Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
edlincoln

What Trees live Longest in the Suburbs?

edlincoln
9 years ago

It's easy to find trees that live a long time...but ken_adrian would yell at me if I planted a giant sequoia in a suburban yard.

What trees that you might find in a suburban or urban environment live longest?

Comments (14)

  • Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
    9 years ago

    MOBOT is in urban / suburban south St Louis. 80 years ago it was a terrible area environmentally with the factory pollution and residential dirty coal burning before big government stepped in and stopped that against local protest. A number of Ginkos and Oaks survived, at least one Nyssa sylvatica Metasequoias have survived there since 1950ish.

    Are you thinking more residential? The oldest trees on my street are oaks, then again we are on cheap acre lots just downwind from the Ferguson riots here....huh, and MOBOT is next door to its own riots.

  • Hurtle
    9 years ago

    London planetrees thrive even in urban conditions.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    too much yelling?? .. eh??? .. lol

    i dont understand the premise ????

    you wouldnt want to plant a tree with 350 foot plus height potential ... within in say... 350 feet of anything important ... like power lines ...

    so the issue isnt really age ... its height potential ... its the confines of urban setting ... not age ...

    or am i misunderstanding ...

    ken

  • edlincoln
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Ken, you are misunderstanding. Yes, the problem with sequoia is the height, but that was more a joke then a real question.

    Lots of people plant trees as a "legacy". What trees can you plant in a suburban or urban environment that are most likely to live centuries. Several very long lived kinds of trees couldn't handle road salt or having half their roots covered by a road. Several trees that are fine with that kind of thing are naturally short lived trees. (Eg. Bradford Pear)

  • Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
    9 years ago

    Problems with the California Redwoods and Sequoias here is they die.

    What is our definition of too big? Spread over something or hight allowing a tree to fall on something?

  • edlincoln
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Not super concerned about height. Looking for a long lived tree that can tolerate having half of it's roots getting paved over, getting splattered with road salt, pollution, etc.

    Although generally "too big" means " messes with power lines" or "if you plant it along the road it's roots mess with the pavement". Kind of a situation dependent thing.

    What are the longest lived "street trees" in your neighborhood or the nearest city?

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    i grew up in livonia.. a burb of detroit ...

    i cant rule out any tree .. as not growing there ...

    but you make me think .... since the city went burb in the 50s ... that all the 100 year old trees... were there long before the burb ...

    i am still having a problem with the premise ... either too tall .. or too rooty ... or whatever ..

    whatever is there.. that will be there in 100 years ... is going to be a problem ... the burb is not a forest ...

    and i guess.. neither will you or i ... just plant whatever will make you happy... one of each ... until you run out of space... one of them.. will make it ...

    ken

  • corkball
    9 years ago

    we don't have as many options in zone 4, but oaks seem to be about the oldest thing you see in urban lots. Some white/bur oaks predate settlement. There is one near my house that is not that TALL, but huge girth estimated at 200+ years. The thing is so old 1/3 of the lot is bowing up from root mass.

  • Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
    9 years ago

    Guys, do you think a spot by spot analysis would be best? I have places where a large oak would be the WRONG choice but a crepe myrtle is fine. Or places wet enough the oak choices are limited but a cypress is great.

    If we are concerned just about zone 4 Metasequoia is out but it is a great choice here....but if you are on a well of limited supply or where there are watering restrictions I would not suggest it as LONG lived since mine would have died 3 years back w/o water as it would have in 1934 & 1936 which I think were similar.

  • bengz6westmd
    9 years ago

    Oaks. Some exceptional, old residential neighborhoods (exceptional that they haven't had their trees regularly chopped up) have oaks dominating their lots & even overhanging the houses to some extent. Trees plenty old enough to have seen ice-storms & damaging summer downbursts. The houses show no problems except maybe leaves in the roof-gutters. Some of the old side-streets in Wash DC still have huge, healthy N red oaks growing out of concrete sidewalks.

    Some other trees that last long w/o any serious issues are Amer sycamores, London planes, hickories, sugar maples, honeylocusts, black walnuts and Norway spruces.

    This post was edited by beng on Mon, Dec 22, 14 at 11:07

  • PRO
    George Three LLC
    9 years ago

    here are some out of hand redwood street trees. from what i've read, they were planted over 100 years ago to mark a farm boundary. they seem to grow fine with plenty of pollution and pavement. they tower over nearby apartment towers.

    what will the next 100 years be like?

    Here is a link that might be useful: redwood street trees

  • Toronado3800 Zone 6 St Louis
    9 years ago

    I can not think of a tree over 20 foot that would be a less bad choice than them redwoods. At least the redwoods will grow over the power lines lol.

    Man that is some short sighted planting. Or maybe they figured the street would be moved or the trees would be cut down every 15 years?

  • PRO
    George Three LLC
    9 years ago

    if you are going redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides is just a nicer tree anyway. not as tall. not as greedy. since it very neatly pyramidal, you can avoid power lines.

    Here is a link that might be useful: born 1948, dawn redwood in suburban-like backyard.

Sponsored
Ed Ball Landscape Architecture
Average rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars30 Reviews
Exquisite Landscape Architecture & Design - “Best of Houzz" Winner