Big Tooth Maple -- gorgeous color

I agree with Wilo. Bigtooth Maples have beautiful fall color. I also like Chinese Pistach for many reasons and they have lovely color too.

Cedar Elms are lovely. Small delicate leaves provide beautiful shade. They are turning yellow and orange this time of year. Then they fall, disappearing gracefully into the grass where they decompose into a rich compost.

Pecans are also terrific in an open setting like this where the nuts and sap will fall on a lawn area.

I'm looking to plant a redbud this fall. This is a smaller tree. They tolerate shade and sun, and put on a gorgeous display of color in the spring.

Thanks for the suggestions. It doesn't appear that the big tooth maple does well in our area. I'm looking at Texas Ash instead. Any input on that one?

Cedar Elm is on our list - love how easy to care for.

Our old old house had Pecan's and they are just too much maintenance. That was on a large lot too. I think the web worms is what was our biggest fight.

I'll have to look into the Chinese Pistachio.

What makes you think that big tooth maple won't do well in your area? Texas Ash is another good one. Shantung maple is pretty good. Caddo maple (another western variant of sugar maple) is also another colorful tree.

Shumard red oak is a nice one. Will be a large one. Texas Red oak is a smaller red oak with better fall color.

Montezuma cypress is recommended in the low spot where it gets water runoffs from rains but can tolerate dry spells. Watch out, it grows FAST if received enough water. You can also try Dawn Redwood which is pretty fast growing. They would look pretty cool by the pond if you have one.

Since you have a large land, I recommend that you go to Texas Forest Service and get cheap small ones to plant around the perimeter and plant nice ones in the middle for your viewing.

Talked to a few people that tried the big tooth maple and they didn't do well. I'm guessing maybe we don't have enough alkaline soil.

A large portion of our lot is eventually going to be a pond it is a lower area so we are putting some 30 gal trees in front of it and not close to the area and may put some smaller 10 gal ones in at the back far away as to not disturb their roots later. Thanks for the tip on the forest service.

We ended up with the following trees. Should go in Mon/Tues before thanksgiving along with a drip system.

3 Monterrey Oaks (different sizes. 2 very large)
2 Live Oaks (different sizes)
2 Shumard Oaks (different sizes)
1 Cedar Elm - 45 gal
1 Oklahoma Redbud - 30 gal
1 Japanese Blueberry - really a bush trimmed into a tree, but very colorful leaves before dropping old ones and evergreen. (We hadn't planned on this one)
2 Red dynamite crape myrtles to flank drive way.

Texas Ash is a maybe at this point as the tree farm didn't have any of them and we got the blueberry one. Although our tree planter is getting the live oaks from a differerent one so he said he could find us one too.

I'll have to draw out our planting plan and post to see what people think. Perimeter trees will go in this spring that are much smaller. We just want to get rid of the hay meadow feeling.

You can plant smaller understory trees(in your understory they also do well as specimen plantings)that will give you spring color if you don't mind a bit of shade gardening.
Redbuds,Mex buckeye, Tx buckeye,Scarlet Buckeyes are all gorgeous in the spring with flowers before all those bigger shade trees come in. Make sure you don't plant them directly under an evergreen tho.
Mexican plum and yaupons will attract birds.
Eve's necklace and some locusts have long pretty flower clusters. PJ

Your profile doesn't show where in Texas you are located, and that makes a big difference. For instance, dogwoods don't do well south of I-10 but are native to much of the state. When they say that Texas is a whole another country, they're not talking jive. What does well in Dallas may not do well in San Antonio or Houston. Down here in the Houston area you see more live oaks and pecans than anything else except crepe myrtle and was myrtle. Citrus trees will also grow from Houston south.

Also, depending on what part of Texas you are in would depend on what type of Redbud you would want, i.e. Eastern does well in east Texas, and I know that down here in south Texas either a Texas or Mexican Redbud is better.

Texas Native Trees

Sam an ltcollins - As I mentioned in my first post I'm in zone 8. Sorry don't really want to give much more detail than that. I hope that is sufficient.

We are getting all, but a couple from a tree farm nearby so I think they'll be ok.

All I've read about the Oklahoma Redbud is that it is similar to the Texas one and maybe a little more hardy which will be good. I had one that died during a cold spell when we lived in Austin that was a Texas Redbud.

OK, that's good. Down here in south Texas, Rockport, the Mexican Redbud is favored over the Texas. They are all great trees though. Good luck with your trees.

lyfia,

Texas is a huge state and you not willing to mention what town is ridiculous. It's a waste of time trying to figure out what trees to recommend because it's basically 4 or 5 different climate in Texas that makes a difference of which one would do best. have a good day.

lou - I can understand that you may feel that way, however my past experience with an internet stalker has made me much more cautious than to do that and since I have moved since that incident I'd like to not get back into that again. I live in a very small town and unfortunately this is an open forum that everybody can read so I try to use more caution now as I don't want to repeat that my past experience. Note that I'm not worried about the people posting here. I'm more worried about those hidden ones that are up to no good that can read this without even being a member. Since I have posted pictures of my house I'd like to not mention my location.

I really appreciate people sharing what trees they like and I so far I've been able to figure out if they would work for my area or not. Unfortunately even if I did say what area it doesn't mean that it would work. Take Austin as an example. It has many different soil conditions depending on whether you are north/west/east/south etc. so even the town wouldn't do much to help.

I find it great that some are comfortable to share their exact locations on an open forum, however my past experience has made me very cautious.

I do realize when it comes to gardening that it is hard to suggest plants without knowing the conditions so I had hoped that providing my zone and soil conditions would at least be a step in the right direction and I really appreciate all the suggestions I've gotten so far.

Hi lyfia :) Can't say I blame you for being cautious. I'm in zone 8 also and have planted 7 Texas ash in the last 5 years. They are awesome trees, IMO. They grow like crazy. One that was planted 2 yrs. ago and was maybe 7' tall is now about 15'. They do better when watered but are drought tolerant when established.

Thanks vwtx - We are having a tough time locating one that isn't 15gal or less. I wanted it for our back to be able to see the leaves changing in the fall from inside while just sitting in the great room or breakfast area.

Maybe a 15 gal would grow fairly quickly. We do have some of these growing naturally in our area so I know they'd do well.

If you're going for dramatic color in the fall, Texas ash is not particularly striking (just boring yellow). I can tell you that my red oaks and pistach are far more interesting. Right now the pistach has green, yellow, orange, fiery red and wine colors. Really beautiful. I consider the Texas ash to be the work horses, fast growing, drought tolerant shade trees.

vwtx - I'm thinking you have Green Ash trees and not Texas ash or white ash which both have some color. I had a Texas Ash at my old house in Austin and it had orange, purplish color along with yellow.

Hi Lyfia -

While not giving your location, how about a description of your soil? Sand, loam, black clay, red clay, caliche, what have you? That way we can advise trees that will grow in your soil in zone 8.

Lin

Lots of good recommendations - here is my 2 cents. I have a chinese pistache and it is really colorful right now - lots of orange, red and yellow. Don't forget that many crepe myrtles have fall color and mine is rapidly turning red. With crepe myrtles, you have flowers in June and color in November. Good luck.

barkingdogwoods - See the last line in the first post for this info, or did you need more detail? I don't know the ph.

nick - texasgal suggested the Chinese Pistache as well, but I've not had much luck finding one around the tree farms here. Not sure if it is because it is popular or doesn't grow that well here. Been reasearching it but haven't gotten an answer yet. We have two crape myrtles and plans for adding some more in the future. You are so right they are great year around. I love how their trunks look empty in the winter as well.

sorry, Lyfia, don't know how i missed that in your post...

In clay, what I've grown and seen that can be very successful are oaks such as shumard red oak, chinkapin oak, and bur oak; Shantung maple; Chinese pistache, and Texas ash (one of my favorites!)

When I haven't been able to find a tree I want locally, I first talk to the nursery personnel to make sure that the tree will do well in my soil. If they just don't carry it due to lack of demand, I sometimes order it online - I've had nice small trees from Sooner plant farm.

HTH.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sooner plant farm

You might want to get a soil test from your local extension office. Some nurseries, like Calloway's, can do soil testing too at certain times of the year. I highly recommend it!

If you're planting trees at the lower part of your yard near a pond, make sure the area they're in isn't waterlogged. If the area stays wet, some trees can drown. (Like maples.) There are trees that can handle very wet areas, like bald cypress - though I don't know what kind of soil the cypresses need.

I'm at the border of the blackland/hill country and we had no luck with the Japanese Blueberry Tree. We planted one last winter and it was dead by spring. I'm guessing it needs a more acidic soil. I don't think cold was the culprit either. My guess is that one may do better in the more eastern parts of the state. It's too bad, I thought it would be pretty cool to try a different type of broadleaf evergreen too.

As for Texas Ash, I read everywhere how highly recommended these are, but yet I've never seen them in stock anywhere. It seems as though all you see are the Arizona and Fan-Tex Ash's, which don't appear to be highly regarded. Does anyone know of a supplier in the greater Austin area?

As for our own experience with the trees you listed, the Live Oaks are great, but in our neighborhood that's virtually all the developer used, so it's a bit of overkill.

We planted a 30 gal. Monterrey Oak last summer and it grew roughly 3' already. We're very happy with that choice.

We have a +-20' Redbud which has done quite well. We inherited it, so I have no clue what variety it is. They seem to do well here.

The Chinese Pistache is quite common around here and seems to do quite well too. It's right up there with the Red Oaks for the best fall color in our area IMO.

Good luck with all your plantings. We just redid our entire yard this past year and it's really fun to see the plants you hand picked take off!

Well our tree's are in. They all have a 1 year warranty since we also had a drip system installed so hopefully they will all do well. We found that we have really good soil below the surface and it is a mix of sand and clay so good drainage, but also not too much so it doesn't hold moisture.

We ended up with the following.

2 - 200 gal Monterrey oaks
1 - 200 gal Live Oak
1 - 65 gal Shumard red oak
1 - 45 gal Shumard Red oak
1 - 45 gal Japanese blueberry (really like how it looks, hopefully it will do well.
1 - 45 gal blueberry tree
1 - 45 gal Lacebark elm
1 - 30 gal Oklahoma Redbud
1 - 30 gal Shumard Red Oak
1 - 30 gal Live Oak
1 - 30 gal Monterrey oak
2 - 15 gal Red Dynamite Crape Myrtles

We found that all tree farms said Texas Ash are really hard to grow and thus very hard to find. They said if i could find a native and dig up I'd be better off. I had one at my old house in Austin that was a native. Very slow growing, but beautiful in the fall.

Best of luck with all those trees. I had no idea 200 gal. was even an option!

In addition to my previous comments, the Shumard Oaks should do well too. They grow like crazy and have a beautiful form and fall color. The only drawback I've heard is that they're supposedly oak wilt susceptible, but I haven't noticed any suffering from that, at least in my area.

I think that it's a real shame that the Bigtooth Maple and TX Ash aren't more available. Especially in my area, we could use some more options that are not only native, but adapted to the alkaline soils and provide good fall color.... It seems like there could be a real niche for a grower to specialize in trees such as that, especially considering the City of Austin's "Grow-Green" guide speaks well of both these species.

I agree, bjb817, it's too bad Bigtooth Maple can rarely be found for sale in Texas. A beautiful, well-behaved tree that actually likes it here.

Randy

I got mine Bigtooth at Metro maples for 45 bucks. It's approx 5 ft tall and has gorgeous fall color. I have alkaline clay so I hope it does ok. PJ

I am so upset :( I just purchased a Bradford Pear from a nursery here in San Antonio. I asked for a small tree that flowered in the summer and had fall color (I miss Maryland).
He recommended this pear tree. I came home and planted it and then (bad me, for trusting this man) checked the internet and found ALL NEGATIVE feeling about it. We have a new home in a small community and everyone said it smells like stinky feet, manure. Well I don't want my neighbors to complain about the stench from my tree. The last thing I wanted to do is cause a problem. I just wanted my home to look great. What can I do now? Do you think I can take it back?

You might ask. If you're not happy with it and it hasn't been too long, I suspect they will try to keep you happy. Besides, all they can say is "No". Then, you can find somewhere else to shop. For all their faults, BP's are pretty in the fall and spring. Good luck!