Select A Shade Tree For Your Yard

Why not plant the best! The average person will likely a dozen or less trees. Many homeowners choose to buy a fast-growing tree. But, in the long run, in 25-30 years, you will likely pay the price for the fast growth. The speedy trees are generally weak-wooded and branches can break in ice and storms packing high winds. They become hazard trees. Don’t plant a fast growing tree within 50 feet of your home. Below ground their roots will grow into sewer and water lines. All trees listed are hardy in USDA hardiness zones 5-9.

Moderate growing trees (50 feet and higher):

Hybrid Freeman Maples (Acer freemanii)

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) 'Red Sunset', 'October Glory'

Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) 'Green Mountain'

Ohio Buckeye (Aesculus glabra)

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) (select male clones only)

Thornless Honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis)

Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioica) 'Espresso'

Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) 'Happidaze', 'Slender Silhouette'

Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera) 

Black gum, tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) 'Green Gable', 'Wildfire', 'Red Rage'

London Planetree (Platanus x acerfolia) 'Columbia' 

Shingle Oak (Quercus imbricaria)

Willow oak (Quercus phellos)

English Oak (Quercus robur)

American Elm (Ulmus americana) 'Washington', 'Princeton', 'Jefferson'

Japanese zelkova (Zelkova serrata) 'Murashino', 'Green Vase'

Medium Sized Shade Trees (35-50 feet) 

Trident maple (Acer buergerianum)

River birch (Betula nigra) -'Heritage', 'Duraheat' 

European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)

Yellowwood (Cladrastis kentukea)

Crape myrtle (tree forms) (Lagerstroemia x)*

Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana)**

Live oak (Quercus virginiana)*

Japanese pagoda tree (Styphnolobium japonica)

Basswood, American linden (Tilia americana) 

Little leaf Linden (Tilia cordata) 

Lacebark elm (Ulmus parvifolia) 'Athena', 'Bosque', 'Allee'

*hardy in Southern U.S. (zones 7-10)

Editor's note: all ash species (Fraxinus spp.) have been delisted because of tree's susceptibility to Emerald Ash Borer.

Kentucky Coffeetree

Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus) is a large native tree found in 18 states, from New York west to Nebraska and from central Minnesota south to Oklahoma (zones 4 through 7). It averages a mature height between 60- 70 feet (some greater than 90 feet) with a spread of 35-50 feet. This tap-rooted tree establishes within 2-3 years, with an annual growth rate averaging 12-15 inches, about the same as ginkgo or white oak.

Kentucky coffeetree

Spring leaf out occurs in mid- to late spring. Recessed vegetative buds push forth as multi-pinnate compound leaves. A single leaf may measure 2 to 3 feet across, producing between 70 and 100 leaflets. Fragrant olive-white flower panicles appear in late May in clusters of 8 to 12 inches long by 3 to 4 inches wide.

In autumn its lime-yellow to golden brown compound leaves drop to become a leaf raker’s nightmare. During the winter months, the totally naked upright branches take on a stark appearance. K-coffeetree may be single or multi-trunked.

K-coffeetree grows in a wide variety of soil types and tolerates a poorly drained wet sites. No significant disease or insect pests mar the lush green tropical-like summer foliage. Bark is distinctively charcoal gray and shaggy, a trait more pronounced as the tree ages.

Spring pea-like flowers are dioecious, bearing either male or female flowers. Female trees bear clusters of broad bean pods measuring 5 -10 inches long and 1 ½ - 2 inches wide on the tips of branches. Flowers and pods are inconspicuous, mostly hidden within the dense foliage through late summer.

'Espresso' is a male cultivar with no seed pods to rake up. In colonial America the beans were harvested and a crude coffee extract was brewed, no threat to Starbucks. The leaves and bean seeds are reportedly toxic to man and grazing cattle.

K-coffeetree is rarely sold in garden centers, but is available from on-line nurseries. Notoriously difficult to transplant, young 2-inch caliper nursery-grown trees move easily.