In article .com,
"me" wrote:

Hi,

I live in Southeast PA. I am removing several box elder trees (aka
ashleaf maple, manitoba maple). I don't really want to do this, but
they are huge and falling apart (occasionally dropping very large
limbs) and they are also attracting large amounts of boxelder beetles
which enter my home in the fall. I would like suggestions for a tree
species to replace them with. My soil has high clay content and my zone
is 6b. I think the soil is slightly acidic, but I need to retest it.

An ideal tree would be something very hardy that grows fast. I'd much
rather have a deciduous leaf tree than something with needles. A native
species is preferred, but I'd consider others.

Thanks

Acer saccharum Sugar Maple is native to your region & have such a
wonderful history & value to them. Even very young sugar maples have
beautiful autumn color.

Acer rubrum is famous for its autumn reds. It's fast growing but branches
can be weaker than a sugar maple, & may need regular summer watering
making it harder to ignore on a roadside, but it has one of the highest
ornamental ratings & because Japanese maples can be frozen to death where
winters are severe, A. rubrum is its typical substute further north.

Both the sugar & red maples can get fairly large. Acer pennsylvanicum
remains smaller, so regarded as a choice ornamental tree that won't get
too large for a smallish yard. It has white-striped bark & a duckfoot
rather than standard maple leaf that can turn a pleasant pink in autumn
though autumn color excellence can vary a lot.

One of the most beautifully flowering no-care native trees is the
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana). The cherries aren't edible raw but make
great syrups & jellies. The racemes of flowers are enormous & the black
fruit clings pretty strongly to the branches until birds get them. Autumn
colors of yellow, maroon & brown aren't quite fabulous but can be pretty
nice. There is a purple leaf cultivar called 'Schubert.' Check local
growers or experts to see if it is afflicted with pests in your area; some
regions it is a totally disease-free native tree, but there are other
places where it suffers from just about any insect or pathogen that can
afflict an orchard.

Fire cherry or Pin cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) has May racemes of white
flowers not as showy as the chokecherry but still pretty showy. Tiny red
sour berries too tart to eat raw but superb for jellies or pies; or if
left on the branches will cling prettil;y until about leaf-fall when birds
finally get them (birds tend to leave tend to leave them be until after a
couple frosts sweeten them a bit or when sweeter fruits are no longer
available). Like the chokecherry, autumn leaves can range from maroon to
golden but not generally extremely bright. Probably available from a
native plants specialist in your area.

American Plum (Prunus americana) has small April clusters of white flowers
though pink-flowering forms exist. Tolerates equally dry or wet locations,
but grows quickly only with regular watering. It has very ornamental
plums, one of the prettiest fruits of any native prunus species, going
from green to yellow or red, but often cloudy or mottled in red, purple,
pink & mahogany -- edible especially for preserves. This is a tree or
shrub that SHOULD have cultivars because of its tendency to such variation
but predictable forms will have to await for enterprising future
ornamental breeders. If specimens can be selected from a native plants
specialist while in fruit that'd be great because specimens from different
regions have such differing fruit appearance; or selected in autumn to get
specimen with best autumn color which can also vary from brilliant
purple-reds to bland yellows. It needs suckers removed to become a
smallish tree (20 feet or so) instead of a multibranched shrub, but
otherwise takes no attention, very adaptable. If allowed to sucker it can
be used as part of a mixed hedge (& is sometimes called "hedge plum")
mixing well with serviceberry & viburnum cranberry for a colorful
flowering & fruiting big mixed hedge ten to fifteen feet tall. Note that
some but not all strains develop branch thorns.

Native choices can be super-rewarding, but so can cultivated fruit trees.
For something smallish yet fairly rapid in growth, semi-dwarf italian
prune and/or a crosspollinating pair of sweet cherries or a pair of apples
are beautiful trees in their own right, besides feeding you & when on a
roadside feeding the neighborhood kids. If there's worry about fruit
falling on sidewalk, sweet cherries are better than apples or plums
because if you fail to pick the cherries the birds will do so leaving none
to fall on the sidewalk.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson