Big Shade Trees

One of the more commonly asked for trees in the nursery are big shade trees. It does not surprise me. After all, shade in a hot summer climate is important to a wide range of people. Not only do big shade trees provide a lot of cooling to the lawn and landscape, they also help shade homes and businesses. But getting trees to a mature enough size in the landscape can be an issue, as many trees are either slow growing, or they slow down as they get size on them.

Picking the right big shade tree for the landscape can come down to preference. Many of our larger shade trees lack the most commonly desired traits, except for rate of growth and size. These missing traits often include fall color, ornamental flowers, pollinator or insect feeding potential (not necessarily a bad thing), and durability (some).

But they do possess many traits which are desirable, even without the most popular trait, fall color. Big shade trees can be fast growing, hardy, tough, long-lived, and be good homes for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife. While most people who have big shade trees were blessed with them by previous homeowners, you can grow a tree to a large size in 15 to 40 years, depending on variety.

Native Big Shade Trees

I have broken down the lists of big trees into 2 groups, natives and nonnatives. Native trees of course have a leg upon the nonnatives, being more adaptable to the areas in which they grow wild. When someone tells me they are having a hard time getting trees to grow in their landscape, I ask them what they selected. Trees that grow wild in the areas around your home should be looked at first, over trees which are not locally found. But nonnatives may also include trees not common in your area. An example would be planting a sweetgum (native of the Southeastern US) in South Dakota. Try to start with regionally native trees.

Sycamore – Platanus occidentalis

One of my favorite trees. It is often discouraged upon by my colleagues. And why? Because the sycamore is a messy tree. It has huge leaves, sometimes as big as 16 inches across. And the seedpods are messy when they first fall (although they break apart easily by mowing or rain). When I was a Kansas State University in the early 2000s, studying for all this, one of my favorite trees on campus was a large sycamore near Throckmorton Hall. The branches were drooping down, beginning to become the support structure for the trees, as large shade trees do as they mature.

Benefits:

The sycamore is one of the largest trees you can plant in the landscape. Mature trees can be anywhere from 60 to 130 feet tall and wide. Thus said, it can take a century to get that big and more. Here in Northeast Kansas, one of the best places to go to see these big shade trees is Sycamore Springs, northeast of Sabetha. Sycamores do grow fast, especially in their first 30 years. So you can get a good sized shade tree quickly with a sycamore.

While it does not rival the oak or cherry when it comes to being a host plant for moths or butterflies; there are still a variety of insects feeding on the leaves. This is a benefit because those insects attract birds. And other wildlife. Birds and other animals also feed on the seeds and live in cavities of older specimens. Moths which use it as a host plant include the sycamore tussock moth, smeared dagger, unicorn prominent, drab prominent, and spiny oak slug.

The leaves are large, which is both good and bad. Large leaves create a dense canopy, which lets little light through, creating very good shade. Seedpods of the sycamore are round, fuzzy balls which break apart when handled or wet.

Sycamores can also grow in a variety of conditions, from wet to dry. While they do not grow in standing water, they will often be found along stream or lake banks, soaking up excess moisture. they are very drought tolerant too, being planted in landscapes where irrigation is non-existent. While they may scorch or drop a few leaves in drought or excessive heat, they bounce back and often set new leaves on in late summer.

Negatives:

Why not to grow a sycamore? Because they are one of the largest trees to add to the landscape. Many homeowners in town or city cannot grow these because of the potential for it to grow over the house and into the neighbor’s lot. Or grow into power lines. The leaves are large and messy, and are similar to an oak after falling. Meaning that they do not crush easily, but are leathery and break down slowly.

Also, if you do not plan to regularly prune your sycamore, expect small branches to come down. Because of the dense canopy, smaller diameter branches in the understory will be shaded out and die. So, they are messy trees.

Sycamore anthracnose is another problematic issue. Its is a fungal disease which affects the new growth in spring, causing distortions, scorch, and leaf drop. On young trees it can be detrimental, leading to slowed growth and potentially death. It is a treatable disease, and there are some resistant cultivars.

Cultivars and Selections

While you can go to the river and pick out a seedling sycamore, or choose to grow it from seed; you can also pick a cultivar from a nursery. Plant breeders and collectors have come up when many quality cultivars of sycamore, London planetree (sycamore x planetree hybrid) and similar species. Many of these are better because they are resistant to anthracnose.

• KC Snow – a Grimm’s Gardens introduction with whiter bark on the trunk from about 3 feet above ground to the canopy. Many of the newer selections of sycamores promote the whiteness of the trunk as a winter interest. This selection is mildly tolerant of anthracnose.
• Monumental – this selection from J. Frank Schmidt Nursery is a very disease resistant cultivar, very tolerant of anthracnose. It is a nicely shaped cultivar, growing 60 feet tall by 40 feet wide, perfect for smaller landscapes.
• Silverwood – a Greenleaf Nursery introduction with silvery-white bark similar to a eucalyptus tree. This selection gets almost as big as the original, growing 60 to 100 feet tall and wide.

Tuliptree – Liriodendron tulipifera

When the American elm and American chestnut were wiped out from eastern forests in the mid 1900s due to disease, this was one of the trees to take over. American forests east of the Mississippi were transformed by the tuliptree and ash, and now the ash is almost gone too (thanks to EAB). But for fast growing big shade trees, the tuliptree is a great choice.

As easily as it overtook the eastern forests, it can grow and shade the landscape around you. The large leaves are quite unique, having almost square corners. The flowers too are attractive. I also love the look of the bark of a young tuliptree, which is slightly pitted looking, and smooth for a long time. In my hometown, there are 2 large tuliptrees shading the Catholic parish, which must be at least a hundred years old.

Benefits:

Being a fast growing tree is the number one benefit, but the tuliptree also has others. It is one of the few big shade trees on this list to have nice fall color. While the color is yellow instead of the reds and oranges so often desired, it is pretty. Also, the tuliptree has unique and pretty flowers. The flowers, which look like a green and yellow tulip, cover the tree in May. Hummingbirds, bees, and other pollinators are attracted to the flowers.

Tuliptrees are also more narrow growing than sycamores and other big shade trees. They often grow to 120 feet tall, but barely 60 feet wide. This means that they can be used in landscape with more limited space requirements. As a wildlife tree, they benefit a larger number of insects and birds than the sycamore. There are a larger number of moths and at least one butterfly that use it as a host plant. These include the eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, luna moth, polyphemus moth, and promethea moth.

Tuliptrees also have few diseases which threaten them as of yet.

Negatives:

Just as with the sycamore, the large leaves of the tuliptree are one of its detractors. They can be messy in the fall, and do not break down very easily. Also, after flowering, the petals and eventually the winged seeds can make a mess if the tree is not planted away from sidewalks and drives. However, besides these traits, there is little else to go against them.

Cultivars and Selections

There have been quite a few prominent selections made of the tuliptree. Probably because it is such an important tree in eastern forests and for landscapes. We even have a few variegated leaf forms, though they tend to scorch in the Central Great Plains summer sun. I recommend the following for our region.

• Little Volunteer – this selections comes from Tennessee and its also where it gets its name from. Unlike the species, this selection grows 30 to 40 feet tall and 25 feet wide, making it perfect for smaller yards.
• Emerald City – a cultivar with dark green, glossy foliage, which grows 60 to 70 feet tall by 40 feet wide. This is our most popular seller in the nursery, from a tuliptree’s point of view.

Eastern Cottonwood – Populus deltoides

I used to have a colleague who hated this tree. And I never knew the reason why. Maybe it was because of its messiness, or he just did not like climbing to trim them. I do not know. But as far as big shade trees go, it is one of my favorites. I think I fell in love with the cottonwood growing up in central Kansas, where the two biggest trees were the cottonwood and the bur oak. But the cottonwood often dwarfed everything.

I love the rustle of the leaves in the summer, and the dappled shade that a cottonwood gives. I have many fond memories of cottonwoods from the grove at my parent’s house where we held birthday parties, picnics, and watched birds. And considering all the wildlife it supports its no wonder I love this tree.

Benefits:

The cottonwood is one of the fastest growing big shade trees. A twenty foot tall tree may only be three years old. That is fast. They easily reach a point of shading the house before being 15 years old. And the shade is not too dense, but more dappled, allowing light to filter through. This means than you can grow a shade garden underneath a grove of cottonwoods.

As a wildlife tree, the cottonwood is one of the best after oaks and cherries. There are a plethora of moths and butterflies which use it as a host plant, along with many other insects. Lepidoptera include Mourning Cloak butterfly, Viceroy butterfly, American dagger moth, blinded sphinx moth, joined underwing moth, and red Spotted Purple butterfly among many others.

The seeds of the cottonwood are born in cottony fluff which floats seeds on the wind. This downy material can be used to stuff pillows and blankets, and is even used as insulation in some areas. The seeds are food for many birds and animals. Newly emerged flower buds are used to make the balm of Gilead, a medicinal mixture for soothing and healing of wounds and burns.

Negatives:

Cottonwoods are messy trees. Just like the sycamore, they tend to drop a lot of branches. This could be more to the fact that they are fast growing, yet somewhat brittle, or because there are so many insects which feed on them. Either way, they are messy. The seeds are the worst part for most homeowners, getting their downy parts stuck in air conditioners, window screens, vents, and more. And if you have mature trees in your yard, prepare for a downy blanket of “snow” each summer.

The roots too can be a problem, as they grow close to the surface and either have to be mowed around or mulched around and planted with a garden and groundcovers. They get huge, growing 100 feet tall and wide, making them an unlikely choice for many landscapes. Fall color is actually present in most years; a bright, clear yellow that shimmers in the sunlight.

Cultivars and Selections

One of the little unknown benefits to the cottonwood is that they are dioecious. Dioecious means that a tree or plant has male and female flower parts on separate trees. So a cottonwood comes in either male or female. This is helpful because it means you can plant a male selection which is seedless.

• Siouxland – this male selection is of course seedless. It grows 50 to 60 feet tall and wide.

Hackberry – Celtis occidentalis

The hackberry is my second favorite of the big shade trees. Just like the cottonwood, there are people who either love it or hate it. But there are so many benefits to this tree, I can overlook the negative points. Besides being fast growing and great for wildlife, it has a nice shape and the shade it produces is dappled, also like the cottonwood. The largest specimen I have ever seen is at the Brown County Courthouse, in Hiawatha, KS. It is not the state champion, but a very large tree anyways.

Benefits:

The hackberry is one of the best big shade trees because it is fast growing, though not as fast as the above trees. I have seen seedling hackberries grow to 20 feet in about 7 years, making it plenty fast. The wood is bendy, not brittle, so there are less branches coming down in a wind than from a cottonwood or sycamore. The shade can be dense or dappled, depending mainly on the location. Hackberry grows 50 to 80 feet tall and wide.

As a wildlife tree, only the oak rivals it in my opinion. There are a host of butterflies and moths, not to mention gall making insects which utilize it. Birds and other wildlife snack on the fruits and the insects found thereon. Some of the butterflies and moths include the hackberry emperor butterfly, American snout butterfly, Mourning Cloak butterfly, hackberry tussock moth, reversed Haploa moth, and copper underwing moth.

Negatives:

The biggest negative on the hackberry is actually an unsightly gall, called the nipple gall. A tiny insect called a psyllid is the maker of these galls, which cause little to no damage, except for aesthetic. Also, there is little to no fall color. It can be yellow, but is usually brown, especially in severe gall years. Besides the nipple gall, there are about a dozen other galls on the leaves, flowers, and stems. But on a large specimen, these are rarely noticed.

Cultivars and Selections

While the hackberry is less commonly chosen for shade than oaks or other big shade trees, there are several nice cultivars. These often have resistance to nipple gall or are chosen for their dark green leaves. As a landscape tree, they are great because the leaves break down easily and can be mowed or crushed into small pieces.

• KC Streetview – was a selection made by Doug Grimm, chosen for its dark green leaves and ability to handle harsh city conditions like road slat, dust, and drought.
• Magnifica – a broad spreading tree which looks similar to an American elm. It grows 50 feet tall and wide, and has dark green leaves and more consistent yellow fall color.
• Prairie Sentinel – an upright form from western Kansas, this is the perfect columnar form for city streets. It grows 45 feet tall by 12 feet wide.

Kentucky Coffeetree – Gymnocladus dioicus

I do not know when this became my favorite tree, but it has been so for awhile. It is not the largest of the big shade trees, nor the most beneficial to wildlife and insects, but it is the most adaptable. The Kentucky coffeetree will grow anywhere in the Central Great Plains and farther out, except in standing water. It is a tough as nails tree. And it comes in either male or female, being dioecious.

I absolutely love the large leaves, which are bipinnately compound. This means that the leaf is made up of leaflets on leaflets on a central leaf stem. The actual leaf can be quite large, one of the largest in North America, even though leaflets are small. This gives it a tropical look and dappled shade underneath. There is a large specimen, male, at my grandmother’s house in north central Kansas, which she was able to grow raspberries and asparagus underneath. And yet it shaded the house nicely.

Benefits:

The Kentucky coffeetree is one of the only native trees with little to no pest or disease problems. I do not recall any issues, even with bacterial leaf spot in late summer. Occasionally, you might find the webbing of fall webworm, but they prefer walnuts. The only moths I could discover eating the leaves are the bisected honeylocust moth, the honeylocust moth, and the small engrailed moth.

Besides the cleanness of the tree, it has small flowers which are attractive, but not easily noticed. Even when the tree is young, the bark is attractive, and it only gets better as it ages. These big shade trees grow 60 to 100 feet tall and wide. I know several in my area that are around 50 feet tall and wide, and have a very nice, rounded shape. And they grow fast, up to 6 feet per year, depending on moisture.

Negatives:

There are only two. If you grow from seed, you have the potential to get a female tree, which produces large pods. The seeds of these are poisonous, unless roasted and ground, where they become a substitute for coffee. The other is that when the tree is young, they do not branch much, and so appear to be just tall sticks in winter. I have a seedling which put its first branch out after 5 years, and around 8 feet tall.

Cultivars and Selections

There are several male cultivars available now, which are great for the landscape, as they produce no pods. Kentucky coffeetree makes a great city and street tree, as long as you select a male cultivar.

• ‘Espresso’ – the most common cultivar in the nursery trade. This male selection has a nice rounded crown, growing 50 to 60 feet tall and wide.
• ‘Skinny Latte’ – a great upright selection, perfect for downtown cityscapes. It grows 50 feet tall by 18 feet wide.
• ‘True North’ – a more cold hardy selection from Minnesota, this variety has a rounded crown, growing 50 feet tall and 40 feet wide.

Osage Orange – Maclura pomifera

One of the most durable and fastest growing trees in the landscape, if you get a thornless male selection. But even the ones with fruit can be beautiful. Starhill Forest in Illinois has several selections of this native tree which are picked for their fruit size. As a shade tree, they get large quickly, are very bendy, and have the glossiest leaves of any tree available.

When I find a large Osage orange, like the one on the corner of my property, I tend to keep it happy. By clearing out the other trees around it and protecting it from the chainsaw wielding neighbors. When younger, Osage orange can grow 6 to 8 feet per year, and slows to 2 to 4 feet per year around age 10. And if you prune it, watch out for watersprout growth!

Benefits:

What benefits am I missing? They are extremely tough and hardy, and will grow almost anywhere, except standing water. Osage orange and Kentucky coffeetree are the only two trees I know that are this tough, with hackberry a close third. There are no diseases which affect Osage orange. Only a handful f moths use the leaves as food for their caterpillars, including the Hagen’s Sphinx moth and the falcate sericoplaga moth. On female trees, the fruit is edible for animals and humans, though the taste is bitter to use. Squirrels like to eat the fruit.

As a shade tree, the canopy is dense and creates good shade. The wood is extremely rot-proof and strong, being used as fence posts, for furniture, and firewood. The tree produces chemicals from the roots which inhibit the growth of some other plants, much the way the black walnut does with juglone. Fall color is typically yellow, but the leaves may not turn before a freeze.

Negatives:

If you grow these from seed, prepare to get both fruit and thorns. The thorns are the worst part of these trees, being from 1/2″ to 2″ long and very sharp. I have a thornless female tree in my yard, shading my buck (goat) pen. It does produce large fruit each year, but even the suckers and watersprouts are thornless. In the landscape, the fruit is the worst thing for mowers, so pick a male selection.

The roots, similar to cottonwoods and maples, will grow on top or near the surface of the soil, making it difficult to grow lawn or put in edging. I recommend mulching them and planting a tough native groundcover.

Cultivars and Selections

There are several nice selections of thornless, male trees which grow well and deserve a spot in the landscape. Osage orange grows 60 to 80 feet tall and 40 to 60 feet wide, making it an excellent selection of the big shade trees.

• ‘White Shield’ – the most common cultivar on the market. It grows 50 feet tall and wide.
• ‘Wichita’ – a selection from near Wichita, KS, it grows 40 feet tall and wide.
• ‘Cannonball’ – is a Starhill Forest selection picked for its extra large fruits.
• ‘KC Fencepost’ – a durable male selection, with thorns, picked by Doug Grimm for its hardiness.

Bur Oak – Quercus macrocarpa

A list of big shade trees would not be complete without at least one oak on it. The bur oak is the champion of the Kansas forests, because it is found in nearly every county. Even in winter it is easy to spot a large bur oak. Their shape is idyllic and easy to see among the backdrop of a leaden sky. The largest ones have spreading lower branches which almost kiss the ground.

One of the first trees I ever learned when I began to study in earnest was the bur oak. There is a seventy-five year old specimen behind my grandmother’s house, which I used to play and swing under. But the older bur oaks in Kansas may be 200 to 300 years old, or more!

Benefits:

The bur oak, as hinted at before, belongs to a group of trees (the White Oak Group) which has more benefits to wildlife than any other type of tree. And I am all about wildlife, especially insects and birds. There are several hundred species of moths and butterflies which utilize oaks as a host plant. A few of them are listed below:

• Afflicted Dagger Moth
• Woolly Gray Moth
• Luna Moth
• Saddled Prominent
• Green Oak-Slug
• Waved Sphinx
• Red-Fringed Emerald
• Large Tolype Moth
• Banded Hairstreak butterfly
• Horace’s Duskywing skipper

Other insects which feed on oaks and become food for birds and mammals include gall wasps, sawflies, katydids, tree crickets, leafhoppers, and so much more. The acorns of oaks are eaten by mammals, squirrels, woodpeckers, jays, and more. And deer browse the leaves of young trees.

In the landscape, the bur oak is not the fastest grower, but fast among other oaks, growing 2 to 3 feet per year when younger. As a member of the White Oak Group, the acorns have less tannins in them, and are palatable to humans if baked or boiled and then ground into flour. The trees are tough, growing in a variety of conditions, similar to Osage orange and Kentucky coffeetree. They can also handle wetter spots better, though not standing water.

Negatives:

They have no fall color. None. At best, they may turn brown before dropping, but they often drop only partially brown. The leaves are large and leathery, taking a full season to break down in the soil. Because they have so many insects feeding on them, they can be messy with galls, aphids, or lacebugs.

There are also a few diseases which can affect older, mature trees, such as Sudden Oak Death, Bur Oak Blight, and powdery mildew. Of these, Bur oak blight is the worst, but not common in the Central Great Plains.

Cultivars and Selections

The bur oak can grow 70 to 100 feet tall and 60 to 130 feet wide, if given the room to spread out. There are not very many cultivars, because it is a tree that is difficult to improve upon. And you cannot make fall color happen without hybridizing it.

• ‘KC Feeder Station’ – was introduced by Doug Grimm for its acorn production. This makes it a great tree for deer and other wildlife.
• ‘Cobblestone’ – was selected for the corky, ridged bark on the younger and older specimens.

Nonnative Big Shade Trees

These big shade trees make great landscape additions. but be careful with nonnatives, as they have the potential to become problematic in the future, even invasive. Many trees which make great landscape and city trees have become invasive in the wilder woods beyond. So tread with caution here.

Ginkgo – Ginkgo biloba

One of the prettiest yellows in fall is the ginkgo. When this tree gets large, and they can get there, they are extremely beautiful. Like the cottonwood and coffeetree, ginkgo comes in male or female plants. One of my favorite big shade trees, a ginkgo in Leavenworth, KS was planted by an Asian princess in the 1800s, before Lewis and Clark’s expedition. When we stood before it, we were dwarfed by its grandeur and might.

The ginkgo has very unique, fan-shaped leaves. And it is a conifer, bearing its seeds in a cone. With many cultivars available, everyone should have one in their landscape, if you want to have diversity and interest for a long time.

Benefits:

There are no pests to the ginkgo. This is because it is a nonnative tree and nothing on US soil has grown with it. And there are no disease issues either. The leaves are bright green and fan-shaped, giving them a distinct look in the landscape. Male selections are tough, and often used as street trees. The bark is smooth, even when older, and only lightly ribbed. It is an excellent addition to the landscape. The shade they provide is dense, once the canopy reaches a mature size.

Negatives:

Pick a male selection if you do not want fruit. The fruit of the ginkgo, despite having an edible seed, has a very stinky outer membrane. When left to rot on the ground, it smells like a rotting carcass.

It has no wildlife value. I do not like a tree without at least one insect feeder, though not being prone to insects is a boon in cityscapes. The ginkgo is also very slow growing, averaging around 3 to 6 inches per year, always. I have a 5 foot tall tree in my yard, which grows around 3 inches a year. Too slow for most newly planted trees.

Cultivars and Selections

There are a lot of cultivars to choose from. From large to narrow to weeping to miniature. I will focus on the larger ones here for the sake of the big shade trees. Larger ones can grow 50 to 100 feet tall and wide.

• ‘Autumn Gold’ – a good selection that grows 50 feet tall by 40 feet wide. Touted for excellent gold fall color.
• ‘Presidential Gold’ – selected by Dr. Michael Dirr, this tree grow 50 to 60 feet tall by 50 feet wide. It is the best choice for a ginkgo cultivar.
• ‘Princeton Sentry’ – a narrow, upright selection for cityscaping. It grows 50 feet tall by 20 feet wide.

Dawn Redwood – Metasequoia glyptostroboides

I first met the dawn redwood on a college trip to Lansing, MI. The tree I saw in the arboretum at the college was huge, already over 100 feet tall. Because of the weather of central Michigan, they can grow some trees we cannot, and some trees we can better than we can. The dawn redwood is one they can grow better than we can. But we can grow them, and they do well here.

They look like a baldcypress, and indeed are more closely related to baldcypress than to redwood. The needles are soft green and deciduous, meaning they drop their leaves each fall.

Benefits:

The dawn redwood is a fast grower, putting on 1 to 2 feet a year. As far as big shade trees go, they can grow up to 100 feet tall, but most cultivars grow to 70 feet high. Because it is not native, it has no major insect or disease problems yet.

Negatives:

One of the failings of the dawn redwood is that it does not take the cold so well. It has to be planted in a spot with a more mild winter, in Zones 5 and warmer. Bagworms are also a potential problem, just as with other similar deciduous conifers like baldcypress and tamarack.

Cultivars and Selections

There are a few selections of the dawn redwood which make it an interesting and ideal tree for the landscape. From soft green to edged in chartreuse, there is a lot of variation in the needles.

• ‘Jade Prince’ – grows 70 feet tall by 25 feet wide, a good choice for cityscapes and narrow landscapes.
• ‘Gold Rush’ – has soft, gold or chartreuse/green foliage which has orange fall color. It grows 50 feet tall and 20 feet wide.

Royal Paulownia – Paulownia tomentosa

While the paulownia is a beautiful tree when it reaches maturity, it can be a weed tree in southern and western states. In the Central Great Plains, I have only seen large specimens in Zone 5b and warmer. It will grow in Zone 4b to 5a, but it will usually die back to ground every year when the temperatures reach minus 10 below 0. Surprisingly, I came across my first ones in north central Kansas, in Concordia. Intrigued by the flower color, I had to know more about them.

Benefits:

In the Central Great Plains, once you find the location suited for it, it will do well, no matter the soil. It has been used in the past to help reclaim poor soils from strip mining operations. It can handle the salts of the street. Royal paulownia has very pretty blue-lavender flowers in the spring which are attractive to hummingbirds. These trees can grow up to 75 feet tall and 40 feet wide, in the right location.

Negatives:

It has become an invasive weed tree, growing in dense thickets in places. Also, it is not very cold hardy, dying back to the ground in severe winters. The seedpods are prickly and annoying to run over as well, and each pod may contain up to 200 seeds. There are no cultivars.

Other Big Shade Trees

I could keep going on, there are many more big shade trees to consider for the home landscape. But each list must come to an end somewhere. The following list has other big shade trees worthy of consideration when planning to add to an existing landscape or when planning a new one.

• American elm – Ulmus americana cultivars resistant to Dutch Elm Disease.
• Japanese pagodatree – Sophora japonica
• Northern catalpa – Catalpa speciosa
• Honeylocust – Gleditsia triacanthos
• Black Walnut – Juglans nigra
• Red oak – Quercus rubra
• Sugar maple – Acer saccharum
• Baldcypress – Taxodium distichum

Conclusion

Big shade trees deserve places in the landscape, because of the benefits which they give us. Shading the landscape is important in a climate where the summers are hot and dry. By planting more trees, you will contribute to cooling your home and yard.

Happy planting!