking at one lace bark elm once because I was interested in them and saw a whole bunch of surface roots.

We've got a number of them here in the neighborhood, which is just 10 years old. They're really great trees and I looked to see any unusual surface root issues and found just what I'd expect from most trees. Just last year I planted about a 3 1/2" caliper one at my son's house in Charlotte, right near the sidewalk, and it is doing beautifully.