I'd consider the Dawn Redwood, if you can go with a tree that will
grow quickly and wind up large. It's one of the 3 types of redwoods,
the other being the coast redwood and giant sequoia. The leaves are
more like gentle little ferns and turn a beautiful copper color in the
fall. I've never raked them, they just mulch up during the last
mowings, definitely not messy at all.

At one time, these covered large sections of north america. Prior to
WWII, they were believed to be extinct and we only knew what they
looked like from fossils. Then one small grove was found in China,
from which we have today's trees.




"Roger Safian" wrote in message ...
Greetings,

We're thinking about getting a tree on the parkway in front of our house.
We would like something that is nice to look at, as well as not to messy. I
don't mind raking leaves, but, I don't want a tree that's going to drop
something that might stain the cars on the street. I'm thinking about a
Silver Linden, since it has flowers. I'm not sure what to choose as a
second choice. (Our town does this if we split the cost) The list of trees
is at http://www.skokie.org/public/treespecies.html and I'd welcome any
feedback.