Do you have a favourite tree?

[pulpJarvis]

I love the tree just across the street from us in a park. It's a massive beech tree - must be a hundred years old at least. It's changing colour know and when the sun catches it in the evening it is glorious. Once the leaves are gone we get a nice view of the rather lovely houses across the park all lit up at night. In the spring the fresh green growth glows in the morning.

We've been here 6 years and it's one of my favourite things about moving.

I find trees very grounding. And I've planted way too many in my small garden!

Hawthorn with the blossom on.

I love an Acer Griseum, I had one in my old garden and when we move, it is one I'll be putting in pride of place in the new garden near a seating area so that i can peel the bark off

I love a Hazel that was coppiced years ago and has got out of control and has lovely catkins in the early spring, one of my favourite signs of the coming season.

And a birch whose leaves twinkle all summer, just lovely.

Silver birch and rowan.

Oh yes magnolias, can’t leave them out. They predate bees, hence are pollinated by beetles, and that’s why their flowers are so big and sturdy. Now I’m needing to know what pollinates the Gingko, because they are the oldest trees in the world.

We have a massive yew tree in our garden which i love and a very beautiful holm oak.

We have a blue atlas cedar tree in the front garden which is beautiful. This morning I’ve planted acer osakazuki and a red acer shaina which is darker red in summer and goes bright red in autumn.
also planted a magnolia this summer can’t wait to see the spring flowers

I have never met a tree I didn’t like.

My Grandparents had a willow in their garden, and so I think willows will always be my favourite tree. Although I love a cherry blossom too.

I’m all warm and fuzzy reading this thread!
I love trees too. I’ve got a small garden but I’ve planted as many of my favourites as possible like an Acer, magnolia and loads of ferns. I know ferns aren’t trees but they’re beautiful.
There’s a place where I walk the dogs that’s all silver birch and ferns, it’s lovely.

In the summer it would be a linden tree, because of the smell of the blossoms. I quit smoking last January, and my sense of smell is returning. I didn't even realise buddlia had a scent until this summer. Sometimes you might spot a firebug on a linden.
In general, I do love a rowan and cedar of Lebanon. There's a group of them near me that are full.of green woodpeckers and sparrowhawks.
I have to mention magnolias, because of how spectacular they are. There's a couple of grandifloras locally, and I'm always amazed at the size of the flowers.

Also, there's a small, gnarly acacia tree with at least 3 luxuriant mistletoe bushes growing from it close to where I live. It's the most charming thing.

We just moved in the summer and the thing I miss the most was the horse chestnut in the garden - it's absolutely huge, full of mistletoe, and must be at least 150 years old based on old pictures of the house. Throughout covid when I was working from home I looked out at it through every season. I still drive past it most days, but it's not the same...I now have a very friendly hornbeam next to the new house that has a bend in the trunk that feels like you could just crawl into it and snooze. Childhood favourite trees are the enormous banyan figs that grow all over Asia - they just feel wise and strong. I wish they were hardy in the UK.

I don't like willows though, they make me feel very uneasy. I think I internalised the Old Man Willow scene in Fellowship of the Ring a bit too much as a child - I'd never seen a willow until I was an adult and then seeing them pollarded was so shocking - like huge gnarled fists. The whomping willow in Harry Potter didn't help matters either.

Mine too. I love it when I see one, especially if it has berries. I loved a book when I was young about a bit of a rebel called Rowan, and I've loved them ever since. Her nickname was Charley, and I couldn't find the book, but MN tracked it down for me a while back. It's just called Charley, I think.

I have a memory of the cherry blossom tree in the garden we moved from when I was 6. It is huge in my memory and I'd collect the blossom in spring, we had a death slide attached to it which I fell off an broke my arm - happy days....

Clouds of spring blossom are such a wonderful sight.

I was just telling my youngest yesterday how much I absolutely love palm trees, as we drove past a clump of them in someone’s front garden. They just add a little exotic touch and make me think of blue skies and summer. DS was not impressed and told me I was weird😅

I also have a least favourite tree, which is the monkey puzzle tree. They were very ‘fashionable’ when I was growing up in the seventies (obviously planted a good few years before.) I just find them very sinister.

@Funnywonder I find monkey puzzle trees sinister too! There was one in a neighbour's garden when I was growing up, it was the only tree they had and it was huge, towering over everything. I hated it.

So many , it's a hard choice. maybe oak trees because their branches grow in that lovely crooked fashion.
Willows Yes lovely branches sweeping low to the water..Those are my second fav.

Ginkgo Biloba tree. I love their leaves. I think they are so beautiful and I love that they are one of the most ancient types of tree too.

I know what you mean about monkey puzzle trees. Even more sinister when full of starlings - like a scene from Silent Hill or something.

Ditto.

A giant sequoia which grows on the housing estate where I grew up

I'm very proud of my fig tree, soldiering on despite cold winters and an attack by a muntjac.

Here is mine

God I love trees.
Desert Ash, Robinia, Oak, Parrotia Persica etc. Love thinking about how long they've been there and looking from different angles to appreciate best arrangement of limbs. I also worry about them in summer and when its really windy.

I think gingko trees are wind-pollinated.