Hello, we're in the market for a few trees. We're having a hard time deciding with past and current guidelines in mind and were hoping some of you might have a few ideas? I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post but I wanted to convey best I could. Though it would be a nice surprise, I'm not expecting a tree that checks every box. I'm just giving what I know as food for thought, to see what surfaces. I hope that makes sense?
We're in mountain foot hills living in the North West. In the past we've had serious fungus and mold issues before addressing the issues, including rust fungus from the old orchard and incense cedars next door. Most was due to poor air circulation, sick trees that were planted wrong, too closely or dying of old age. Our soil is pretty good, the water table is high in the winter and 8-10ft in summer. I do worry about root rot issues? We have firs, oak, Locust, cedar, maples, hemlocks and sequoia that grow naturally locally and they're healthy. Although I have noticed that blue spruce when they reach a mature height appear more sickly with age. Not sure why, maybe its a root issue? No doubt we have a mix of clay and rock, especially deeper down by the looks of our neighbors. But our soil looks very nice - plus yrs of conditioning. We can have VERY wet winters and when/if we get snow, it can be a lot. Sometimes we get down the the teens, but not as often. Our temps are average, though the gentle rainy summers we used to get 12 yrs ago are a thing of the past. It's more common now to get temps over 100* in summer. We got 112* for almost a week last summer, it did some damage to trees all around us. But ours did okay, probably because we water.
We're older and not able to do as much. We're hoping for low maintenance tree suggestions in both evergreen and deciduous. The locations are open areas mostly with full sun. We'd love a tree of interest, like branch structure, flowers or fall color? But its not a must. We just want something long lived, tough against all seasons + adaptable to soil types, 40ft mature or taller, 15-30ft wide, med to fast growing, no major pest or mold issues if possible, especially nothing prone to limb breakage or root invasion as buildings will be 18-20ft away. (is that enough distance?) My wife wants something without nuts or too trashy. Pine cones are fine if they're small, like a hemlock -/+?
Hoping for something other than more of what we have. We currently have 3 types of Ash Trees, 6 types of Maples, Willow, Fir Trees, Giant Green Thuja, Thuja Plicata Zebrina and Canadian Hemlock.
I really want another Norway Spruce, we had a 60 footer that was leaning badly from being planted poorly and we had to cut it down yrs ago. The pinecones where rather large, shape and size of bananas. But it was a large beautiful tree that thrived. So don't be shy recommending something just became it doesn't fit 100% parameters.
I like Thornless Locust, but concerned about limb breakage? We did have a Poplar Tulip tree that we wanted to keep. But the roots were horrible and had to go. It also got ants & mites badly it caused problems for the laurel hedges. We're on a well too, so I try to stay natural as we can for pests & fungus treatments. Cedrus Cedar Deodara comes to mind, but I read they're prone to root rot? IDK. Kind of overwhelming to decide after all we've gone through getting to this point not wanting to screw it up.
Thanks for reading, sorry it was long. Take care.
We're in mountain foot hills living in the North West. In the past we've had serious fungus and mold issues before addressing the issues, including rust fungus from the old orchard and incense cedars next door. Most was due to poor air circulation, sick trees that were planted wrong, too closely or dying of old age. Our soil is pretty good, the water table is high in the winter and 8-10ft in summer. I do worry about root rot issues? We have firs, oak, Locust, cedar, maples, hemlocks and sequoia that grow naturally locally and they're healthy. Although I have noticed that blue spruce when they reach a mature height appear more sickly with age. Not sure why, maybe its a root issue? No doubt we have a mix of clay and rock, especially deeper down by the looks of our neighbors. But our soil looks very nice - plus yrs of conditioning. We can have VERY wet winters and when/if we get snow, it can be a lot. Sometimes we get down the the teens, but not as often. Our temps are average, though the gentle rainy summers we used to get 12 yrs ago are a thing of the past. It's more common now to get temps over 100* in summer. We got 112* for almost a week last summer, it did some damage to trees all around us. But ours did okay, probably because we water.
We're older and not able to do as much. We're hoping for low maintenance tree suggestions in both evergreen and deciduous. The locations are open areas mostly with full sun. We'd love a tree of interest, like branch structure, flowers or fall color? But its not a must. We just want something long lived, tough against all seasons + adaptable to soil types, 40ft mature or taller, 15-30ft wide, med to fast growing, no major pest or mold issues if possible, especially nothing prone to limb breakage or root invasion as buildings will be 18-20ft away. (is that enough distance?) My wife wants something without nuts or too trashy. Pine cones are fine if they're small, like a hemlock -/+?
Hoping for something other than more of what we have. We currently have 3 types of Ash Trees, 6 types of Maples, Willow, Fir Trees, Giant Green Thuja, Thuja Plicata Zebrina and Canadian Hemlock.
I really want another Norway Spruce, we had a 60 footer that was leaning badly from being planted poorly and we had to cut it down yrs ago. The pinecones where rather large, shape and size of bananas. But it was a large beautiful tree that thrived. So don't be shy recommending something just became it doesn't fit 100% parameters.
I like Thornless Locust, but concerned about limb breakage? We did have a Poplar Tulip tree that we wanted to keep. But the roots were horrible and had to go. It also got ants & mites badly it caused problems for the laurel hedges. We're on a well too, so I try to stay natural as we can for pests & fungus treatments. Cedrus Cedar Deodara comes to mind, but I read they're prone to root rot? IDK. Kind of overwhelming to decide after all we've gone through getting to this point not wanting to screw it up.Thanks for reading, sorry it was long.
Take care.
