Need help with some plants / trees

Hey everyone. I recently had to put my german shepard to sleep due to kidney failure at 13 years old. I am getting a new puppy outside for my son to play with outside. We settled on a Labrador Retriever. I want to get some more shade trees to plant out back but need some advice.

I am looking for some fast growing trees. I was thinking maybe a few evergreens and banana trees. What do you think?

Have any of you ordered plants or trees offline? What websites would you recommend, because I have seen some terrible reviews on a few I looked into.

I also should add I am in North Carolina in the Piedmont area. Right now it is about 95-100 degrees F. We get a decent amount of rain and one or 2 good snows on average in winter.

I wouldn't recommend ordering trees online, for a couple of different reasons.

1. They are delicate to ship, so shipping will cost.
2. Much to be said for visually inspecting a plant before getting it.
3. Local growers will have more in the way of indigenous trees that grow well in your area.
4. If you get a bad tree, pretty tricky recourse.

My advice is to search for a local grower, and then have a conversation explaining what you want to do. He/she can then give you much better advice than we can.

a reply to: Gazrok
I went and took a look at some nurseries here, but none of them had a huge selection. In trees at least.

I did read where the recourse for getting reimbursement on a bad tree offline is pretty brutal and can take 6 months.

Go for a walk in your local woods. Take a few pictures of trees you like, then take them to the nurseries. Local trees will grow the best in your yard, and most local nurseries can get a local tree with no trouble.

I know it's past the date but, Arbor Day every year our town gives out free seedlings. If you get there early, you can get some pretty good variety.
One year they gave away over 1700 seedlings.
Last year they gave red plum and willow which I believe both grow fairly quickly. The plum grows maybe 2 feet per season if I remember correctly and they are very pretty.
I'm in Tennessee and a lot of people who are developing their property plant Bradford Pear around. They are beautiful, provide good shade, although they can be brittle...like in storms, ice, etc...

a reply to: TNMockingbird
Thank you very much!

From sunny (dry) Calif. …

Like someone else said, ask your local tree nursery. Online searches are good too.

Fast growing, drought resistant and shady are not always synonymous. Methods of soil and hole preparation, the litter they rain down in any given season, all factor in to selecting the best for your needs.

Aristocrat Pear is going gang busters out front, never knew it would be so pretty in spring, Fall and grow so fast.

It sheds a blizzard of flower petals in Spring, attracts birds and squirrels for the little inedible "fruits" and blazes autumn colors.

a reply to: LoverBoy

Fast growing shade tree: non bearing mulberry. prodigious growth, enormous canopy, no berries to ruin the carpet.

but the roots are shallow. don't plant near your house, driveway, water, sewage, or gas lines. But for a tree in the middle of a large yard...itll do the trick. The only real disease i have seen work them over is web worms.

Hello my friend! I have a few trees I think would do well in your situation. Fast growing trees for hardiness zones 6-7 with moderate to high moisture: really the only problems you will see is with these trees is soil drainage and ph wich can be amended.
red oak - quercus rubra,
Freeman maple ,
Green vase zelkova,
Black alder,
Common thornless honey locust,
Black walnut,
I would get fruit bearing mulberries because I love them but that's just me
These are all fastish growing dense shade trees that work in zones 4-7 well!

River birch,
Eastern redbud,
American beech,
Butternut tree,
If you are looking for fruit, there are many varieties of apples that will love Carolina!

Thank you all very much! Does anyone have any experience with banana trees?

Banana tree is subtropical and tropical it does not like snow. Buy local as the trees are already acclimatized to your climate. Try to buy native trees. Is it sunny or shady in your back yard maybe a fruit tree so you can reap the rewards like a plum which will lose its leaves in winter and let the sun in. Or maybe a pecan nut tree not really fast growing but deciduous and so delicious. Mm mm pecan pie , isn't that what all you mericans love to eat.

originally posted by: LoverBoy
a reply to: Gazrok
I went and took a look at some nurseries here, but none of them had a huge selection. In trees at least.

I did read where the recourse for getting reimbursement on a bad tree offline is pretty brutal and can take 6 months.

I ordered some supposedly fast and easy growing trees online, they came about 3 ft tall and never grew and ich they took years to die but they just sat there, I have never had a problem growing anything and they were in an are right for them zone wise and perfect soil.

I will never buy a tree online again.

a reply to: LoverBoy

davesgarden.com...

I like this place for learning what is good where and they have a plant exchange and other help.

Check to see what your hardiness zone is. Also make sure that whatever you get is dog safe. Can you tell us a little more about the size of your property? How tall and how wide can these trees get? Are you trying to create a border? How much do you want to spend per tree? What shape do you like? Do you want it to have foliage year round? How much growth are you looking for annually?

I just slapped in a bunch of green arborvitae for privacy against my back fence. They grow quite fast and are easy keepers. I already have a fair amount of new growth on mine, and they're not very old (few months). I would think you could find them anywhere. I think (I may be wrong) Thuja Giant Green Arborvitae is what you'd want. They have the added benefit of being able to be used as a privacy hedge, you can get them pretty tall for not a ton of money, and you can keep them shaped at the size you want. I think they're rather boring, but I didn't want to use leyland cypress.

I would try real hard to avoid ordering online.

Ever think about building a nice structure for shade? They aren't hard to build yourself, and depending aren't all that cost prohibitive. Im thinking about building a pergola in the back with some sort of retractable cover and planting some nice (dog safe) vines to run up it. You can get kits or find plans online. Good for property value, they look great and a nice place to set up a table and have dinner when it's warmer.

My back yard has some pretty big trees and plenty of shade, but my pups seem to enjoy hanging out under the patio umbrella the most. I've got a slab patio and put a big outdoor mat over it (looks surprisingly good). They are big fans.

We just planted 30 trees apple, feijoa, manderin, pear and orange at my daughter's school which were donated by a big corporate to Kids Can which is a fantastic organisation that helps feed kids in poor schools. They also provide school shoes and raincoats to the kids. So there was about 15 parents who turned up with spades to plant these trees and one parent brought his digger. We also had a woman who was volunteering with Kids Can, she was from America on her summer break from studying to be a primary school teacher. So that's another tree story for you, not any help but a great story.