Which tree?

[kirinm]

We are in the process of having a 40ft sycamore tree cut down. It is decaying, if it falls it will likely damage our property and our neighbours and it is also so large it prevents light entering the garden and nothing else has a chance to grow. We are in a conservation area so we have planning permission etc and have a further 5 mature trees in our garden and at least 10 trees surrounding our garden so please don't feel too sorry for the tree.

Anyway, we would like to plant another tree in its place but we need to plant something that won't grow into a monster and seed everywhere. The garden was always pretty much in the dark by 1pm due to the trees but we are hoping we may get sunshine until 3pm ish now. Does anyone have any tips? We have a nice apple tree which is only small so we were considering something like that. I also love the look of olive trees but I'm not sure it would do well given the lack of light / sunshine etc.

I am very much not a gardener so know next to nothing about trees.

Think it might depend on where you are. I know a lot of trees that grow in London would be very unhappy where we are

Eucalyptus. Quick grower, let's lots of light through as it's not usually a densely greened tree. Mine hasn't seeded anywhere and is thriving in a north easterly spot.

Something a bit different would be a magnolia tree. Some varieties are more like bushes and some are more like trees.

They have flowers that come out very early and then the leaves are usually not very dense. These are some videos of magnolia trees in spring and then late summer:-

@BunnyRuddington

Think it might depend on where you are. I know a lot of trees that grow in London would be very unhappy where we are

I'm in London.

@nickymanchester

Something a bit different would be a magnolia tree. Some varieties are more like bushes and some are more like trees.

They have flowers that come out very early and then the leaves are usually not very dense. These are some videos of magnolia trees in spring and then late summer:-

Those look lovely, thanks.

Not a eucalyptus. They are really antisocial. They grow like a weed and the roots go everywhere. We had so much damage to our foundations from our neighbour's which he planted as a tiny sapling and was a huge tree in very few years.

I think I’ve posted this before, but where I live everyone hates eucaliptus. They make the soil acidic and their roots can deprive other trees of water and cause problems with foundations, etc. as well as growing very tall , very quickly.

l think they are great in Australia where a lot of other trees wouldn’t survive, but in my personal opinion they don’t even look nice (they do when young, not as adult trees) and I am not even a fan of the smell.

Eucalyptus are shallow rooted iirc. Which can be good near a house but also can mean they are vulnerable to falling over.

Type of tree depends on your soil (magnolias like acidic), if stuff dropping off bothers you, if you want flowers/fruit/autumn colour. Plus size/speed of growth.

Depending on what you're after:

Fruit trees are fab. Can choose the root stock to control height. Flowers and fruit. Fairly slow growing. Apple, pear all beautiful. Plums too but different shape.

Things like Hawthorne, Rowan, crab Apple, elder. All lovely with flowers and berry/fruit. Probably faster growing. Small trees.

Magnolia. All glorious, generally slow growing. I think!

Silver birch. Lots of fairly tall, slender and elegant trees. Tree height in a few years. Check variety carefully.

Ornamental maple. Lots of types beautiful autumn colour. Generally quite small.

Then the weird and wonderful handkerchief tree and bean tree.

I want a mulberry. I love trees

Ah these are some great ideas. We have a mulberry and small apple tree. Plus a fig tree. We have a couple of things that flower very early and drop early so something that flowers late would keep some colour in the garden.

Oooh and elderflower is another lovely one. I grew up with a garden full of plums, apples, gooseberries and cherry trees as well as elderflower.

How can you work out what type of soil you have?

Don't plant silver birch as they drop little bits everywhere. Don't plant eucalyptus it's so fast growing and can get huge unless you maintain it.

Olive is great, but make sure you get the European variety which can cope with our cold weather. They do enjoy sun, mine enjoys baking in hot summers.

I'd plant a strawberry tree ("arbutus ynedi"). Very pretty, won't get too big, evergreen, flowers and fruits, Frost tolerant, shade tolerant.

@kirinm

How can you work out what type of soil you have?

Do you have a hydrangea? The flower colour indicates ph. You can probably get ph tests from a garden centre.

Otherwise, chalk=alkaline. Plants such as camelia, magnolia and I think Heather = acid.

A lot of plants are fairly tolerant. Some really need one or the other.

You have a fig and a mulberry! Am very jealous.

How about a green or golden gauge or a mirabelle? Not late flowering though.

Late colour could be from the leaves too.

Quince? Ours flowers relatively late, and fruits really well on heavy clay.
And the fruits are good, and look like beautiful golden orbs in the tree - I think we pick in October so thats relatively late too.

And then smell lovely in a bowl, and cook into excellent things.

Robinia

Contorted hazel

How about a gingko? Beautiful autumn colour, and slow growing.

Arbutus Unido is fun, I fancy one. Evergreen but not oppressive, flowers and fruit all together.

Or an acer : you can buy tests at garden centres to see if your soil is acid or alkaline.

Out of interest, when does your mulberry flower? We have one that hasn't flowered yet.

@MrsBertBibby

Out of interest, when does your mulberry flower? We have one that hasn't flowered yet.

It's actually quite late although I can't think off the precise month. It is far later than the rest of our trees.

I have a beautiful magnolia soulangeana Alba, she’s mature now (and pretty big/wide) but I planted her as a 5ft sapling, 15yrs ago. Beautiful tree but not ideal if you are bothered by dropping. She drops leaves and petals constantly.

The lovely magnolias around here all got frost nipped and the flowers are brown now. Such a shame.

Probably not want you want to hear but why not wait a year or two to see how the garden feels without the problem tree? You might find you really like having more light! And you already have lots of other trees, do you really need another?

@jellyjellyinmybelly

Probably not want you want to hear but why not wait a year or two to see how the garden feels without the problem tree? You might find you really like having more light! And you already have lots of other trees, do you really need another?

That sounds good to me, unless planting a replacement is in the terms of your planning permission, which it often is around here.

@kirinm

How can you work out what type of soil you have?

Pick up a golf ball sized lump of soil and try to toll it into a worm. If you can, then you've got a clay-ey soil.

Hydrangeas are blue in an acid soil and pink in an alkaline soil.

Other indications of an acid or at least neutral soil are rhododendrons, heathers (some will grow in a more alkaline soil).

There's a fair chance you'll be neutral.

Some magnolias are OK on more alkaline soils - google to see which varieties. But they're another early flower. Elderflower and Buddleia are quite late, but Buddleia's a bush, and elderberry doesn't make a handsome tree - looks prettier if you go for one of the purple leaved varieties.

Medlar is a pretty tree too - big white flowers rather like a quince, and fruits that turn golden as they ripen.

Out of interest, when does your mulberry flower? We have one that hasn't flowered yet Ours isn't even in leaf yet! It's the last of all the trees to come into leaf, and the flowers are very shortly after. They're not conspicuous - you see what look like little green fruits, and see that they have furry spikes on them - those are the flowers.

Ours was a few years from planting to fruiting, but not the 10 years we were expecting.

"arbutus ynedi" Arbutus unedo. Needs acid soil if I recall correctly.

Second half of summer is the difficult part. Late summer and autumn can be filled with leaf colour and fruits (eg Sorbus, crab apple). Maples are like moist soil and tolerate shade, and can give striking leaf colour all through the season.

Moroccan broom

A pretty tree with soft velvety leaves and pineapple scented flowers.