I recommend a Chinese Pistache. The leaves look like a smaller version of a sumac and they turn beautiful shades of red, yellow, orange and gold in the fall. No matter what you plant it will have to be watered the first year but these trees are tougher than a boot. I planted one in similar circumstances at another residence and basically forgot about it while I watered a Norway maple, 2 red maples and a Bradford pear. The pear survived, the maples all died. The pistache was kind of off by its self and got missed most of the time but didnt seem to mind and it was planted in clay and sandrock. For 3 wks. to a month every fall it was beautiful. Also, the silver maple is notorious for wind damage.

Thanks for the suggestion! I definitely like the growth habit where it will provide a wide canopy of shade instead of growing more vertically, and the disease/pest resistance and soil tolerance are good qualities too. I'll have to swing by Marcum's sometime soon and see if they have any in stock.

I second the Pistache! They are so hardy that some cities use them as 'urban street trees'. (That says A LOT about them!) I wouldn't recommend a pear, as their branching structure leads to weak connections to the trunk and if a large storm comes through you'll have large branches fall. Not to mention they only have about a 15 year shelf life before the major leader dies back, and again splits from the tree. (just my two sense as an arborist) Good luck finding a new tree!!

Third for the Chinese Pistache! We planted two trees at our first home about 9 years ago, the Pistache and a lacebark elm. We were good about watering both the first year, and then after that they were on their own. The lacebark elm is larger, but limbs tend to break off in ice storms/wind storms, and the pistache seems indestructible. We chose both from the OK Gardening book because they were recommended and because they met our other top criteria - no raking! leaves are small and disintegrate and blow off.

Aww, I'd actually like to have some leaves for composting and for the garden. It would probably be a looong time before any tree gave me enough leaves for that purpose, though.

I need an "indestructible" tree. For whatever reason I just do not seem to be very good at growing them. Sounds like the Chinese Pistache might be the way to go.

Miraje, maybe take a look at this link - I remembered doing an interview with someone in Heritage Hills several years ago and they were talking about replanting their street trees, so I dug up this link that explains what they were dealing with and what they recommend. One of these may be a better option for your situation, especially if you want a large, spreading canopy and leaves to compost. I don't consider my Chinese Pistache to be large or spreading. It's more of a medium size, vase shaped tree - not like a tire-swing tree, if you know what I mean. Especially helpful are the addresses where, if you are in OKC, you can drive around the neighborhood to see examples of the trees in situ.

Here is a link that might be useful: Heritage Hills Tree Program

The compost comment was only half-serious since I'm not sure we'll still be living in the same house 10 years from now, let alone longer. That will be a definite consideration for our next (and hopefully, last) house. I do want a large tree with a spreading habit, though. It's a large, full-sun yard, and the trees I have planted already are more ornamental and don't get very big (a dogwood and a crabapple). It would be nice for us or future tenants to have at least one shady spot, and some shade on the south side of the house.

I'll take a closer look at the trees listed in that link. I'm a bit leery of buying an elm, though, even if the variety is supposed to be dutch elm resistant.

Great. Also think about how you are planting the tree. My brother-in-law went through about three or four trees in the same spot in the backyard of his new subdivision, before we realized that with the clay soil from the re-grading of the land with a scrap of sod on top, and the way he was planting the tree (like some landscaping companies do, perched sort of higher than grade, with a mulch avalanche leading down to the lawn) was creating what was essentially a clay bowl where the more he watered the tree, the quicker it died. Clay soil can hold water so even though he was sticking his finger into the root ball by the trunk and it felt dry, by watering it, he was smothering the roots. Picture the root ball sitting in a clay pot with no drainage hole. It was really more of a drainage issue, I guess. Someone with more experience with clay can probably chime in with some tips for planting trees in clay/hardpan. I think when he ended up planting the rootball at grade level so water didn't drain from the rootball as fast and one finally took.

When I dig up the maple I'll take a look at the roots and see how they were trying to grow. Our soil is a bit weird in that the "hardpan" is more of a soft sandstone which is a pain in the rear to dig into but is good (almost too good) at absorbing water. When I dug the holes for my tomatoes last year I filled the hole with water two or three times to see how fast it would drain. Even on the second or third try the water was gone within five to ten minutes. Every time I have dug a hole anywhere in the yard, even right after heavy rain, I never find water or soil that even looks remotely close to being saturated. I wonder if the sandstone is basically cutting off the tree's access to the deeper soil moisture. Or I just need to dig a bigger, deeper hole in the first place to give the roots room to get established. It's definitely harder than it sounds, though. There's probably a reason that the only naturalized trees in our neighborhood are blackjack oaks and black locusts.

Oh, and the ever-present eastern red cedar. Can't forget about that!

If you can stand the height, go bald cypress! They are great in wet as well as dry, but they get quite tall.

Moni

Heather, Most tree roots will eventually break through rocks and make their way down beneath them, although some trees are better at doing that than others. My brother successfully planted trees on a limestone hill where the soil he had was caliche clay filled with small rocks sitting on top of huge rocks just a few inches down. He had to use a pickax to break up the rock enough just to put the root balls in the ground, but then the trees grew very well. It does sound like your soil drains almost too well and I think the challenge when planting trees in those conditions is that the trees will need extra water until the root systems are well-established.

I have used the native trees that have lived on our property for decades to guide my tree-planting decisions. We mostly have oak trees, and many kinds of them including post oak, red oak, blackjack oak and burr oak, and then some others including hackberry, possumhaw holly, persimmon, elm, buckthorn, honey locust, hickory, pecan, Mexican Plums and Redbuds (mostly as understory trees), willows near waterways and far too many Eastern red cedars.

We remove as many cedars as we can every year but then new cedars pop up each spring so it seems like a battle we'll never win.

Mia, Well, if he was planting slightly above grade then I understand why he had trouble. In our clay, I plant where the root flare is just above the grade. Usually, though, the people I see planting trees here are planting them too low so the root flare is buried, rather than planting too high. The very same trees that grow in our dense red clay also grow well in the sandier soils near us, although in the sandier soils they grow bigger and they grow more quickly. But then, in the sandier soils there's also a lot of other trees that don't grow in our clay.

I think last summer would have been incredibly hard on young trees, especially if they were just planted last spring. I have wondered how many dead trees we'll see around us after spring green-up is complete. I'm not thinking so much of trees in yards where people could water them at least part of the summer. (I know water restrictions in some areas probably made it hard to water the young trees often enough.) It is the trees out in the native areas with no supplemental irrigation that seemed to struggle the most last year.

Those of us who had a lot of autumn and winter rain may be surprised to see fewer tree deaths than expected based on the lack of summer rain, but those folks in areas still categorized as being in drought may see more tree death since rainfall has been inadequate.

Dawn

I have three 15 year old Chinese Pistash in my front yard. Beautiful trees but all are dying. OSU plant path lab and county extension can give me any idea as to why, other then the trees do not like "wet feet" is prolonged wet roots. Apparently there is no cure for what ails my trees. Web search suggest cotton or oak root rot, again no cure. Do your hone work regarding site selection.