Can u please help me choose One tree for my Front yard and one in Back yard
I have only 2 choices Red Oak and Texas Ash.
North Backyard.
South Front Yard.
City has 2 Chinese Pistache in front Street.
Which Tree should i choose for front yard and which one for Back yard
I live in Dallas, Texas.
This message was edited Aug 26, 2014 12:50 PM
This message was edited Aug 26, 2014 12:57 PM
Is this a Ash Tree?
There are many species of Ash, I think your picture is Ash, but I do not know which one.
How much room do you have in the back? The Oak gets a lot bigger.
There are many species of Ash, I think your picture is Ash, but I do not know which one.
How much room do you have in the back? The Oak gets a lot bigger.
I think you should read more about both trees. Google the botanical name and click on some of the links.
Some are university sites that specialize in plants, others are botanical gardens, others are growers. You will get slightly different stories from each, but enough input to make a decision.
Oak: Gets too big, moderate growth rate. This is one that is native to somewhat wetter areas, so ought to be just fine with average garden water.
Ash: Gets big, moderate growth rate. This is one from a drier area, so will need excellent drainage, and is probably a better choice if it will not be near a lawn.
I agree with Diana, you need to find the eventual hight, width and ROOT SPREAD of any tree you choose not just these two tree's.
There are so many miss planting of tree's and the problems are not always readily notices untill drains are broken up by the roots, foot paths are raised by roots OR sometimes overhead cables when tall branches blow about in the wind and damage over head cables, leaf fall fills up the water pipes from the roof, OR after a few years you have to burn lights in the house because the tree has blacked out the windows.
I't not an absolute list of problem, but I point them out for you to take into consideration as you never mentioned how big the back / front yard was, or able to take such large tee's.
Just last word, here some Ash tree's are quite invasive as they send up little saplings each year in spring so make sure you choose one that's RIGHT for your space and the eventual size your yard can take..As for the Oak, I'm bias, I love them, they are so majestic in shape and colour, and the next generation will thank you for those trees IF positioned correctly.
Good luck late autumn - early spring is best time to plant tree's, make sure you place upturned empty clear plastic container with the bottom removed, stick this close to the root area at planting time as you refill the planting hole, then you fill this container up several times and the water reaches the roots where it's required.
Best Regards.
WeeNel.
there are also medium sized ornamental trees like Sorbus aucuparia and Sorbus ×thuringiaca.
personally i would go for maples like Acer griseum ( just check the images ). Acer saccharum or rubrum are also beautifull but could reach huge proportions.
Ash, oak can be huge and make alot of mess.
you can also go for eucalyptus trees in your zone, many eucalyptus trees are very ornamental and hardy. Eucalyptus, aggregrata, eucalyptus parvula, eucalyptus glaucescens, and if you like grey colours you can go for eucalyptus gunni ''azura'' cultivar. ( http://grafton-nursery.co.uk/thepottingshed/21-ready-now , nursery with hardiness information , http://www.angelfire.com/bc/eucalyptus/euccoldhard.html ( extra eucalyptus hardiness information )
With only 20', a tree that grows larger than 20' wide will overhang house, fence, street...
If the city already has street trees, then your tree should not be too close to them. Pistache can get pretty large, too (20' to 30', though I have only seen a couple of trees 30' wide). How close are they to your front yard? Or perhaps measure from your house to their trunk.
A tree big enough to fill your yard may not be a problem, though it means that yard will be in shade pretty much all the time once the tree gets that big. What other obstructions are there?
You would landscape it once, with the tree small, and use more sun plants. Then, over the years the sun plants die out and you replace them with shade plants.
Can you add a picture of your front yard? Stand way back so we can see the Pistache trees, too.
In the back yard, if your tree was closer to a fence would that be OK with the neighbors? View, mess, shade...
Maybe a pic of the back yard, too.
Not sure what you mean by 'City has 2 Chinese Pistache in front Street.' I'm in Dallas and have Chinese Pistache trees that were planted by previous owner(s), birds or both. They are fast growers and grow extremely tall. Their fall colors are outstanding. That said, they are the messiest trees I've ever encountered. They shed seeds and leaves and (some) berries all year! At least mine are located in a far corner of my lot. I was going to grow some shade plants there but all the trash being shed by the CP has made it too hard. I just can't believe that the City of Irving has planted these trees everywhere.
I also have 2 very large Red Oaks. They are beautiful, require very little care and I love them. But I am very paranoid about them. They are beautiful trees but, along with Live Oaks, are susceptible to Oak Wilt disease. In the late '80s I lived in Austin and saw hundreds of oaks die. I'm not saying you shouldn't plant a Red Oak, but I am saying that you should keep an eye on it and especially on any neighboring Red Oaks. The disease will spread from an infected tree thru the root systems. To my knowledge, there isn't a cure, but that may have changed. Google it.
Know nothing about Texas Ash.
You might check out www.dirtdoctor.com to see what he has to say about trees. He lives here in Dallas. There are lots of other local or local-ish resources who can advise you on trees that do well in Irving.
Update: Don't know if you're still reading this but I looked up info on Texas Ash. Here's a link to it.
http://www.dirtdoctor.com/Ash-Tree-Texas_vq2322.htm
In case the link doesn't work due to password issues, I thought I'd copy the info. Couldn't copy the pics.
From what I'm reading, this is a beautiful tree but one that grows quite large.
"This is one of terrific but underused trees. Here are the details.
OTHER COMMON NAMES: MOUNTAIN ASH, TEXAS WHITE ASH
BOTANICAL NAME: Fraxinus texensis PRONUNCIATION: (FRAK-suh-nus tex-EN-sis)
FAMILY: Oleaceae (Olive Family)
TYPE: Deciduous shade tree
HEIGHT: 30 to 50 feet
SPREAD: 30 to 40 feet
FINAL SPACING: 20 to 40 feet
NATURAL HABITAT AND PREFERRED SITE: Texas ash grows natively in limestone soils of north Texas west to Palo Pinto County and down to the Balcones Escarpment of the Edward’s Plateau. It is also native in Val Verde County to the far west of its range. It grows in very low rainfall areas and can handle steeply sloped and very thin soils but will adapt to normal landscape conditions throughout Texas.
IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION: Texas Ash is a beautiful shade tree that is graceful in the summer but has rich fall color that ranges from pastel hues of yellow, orange, red, gold and purple that completely often turn a brilliant scarlet red. The tree generally has an overall rounded or oval and very neat form. Although spreading with age.
FLOWERS AND FRUIT: Small greenish yellow flowers in the spring in clusters of winged samara that ripen in the fall.
BARK: Bark is very light and smooth in color – light gray to almost white in some cases when young. It gets darker and gets mildly fissured with age.
FOLIAGE: Foliage is compound 8 to 13 inches long. Usually 3 to 5 leaflets with 7 being the most common. The leaflets are rounded when young but become more pointed with age. The very closely kin white ash has dark lustrous color on the top of the leaves with a paler whitish color beneath.
CULTURE: Texas ash is very easy to grow in most soils unless over watered. It has very low water and fertilizer requirements but does need excellent drainage and it is also very easy to transplant from the wild.
PROBLEMS: Poor drainage is the biggest problem, which will lead to borers, root diseases and other environmentally related pests.
PROPAGATION: Texas ash can be grown very easily from seed, cuttings or transplants. The seed should be sown outdoors in the fall in beds or pots. ¼ to ½ inch deep in well-drained soil. The planting area for best results should be given light to medium shade in the afternoon for the first season. Cuttings will do best when taken very late in the winter as buds are swelling just before flowering. Texas ash can be transplanted successfully up to 6 inches in caliper if handled properly. Books that recommend trees to be pruned back at transplanting time should be ignored. Not a twig should be cut away at transplanting.
INSIGHT: Most plentiful ash in Texas. Shinner’s and Maher’s Flora of North Central Texas by Diggs, Lipscomb and O’Kennon agree that the Texas ash may be the subspecies of White Ash, Faxinus americana. I don’t care – they both do very well here. Texas ash is very closely kin to the white ash and according to the late Benny Simpson the only difference between the white ash and Texas ash is the length of the seed of the white ash is slightly longer. I have recommended white ash cultivars in the past but it is best in all cases to try to stick with native plants whenever possible."
