Hi. American beech trees are slowing being killed by beech bark disease. I am not sure if it will make it to where you live, but it is slowly spreading across the states. Last I heard it was in Michagin. I have several maple trees in my yard. I do not much like them . They send out way to many helicopter seeds. They can rip up yards and destroy sewer lines. However if it is not in your front yard or by a sewer line then a red maple would be fine. If you like maples I would recommend a sugar maple. Yummy maple syrup. The rest of the trees you mentioned I am not familiar with. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. Sugar maples are really nice and there have been a couple really nice varieties created for the Canadian prairies. Unity, inferno, Northern flare and Lord Selkirk. There is a nice one at town hall where I live. They get massive though. Maybe when I take down one of my ash trees in the front yard.

Hi again. I was being a bit unfair to the red maple. We had one that grew into our sewer system. Not only did we have to remove a 60 year old tree we had to replace part of sewer. The roots on maple tree are incredible. The red maple tree is a spectacular sight in the autumn. Just do not plant them near sewer pipes or foundations. It is very expensive to fix.

Where did those Sweetgums sustain those temperatures? The record low temperatures for many areas are at least a zone or 2 lower than the assigned USDA zone. I think the record low around the cities is about -40F. There is a difference between a plant surviving a zone 4 winter and a plant that experiences a 'zone 4 temperature, in a zone 5 or 6 area for one night. The arboretum in Ames, Iowa has a nice Moraine Sweetgum.

I am starting to feel more and more that a rough entrance or exit into and out of fall and spring is responsible for alot more tree problems than minimum low temperatures in the winter. I don't know how many zone 5 winters I've seen kill zone 4 plants in this area....and that was one day of zone 5 area like -20f.

USDA Hardiness Zones are based on average lows, not absolute minimums - there is no such thing as a Zone _ winter, that corresponds to a single low temperature. If a night or two of really cold temperatures are not enough to pull the average down then the Zone designation is not affected.

Let me restart. I think the most important thing that matters, is provenance. An American Beech that is native to Canada will most likely do better than one that is native to Nashville. Hardiness zones can be very inaccurate. A better way to judge would be comparing native seed sources of what you are planting to the area you are planting.

In a recent webinar by NDSU they explained how they are looking to make selections that shut down early in the fall and resist coming out of dormancy too early in the spring. They believe that may be more of the sources of winter injury than mid-winter cold injury.

I believe that 100 percent. I wish ndsu would get back to me in my requests to trial their tree varieties at my tree nursery. They say they will and don't email back.