Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. By Derek Markham Derek Markham. Derek Markham is a green living expert who started writing for Treehugger in Learn about our editorial process. Fact checked by Betsy Petrick.
Betsy Petrick is an experienced researcher, writer, and producer. Learn about our fact checking process. Share Twitter Pinterest Email. Warning Some of the plants on this list are toxic to pets.
Sun Exposure: Full sun to part shade. Soil Needs: Moist, well-drained soils. Sun Exposure: Full sun. Soil Needs: Moist, acidic, loamy soils. Sun Exposure: Full sun to partial shade. Soil Needs: Moist, well-drained soil, with pH from 5.
Soil Needs: Moist, slightly acidic, well-drained soils. Soil Needs: Rich, humusy, consistently moist, well-drained soils. Soil Needs: Moist, acidic, fertile soils; tolerates drier soils. Soil Needs: Moist, average soils; tolerant of poor, dry soils. Sun Exposure: Full sun; tolerates partial shade. Soil Needs: Moist, organically rich, well-drained loamy soils. Soil Needs: Moist, fertile, slightly acidic soils; tolerates clay, sand, and loamy soils.
Avoid alkaline soils. Soil Needs: Fertile, sandy, finely-textured, acidic, well-drained soils. How to Pick the Best Tree Not all of these shade trees will be well suited to your yard, as the length of the growing season, the frost dates, the temperatures, the annual rainfall, and the type of soil all vary by location.
View Article Sources. Your Privacy Rights. Flowering: Non-showy, green flowers in spring. Plant it in full sun or partial shade for best results. Water when soil is dry; fertilize and prune yearly in spring. Flowering: Yes; showy and fragrant white flowers in spring and summer seven years after planting. One in Minnesota is thought to be about 8, years old! Another plus? Growth rate: More than 2 feet per year; reaches a height of up to 50 feet. Flowering: Blue or silver ones in spring.
A deciduous conifer, the dawn redwood is deer-resistant and tolerant of standing water, which makes it an optimal choice for a water garden. Flourishing in the world since the dinosaur era literally , this tree offers ornamental interest in fall when its bright green leaves turn an orange- or reddish-brown color.
Growth rate: Up to 3. Flowering: Yes; inconspicuous copper-colored flowers. The dazzling part of this tree? Its thin canopy of leaves provides patches of shade, and its dark green leaves turn bright yellow in autumn.
Growth rate: 1 to 2 feet per year; matures at up to 70 feet tall and 35 feet wide. Flowering: Ornamental catkin flowers in copper or green each spring. Of the 11 listed here, the one that grows the fastest is the weeping willow — it adds about 10 feet to its height each year, topping out at 40 feet. Next in line are the nuttall oak at 4 feet per year, the dawn redwood at 3. But, if the idea of planting a whole entire tree, no matter the size, overwhelms you, get help from a certified arborist or landscaping pro.
The famous dawn redwood was discovered in a valley in China; previously, it was believed to be extinct since the age of the dinosaurs. Nowadays you can simply purchase one from the Arbor Day Foundation.
They cannot be shipped to Alaska, Arizona, or Hawaii. These trees can quickly reach towering heights and offer a perfect pyramidal shape. The bark is a beautiful color and offers a gnarled appearance, while foliage is a luscious green. Dawn redwoods require almost no maintenance, and they offer a fairly unique feature in that they lose their needles each winter. Dawn redwoods are highly resistant to pests and diseases, and are only seriously affected by canker infections.
The only method of care for this infection is to remove the yellowing and dying back branches by pruning into healthy wood below the spread of the canker. Luckily, it is an adaptable tree readily purchased and can grow in many areas of the United States. Trees are available from Nature Hills Nursery. Bald Cypress 5 to 6-Foot Trees in Containers. Like the dawn redwood, the bald cypress loses its needles in the winter and flushes new growth in the spring.
The bald cypress tolerates most conditions, but quickly adapts to wet areas and is a perfect candidate for that low point in your yard. Prefers full sun. Although the bald cypress is highly resistant to pests and diseases, the few that do tend to bother it are easily controlled by a good watering regimen.
Most pests cause minimal damage. Weeping willows thrive in a more narrow growing zone than the other trees in this guide, but are an excellent choice for shade. They can be purchased affordably via the Arbor Day Foundation store. Cannot be shipped to Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, or Hawaii. Weeping Willow 3 to 4-Foot Trees. These trees will tolerate a variety of conditions, but this is another perfect example for low-lying areas in particular, especially wet ones.
Weeping willows can produce a ton of debris every year. Their leaves blanket the ground and broken branches require frequent maintenance. Willows require consistent cleaning up to remove the ground of dead branches that prevent fungal problems in the future. Early structural pruning is vital to ensuring these trees do not become a massive tangle of branches, but if you have room to let a tree grow and do whatever it wants, this is the plant for you.
However, the willow is susceptible to a disease called crown gall. If your plant develops crown gall, the only effective method of control is to remove the tree and wait a full two years before replanting another willow.
Pecan trees are no stranger to Texas, where it is the state tree. Pawnee Pecan Trees in 5 Containers. Plant this tree if you have room for 3 or 4 total trees, in order to guarantee pollination and a crop of tasty pecans. Tolerates a variety of soil types. There are a handful of different varieties available for purchase from Nature Hills , including the Desirable, Elliot, Pawnee, Stuart, Sumner, and Hardy pecan.
The biggest downside to pecan trees is that they grow a large taproot, making it difficult to transplant except when they are very young and small. They can produce over pounds of nuts a year. When I first moved to Philadelphia, I marveled at what I first thought were sweeps of wisteria in the trees growing along the highway.
Royal Empress Paulownia. The leaves on young trees are massive, and in the fall the leaves drop straight from the tree without changing color. Although they seed readily, you can also find trees online, available from Nature Hills Nursery. Despite being beautiful, paulownia is also plagued by weak and brittle wood, roots that pop through the surface of the soil, and a weakness to cold snaps in the spring.
They are also a very vigorous seeder; check locally to see if the paulownia is considered an invasive species in your area. If paulownia has a more specific or pressing issue, it is that it is a voracious grower and will seed far and beyond your intended planting area. The adaptable and stately southern live oak is proof positive as to why oak trees are considered kings of the forest. Although it is fast growing, oak trees tend to be most successful when planted from nursery stock.
Southern Live Oak Trees in 1 and 5 Containers. Their willingness to adapt to almost any soil condition makes them favored ornamentals in many areas, and their resistance to pollution makes them ideal street trees. Add to that an incredible wind resistance, and the southern live oak makes for an ideal planting. The live oak is resistant to hurricanes and the big storms that tend to rage across the southeast, but it is less resistant to freezing temperatures.
Growing a live oak on the northern limits of its range could be courting trouble. It is also a habitat for other plants including Spanish moss, an image ubiquitous with the south. Ah, the American sycamore. Save yourself the trouble of growing from seed and purchase a tree already standing a few feet tall.
Sycamore Trees in 1-Gal. It tolerates a variety of conditions but grows well in wet areas where it has room to spread out and do its thing. Requires a significant investment in maintenance and cleaning because of the bark and branch debris it sheds. Leaf and twig blight is a concern for sycamores but it can be controlled with adequate watering and fertilizing.
Most diseases and pests can be controlled with selective pruning of affected areas. Among the oldest and largest organisms on the planet, the quaking aspen is an excellent choice for a shade tree — if you have the room for it. This fast-grower is available from the Arbor Day Foundation for a very reasonable price.
Cannot ship to Arizona, Alaska, or Hawaii. It prefers moist soil, and shoots out suckers that will eventually grow into full-sized trees. This colony of trees can be a blessing if you have enough space for the trees to grow, but can be problematic if planting in a more controlled area.
Quaking Aspen 2 to 3-Foot Trees. The tree earns its name from the unequivocally soothing sound of its leaves fluttering en masse in the slightest of breezes. Remember that this tree grows in its own colony, and can form an effective, impenetrable shade screen when allowed to go wild. With stunning yellow foliage in the fall, it requires a massive cleanup. Again, the quaking aspen is not a tree to grow in a controlled area. When grown outside of its natural northern ranges, the aspen can be impacted by heat stresses and fungal problems.
This tree is also a magnet for wildlife. Unfortunately, this wildlife can come in the form of pests such as aspen borers and tent caterpillars.
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