On Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:36:22 -0500, Chris Thompson
wrote:

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.

Obviously the planting of every tree should be well thought out, use
ones common sense. London planetrees are much more disease and insect
resistant than sycamore, but virtually all plants are suseptible to
diseases and insect infestations... modern science now gives one the
tools to cope with much more success... if gardeners chose only plants
with 100% guarantees of success they'd plant nothing. There are many
areas in NYC where streets were once lined with sycamores that thrived
for a hundred years and more but were eventually removed because as
they attained great size they caused great damage to walks and roads.
There are still many sycamores in NYC.
http://forestry.about.com/od/hardwoo...camore_bio.htm
http://forestry.about.com/od/hardwoods/ss/sycamore.htm