I forgot to mention that the tree is in the northwest back corner of my yard with a 6ft. privacy wood fence on the north and west side.

Penny

Penny,
Could you plant your R/S there, and just use a shepherd hook pole for your hummer feeder until the tree gets big enough?

glo

I would go with a shepard hook for the short term. Maybe a trellis & bean vine?

I take it there are no other trees nearby. How about some kind of locust. They grow fast, cast light shade, and don't require much fall raking because their leaves are so small.

A friend and I took out a silver maple in the backyard about 4 years ago. We left an eight foot stump which is now covered with coral honeysuckle and clematis. I'm not sure what I'll do in the next few years when the stump has rotted out, a trellis I guess, but for now it is a very lovely thing.

This is what I'd consider doing if I needed a place to hang feeders. I'd have HB put two 4X4 X 10or12 foot posts in the ground and contect them with a wire near the top. You could hang feeders and hanging baskets from the wire. I grow a fifty foot row of heirloom lima beans each summer and I've found this setup to be easy and fool-like-me proof. You would also be able to use the posts to grow vines. With a strong wire and heavy eye-hooks your post can be up to 10 or 12 feet apart. I bury my posts about 3 feet deep so they don't bend over. Think of all you could hang on it. And if you are just hanging things you can keep the lawn under it since there will be plenty of room for your husbands mower. For beans and cardinal climber you just add a wire at the bottom and run strings between the wires. Talk about a summer privacy wall.

Penny I have the same situation in my front yard, a 20 foot maple has died. I was looking into either a Chilean Fire Bush or Red Buckeye, or some kind of native tree. The problem is, it will take years for either to be tall enough to serve as any kind of protection. I will be interested in what others may suggest. Ruth

If you have enough room, how about planting something like a white pine? Don't hummingbirds like to nest in them? They are pretty fast growing, and you might get them to stay all summer (if they don't already).

This is an apricot and it should have a nice even umbrella shape, but there's a bite taken out of the upper right because a huge sugar maple used to lean over it before a tornado took it down a couple years ago. I think it's an ideal medium-sized shade tree because it lets through 25 - 50% scattered light depending on how you want to prune it. Fuschia and other flowering plants that hummingbirds like can be grown under it without getting scorched in the summer heat. The branches are sturdy enough to hold very heavy planters, and there's minimal clean up of leaves in the fall.

It doesn't seem to be disease prone and doesn't attract ants, but this one doesn't produce fruit because it blooms much too early for this area. The hummingbirds use it as an observation post to survey the yard and surrounding area (along with the larger trees of course, but you don't want something the size of a White Oak.) They grow fast, but their growth should be restrained at 2' a year by pruning or else they'll grow too weak and spindly. This tree was about 6' wide when I bought the place in 1990 and has been this size (20' wide) for a good ten years, it's about 18 years old. Every other fruit tree the previous owners planted died of disease, drought, winter, or wind damage, (I know nothing about spraying or protecting fruit trees) but apricots seem to be tough!

I'm going to plant another one to provide some afternoon shade for some Austin roses. This tree doesn't suck up all available moisture in the soil, so plants can be grown under it and the roots don't seem to be invasive. There are self-fruitful varieties available that bloom later for colder climates.

Here is a picture of the location of the tree so y'all can get a better idea of the location. The trees in the background are on my neighbor's property and in relative close proximity to my fence. The plants around and to the side of the tree that are the most prominent are spotted and pale jewelweed. So needless to say the tree stays until the pods mature and the hummers leave. The shadow to the right above the date stamp is from the garage. That bed is shady until mid afternoon. A white pine would be out of the question due to the size of our yard. I already have 2 arbors, and several trellises with scarlet runner beans, hyacinth beans, cardinal flower, cypress vine, morning glories, passion flowers and coral honeysuckle strategically placed around the perimeter of the yard. I do have 5 shepherd hooks that I use for hanging baskets and could also use two for a few years for feeders so as to keep the two feeders in the same location since I have been hanging two of my feeders under that tree since the first year we moved here as you can see in the photo. It is nice because they are on opposite sides of the tree and out of site of each other.

{{gwi:995374}}

I have also been doing some research on dwarf red buckeye even though I know it is a slow grower. I like the idea of it flowering in early spring for the hummers and only achieving a height of 15-20 ft. I could grow it in a large container for a few years which would give it a little more height while the maple roots rot out. Does anyone else grow the dwarf variety?

Penny

What about a lilac or a dogwood? My dogwood is visited by everything from hummers to woodpeckers - andf gives light shade to potted plants under it -

Penny I used to have a maple tree like yours and it died on it's death bed it "killed" my kids swing set. That was in 1993. I never did replace it and the weed trees in neighbors yard took over. The red buckeye is a great tree and I have a few of them. I also have at the other end of yard a dying flowering dogwood "cornus florida" Hummingbirds seem to like white pine to build nests and I don't know if you want to plant a tulip poplar they are fast growers and a favorite of hummers in the spring they love the nectar of their flowers and to build nests in their branches also I bought a large native crabapple which is suseptable to cedar apple rust but the hummers seem to love their flowers Those are 4 hummer trees. Sarah

I guess another possibility is some sort of horse chestnut. I recall a poster here showing pics of his, which were pink flowering and attracted hummers. They eventually get large but it takes a long time for that to happen.

There are breeding programs that are trying to produce blight resistant hybrid cultivars to bolster our native American Chestnut by crossing blight survivors with I think a Canadian variety, but I don't know if any are available.

Here's a picture of three of my red buckeyes the first two are in front of house on grass between my and my neighbors house the second picture is in backyard it's the largest of all of them

I'm with sarah, tulip poplar.
another cool one recommended here on the forum is desert willow, chilopsis linearis, of the bignoniaceae family. it has light purple blossoms that are shaped like crossvine blossoms.
beautiful yards and gardens, folks.

Penny,
When we moved here in 1991 the electric company came along and trimmed our maple tree in the front yard. When they got done, it looked like a huge fan. We had them cut it down. Still havn't figured out what we want to replace it with. LOL. Sorry I'm no help to you!

Hi Penny,

I realize that the death of the tree takes the "choice" out of its removal, but I have to tell you about my red Norway maple. For 14 years I've lived here with that maple in the middle of my backyard. Poorly placed, terrible surface roots that were also very invasive in my flower beds, and a leaf cleanup mess every year...it none-the-less was a pretty tree. Every year I was tempted to remove it...then came the "hot" days of late summer and I'd be grateful for all the afternoon shade it threw across my entire house!

To shorten the story a bit, I had the tree removed 4 months ago. I don't regret it a bit & am so happy to have the new sunny area for gardening. Surprisingly, my house really isn't much warmer than it would have been with the shade. It was a GOOD decision to have it removed.

Back to your situation...after the tree comes down, how about planting a new tree between it's roots, then put a simple ladder-style arbor (even tho you already have arbors) across the area in front of it, to give the new tree a few years to get established. Plant annual vines & maybe a few climing roses and/or clematis on it (picture pink roses, purple clematis and some silverlace vine). It'd make a place to hang your hummer feeders and could cast some shade for your impatiens too. Meanwhile, your new tree would be getting established in the background, waiting it's turn to take center stage.

Patrick

Stan,
I like the4 desert willow but I don't know if it would survive here. It is in the same family as the crossvien I believe.

Patrick, My maples have terrible surface roots also although this one that is coming down has the least amount of the three maples that we have. The ones out front ar very noticable. The tree was way too overpowering for this particular yard. When it was healthy if shaded over half of my yard which really did limit what I could grow successfully back there. Now if I plant something that stays in the 10-20 ft. range, I will still have some shade but also more sun.

Sarah your trees are beautiful. Thank you for posting the picture. The pics I have seen online just didn't show enough close up detail. I still like the thought of the red buckeye.

Birdlegs we have 2 maples out front that the electric company hacked away at last year. In fact they may eventually have to come down because the pruned them so heavily on the street side that they have developed huge surface roots in my yard to balance the weight of the trees. I really love the shade they provide out front because that is the south facing side of the house and they keep our house cool all day long in summer but if we end up having them taken out at some point they will not be replaced by maples that is for sure.

DPallas, Your Apricot is gorgeous. I will have to check that one out too.Hubby does want to find something that stays under 20 if possible. So far he is leaning toward the Snow Fountain weeping Cherry which is a dwarf but I don't know if I really want one of those in that location.

Keep pics and ideas a comim'

Penny