The Whispering Crane Institute

Trees We Do Not Like

,

There are trees we do not like.
These are trees to take a hike.
One is called the Bradford Pear.
Please don’t plant it anywhere. -RA

Trees the dancin' tree.jpg

[sent via an e-mail, she’s a real beauty!]

The other day I added some quotes from past lectures including a quote about the nasty Bradford Pear. I then received a comment from Bill over at the Giant Duck Institute, about the Bradford pear and one of Bill’s favorite’s the Norway Maple, which got me to thinking.

What are the nasty trees that no one wants or should have in the landscape? So far we got 3, because I’m adding the good ‘ole sugar maple. So, so far:

  • Pyrus c. ‘Bradford’ the Bradford pear
  • Acer saccharinum L. the Sugar Silver(0000ps! my bad) Maple-is my pick, though I also have no love for the B. pear.
  • Acer platanoides L. the Norway maple-Bill from the Giant Duck Institute.

So let’s hear it! What are your picks and why. Just click on the comments link and add your choice. When we get up to 10 . . . if we get to 10 I’ll put up a page. That way they’ll be posted.

Here’s the Squidoo page where the list resides.

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Addendum on November 8th, 2007

This has become the number one post on this blog, my guess you are here because of a search engine hit on trees. here are a few more post that might interest you.

  • This post talks about voting for the worst tree, and a link to the Squidoo page where the link is.
  • “The Seven-Son Flower”(SSF), or Heptacodium miconiodes.
  • Talking about the World of Arborculture.
  • Looking to help an organization with reforestation, contact Trees for the Future, this post will fill you in on the organization.
Rick Anderson
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254 responses to “Trees We Do Not Like”

  1. Patrick McAfee Avatar
    Patrick McAfee

    Well, speaking from the other side of the Atlantic, there is the Elder tree. I have it, just about everywhere. Apparently you can make wine from the berries. The pigeons like it very much; they digest it and then excrete it everywhere, especially on my car, purple in color, no not the car.

    I’ve tried to eradicate the Elder but it just grows stronger. In recent years I think it has got smarter, the alternative I dont want to contemplate. It is now growing where I cant get at its roots. And it grows fast, maybe 6 feet or maybe 10 feet in Spring/Summer/Autumn. I cannot say I hate it, if truth be told I admire its stubborness.
    What we dont want we have in abundance and what we dont want we have. Maybe its best to give in and just accept it, make wine and forget the whole thing.

    You know me, I’m all for making the wine . . .

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  2. Carol Avatar
    Carol

    Silver Maples (Acer saccharinum), isn’t Sugar Maple Acer sacharum? Because it grows fast, so has weak wood and no fall color.

    Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) Nothing else grows around it.

    Any kind of Mulberry (Morus sp.) Seedlings everywhere!

    Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra.) Ugly, dies out, weak wood

    Also Cottonwood (Populus deltoides) Who isn’t allergic to them, and they make a mess all over, plus weak wood.

    I’ll stop there…

    I’m okay with adding the Mulberry, Lombardy Poplar, and the Cottonwood. Not so much the Walnut tree(if others clamor to add-we will)By the way there is a list of plants that will work under the Black Walnut-another post.

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  3. Sissy Avatar
    Sissy

    I would like to second the pear tree. I moved 500 miles from the Bradford pear that would not die in Memphis TN. Every house on the block had this goofy tree in the middle of their lawn.
    Guess which tree is growing in the middle of my Western Chicago Suburban lawn??
    grrr….

    Consider it 2nd’d . . . !!!

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  4. Yolanda Elizabet Avatar
    Yolanda Elizabet

    The tree I absolutely hate is the Monkey Puzzle. Why? Read all about it on my blog

    http://blissyo-elgarden.blogspot.com/

    archive: There’s a Dinosaur in the Garden.

    Nuff said!

    Ahhh nothing like a good ‘ole Araucaria araucana thankfully it will not tolerate much cold. There is one good respectable member of the family the Norfolk Island Pine A. heterophylla, a house plant favorite.

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  5. Bill Avatar
    Bill

    Here’s a couple more for you.
    Prunus cerasifera (Thundercloud Plum) and Prunus cistena (Purple leaf Sand Cherry). If red foliage trees were’nt obnoxious enough for you, I’d be delighted to list the many lovely insect and disease problems which affect this gem. Unfortunately the internet is not large enough to contain that information. Even if a client flew into my office on a broom and threatened to turn me into a toad if I did not plant these trees, it would not intimidate me sufficiently to make me acquiesce. Giant Duck out….

    Yeah . . . I believe we are going to have to add these two to the list. These 2 would also make my list of most butchered, wow these two really get the shear job, and they do have a lot of problems, and they are short lived . . . add some gold potentilla and you got McDonalds.
    Acquiesce . . . big fancy word, very impressive 🙂

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  6. Pegy Avatar
    Pegy

    I don’t like the liquid amber tree. Little seed balls dropping everywhere and the roots. They love to run along the surface. Uggh!

    Liquid amber-I’m sure this is some shooter that I used to drink on a regular basis, I’m sure of it.

    You threw me there for a moment then I realized you were talking about sweetgum trees; Liquidambar styraciflua, I really like this tree-usually the fall color is awesome,, it grows very nicely and looks great in a woodland setting. There is that problem with the seed pods however. More folks complain than praise . . . so it will get added to the list.

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  7. wcicrane Avatar
    wcicrane

    Great awesome, keep it up. I’ll have m0re to say about this list you all are creating later.

    I guess at some point before the weather turns and I get real busy we’ll have to talk about favorites

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  8. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    hackberry!

    By the time the birds’ plantings have sprouted in the garden, roots are deepdeep. ugh.

    This is probably a good tree for the list. It belongs in the landscape, but probably not in the typical suburban yard.

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  9. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    Can we add the weeping cherry trees? Not so much because I don’t like them, but more because nobody allows them to look good in their yard. The plantings around them… ugh. One house in my suburb has two 7-ft tall specimens flanking their front walkway, each planted about 2 ft. from the sidewalk. I give them 2 more years until they realize what a bad spot choice they made.

    Kim:
    You have a very solid point about the placement of this tree; after all what suburb in NEast Ohio doesn’t have a multitude of them immediately in front of the front door-so it can look good for 2 weeks out of 52. However: once again the boys at the Giant Duck are spot on . . . we cannot penalize the(a) tree because people/contractors do not know how/where to plant it.

    Keep at it, I’m sure you’ll come up with something else.

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  10. Bill Ross Avatar
    Bill Ross

    Sorry Kim, although I am no defender of Prunus sp., poor plant selection or location does not a bad tree make.

    Spot on:
    Once again some solid info from the Giant Duck.

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  11. Yolanda Elizabet Avatar
    Yolanda Elizabet

    Not tolerate much cold? YMMV of course but here in the Netherlands those Monkey Puzzles have survived minus 15 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately.

    BTW here’s a better link to my rant about the MP tree.
    http://blissyo-elgarden.blogspot.com/2007/02/monkey-puzzle-tree.html

    I really don’t like those trees, could you tell? 😉

    And thank you for all the other nominees, I appreciate it! Now I know what to give a miss when I’m doing a spot of tree shopping.

    After some strenuous ciphering I have determined -15C equals 5F which(I believe)means zone 6. This would put this nasty tree out of the reach of a lot of North America. Keep checking I’m sure we will come up with some more.

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  12. tai haku Avatar
    tai haku

    Been thinking of blogging on this myself.

    For me the absolute worst offender is Acer platanoides “drumondii”. Most of the faults of the parent but worse it gets big and then reverts meaning england has dozens of huge half variegated half green specimens that look awful.

    Prunus spire – the fastigate shape almost always bends or fails in some way making it look ugly.

    Eucalyptus gunnii – makes a mess, awkward shape and could have been replaced by any number of nicer eucalyptus if the nurseries sold them.

    Atlantic blue cedar is another classic for putting in too small a space but a glorious tree

    Can I put in a good word for liquidambar?

    Welcome to the list. In an earlier comment the boys at the Giant Duck fired the 1st salvo at the Norway Maple but I have no problem adding a named cultivar to the ‘offenders’ list.

    P. spire (fastigata?) I’ve no real good info on this, and looked through my suppliers catalog’s-no one carries this.
    Eucalyptus gunnii, I got nothing, out of my climatic zone experience.
    As for the Cedar we can’t add a tree because no one know how to plant it correctly:) see below
    Liquidambar-noted to the positive!

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  13. tai haku Avatar
    tai haku

    I think Spire is a commonly used nursery synonym for a fastigate pink cherry more properly known as Amanagawa which might be what its known as stateside. If not they’re very similar ie equally hideous.

    It probably is, I’ll take a look and find out.

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  14. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    Rick, that’s pretty much what I figured… but it felt good to vent. *grin* I think that you guys have covered most of my other “most hated”s.

    That’s cool, venting is a good thing 🙂

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  15. Patrick McAfee Avatar
    Patrick McAfee

    I must put in a good word for the Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) tree. I had two of them until three weeks ago when I had them cut down. They were maybe fifty years old but grown too big for their location. It was a sorry day to see them go as I’d grown attached to them, sharp leaves and all. Didnt Pablo Neruda the Chilean poet write about them some where, calling his wife or girlfriend his Auraucanian girl ? On the other hand I’ve heard of people being scared of their spider like appearance when blowing in the wind. Anyway, heres a vote for the monkey puzzle.

    Pat:
    I’d say that is a good argument to the positive for the Monkey Puzzle Tree. What I like is that all these opinions are coming from such diverse parts of the World, right here on this little ‘ole Blog of mine. I haven’t read a lot of Neruda, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see him call a woman by some sort of a botanical name-seeing’s as he was into all sorts of botanicals-if I remember correctly.

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  16. Jenn Avatar
    Jenn

    Poplar. Crappy trees, allergy-inducing fluff, twigs all over the yard, think they are giant shrubs, suckering everywhere…. Yuck!

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  17. Hoover Avatar
    Hoover

    Eucalyptus globulus. In California. Non-native, invasive, constantly dropping heavy litter, highly flammable. Local firefighters refer to it as “the gasoline tree”. In its native land I am sure it is fine, but it does not belong here.

    Good choice, I’m slightly familiar with this tree, it is extremely messy, didn’t know about the “gasoline tree” business, sounds like something to keep out of the residential yard.

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  18. Spirea x cineria 'Grefsheim' « The Whispering Crane Institute Avatar
    Spirea x cineria ‘Grefsheim’ « The Whispering Crane Institute

    […] a Spirea? Well I am getting ready to do a post on the Shrubs we do not like. Since the Trees we do not like, and Worst of the worst Trees were big hits I thought I would delve into some shrubs we do not […]

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  19. Shrubs We do Not Like: « The Whispering Crane Institute Avatar
    Shrubs We do Not Like: « The Whispering Crane Institute

    […] 20th, 2007 by Rick Anderson Based on the hugely popular “Trees we do not like“, and “Vote for the Worst of the Worst-Trees” it is now time to bring you . . […]

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  20. michell Avatar
    michell

    the monkey tree is unfriendly looking, and produces nothing to redeem itself! If I found the most perfect house to buy, and it had a monkey tree on it, I’d cut it down. I DO love all growing things pretty much, but this ugly thing seems to sort of represent the people that seem to like them (not necessarily what the people LOOK like, but more often what the people ‘look’ like on the inside.

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  21. liz ruork Avatar
    liz ruork

    “spire” is generally to be read as prunus hillieri “spire”
    a much nicer little tree than prunus serrulata “amanogawa”

    spiire is rather narrow to begin with but ends up a pleasant vase shape…amanogawa just goes straight up….justly nicknamed flagpole cherry

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  22. IHateYouAll Avatar
    IHateYouAll

    I can not believe how shallow minded so many of these people are. The world is not about you, no matter how much you wish it would be so. So a tree is not aesthetically pleasing to you, take a look in the mirror.

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  23. TurtleGirl Avatar
    TurtleGirl

    Well I am no expert on trees, far from it, but I must say on the peninsula where I live (in Australia) Norfolk Pines are a huge problem because their root structures rip up the buildings and they’re nearly impossible to get rid of. Some of them are absolutely enormous, if one were ever to fall it would knock out about seven houses and likely any inhabitants in them. However we have had severe storms recently and no tree falls, so I suspect they are a mighty hardy plant.

    We once had a cumquat tree in our courtyard, stupid placing, it was tearing up the foundations so badly the whole house was starting to tip!!

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  24. Aaron Avatar
    Aaron

    2 trees. Acer negundo (Boxelder) and Ulmus pumila (Siberian Elm). While both are relatively unavailable commercially (and for good reason), if you’re unfortunate enough have one, you’d be wise to eliminate it and replace it with something of quality.

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  25. Rebecca Reed Avatar
    Rebecca Reed

    I’m really shocked that people are so hostile towards trees. You would think they might have some respect no matter what variety it is. They have as much right to be where they are as you do.

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