Brooklyn1 Gravesend1 wrote in
:

On Mon, 15 Aug 2011 11:34:04 -0500, zxcvbob
wrote:

Brooklyn1 wrote:

Walnut trees are not much loved around here. OTOH, I could plant a
cottonwood tree :-)

Cottonwood trees near any structure/building are big trouble, their
roots are very invasive and casue great damage to walks/roads and
they are a rather large tree that grows fast, unfortunately its wood
is weak and massive limbs can and do suddenly fall. I'd not plant
cottonwood as a specimen tree near buildings or in small spaces,
they are best way out in the open, they have interesting looking
bark that becomes so hard it'll make a chainsaw spark.

Without knowing where and in what type of location it's difficult to
recommend a tree, but I'd not plant a nut tree of any type as a
street tree or anywhere near buildings, they are very messy trees.
Perhaps consider a linden tree. I planted a Little Leaf Linden
'June Bride' at the road on my property line, the first in a row of
several other trees acting as a kind of 'fence/boundary marker',
it's doing very well.
http://i55.tinypic.com/314pgr7.jpg


Nice looking tree you got there.

"Cottonwood" was a joke, because of all the fuzz. The whole town
would hate me. It would make a fine looking specimen though, and it's
out in an open area kind-of close to a little stream.

Maybe I should look into a /male/ cottonwood tree. Or a London
Planetree (related to sycamore.) We have room for something big like
that.

London planetrees are lovely shade trees, and grow huge. I planted
two seedlings in my back yard ten years ago, they are about 15 feet
tall now and finally looking like trees. They wre tiny bareroot
seedlings no thicker than a pencil and about 30 inches tall. There
they are in this picture from last year:
http://i52.tinypic.com/14kf795.jpg


Depending on where you are, a London Plane might not be the best idea.
In NYC, for example, they are seriously frowned upon for a couple of
reasons- size is one, relatively early senescence another, and finally
they are highly susceptible to Asian Longhorn Beetle infestation.

Chris
But they are beautiful...