We have a fairly large lot for our area (a little over an acre) which was landscaped when the house was built some 20+ years ago. Has nice flow but the trees an shrubs are overgrown and needed attention. We have had to remove some of the ornamental trees they just were at the end of their lives, badly misshapen and too large to prune without killing them.

Thanks to this weekend's wild wind we lost our Bradford Pear. We knew this was bound to happen after reading about them online.

So I am looking for suggestions for trees that will grow on the faster side and be pretty as well. We have a white dogwood in the front and a silver maple in the back. This one may go soon as well as it is leaning to one side and is dangerously close to the fence.

Here is what we had and what we think did them in, looking for similar size and growth habits:

Japanese Maple on the front corner of the house. This side tends to flood when we get even moderate rain, we think it drowned. This is the same area the silver maple is and is why we think it is leaning, the ground just stays wet in the spring and fall. we are working to resolve the flooding issue by adding a drain and running pvc pipe out to the street.

We have a holly tree on the other corner of the house that just got all messed up when it was pruned "professionally" and has a lot of dead wood in the center.

For these 2 we'd like something with a smaller diameter but can be tall. We can extend the beds a bit to fit them in far enough away from the house.

In the side and back yards we just need shady nice looking trees as we now have only the precariously placed silver maple.

I am looking forward to any replies. If you know of any good garden centers in Portsmouth VA, please let me know because Lowes and Home Depot are useless when it comes to my endless questions...