We moved in to the new house last weekend and have had rain ever since but the builder was able to come back on Thursday to do some more dirt work, so he's just about done with that. The fence guy is coming on Wednesday to go over everything and will hopefully start on that soon after. We're hydroseeding the grass as soon as the fence is done.
I went to a nursery and talked to the girl there for a long time about trees. I told her that while I love everything about crepe myrtles (colorful, long lasting blooms, resilient, withstands the heat...) I didn't want those exactly because EVERY yard in Lafayette has them. She was so helpful...she took down my email address and offered to do some research for me.
This is what she came up with...any opinions?
Swamp Maple (red/orange)
Saucer Magnolia (tulip tree. I had one of these at the other house - they really are pretty, but mine only bloomed for about a month in the very early spring.)
Purple leaf Plum
Texas Mountain Laurel. ( Looks very similar to wisteria...I love that about it - wonder how long it blooms?)
Southern Crab Apple
6 comments:
Wow! You are going to be busy!! But how great to be able to choose everything, instead of inherit...
I have a maple in the backyard... quite beautiful in the fall. But huge mess of leaves to pick up and it gets pretty big. (not sure if a swamp maple stays small enough for near the house).
I love saucer magnolias. But the flowers don't last very long if that's what you're looking for and I think the flowers are pretty sensitive to any frost once they're set.
My neighbor has a purple plum. Beautiful shape, I think, and the dark purple leaves are attractive in the summertime.
The mountain laurel looks gorgeous. I looked it up in the book and I think it blooms a short time in the late spring/early summer.
We had a crab apple up in Indiana. Beautiful tree, completely covered in white/pale pink blooms in the spring.
What about a lilac chaste tree?? It's got blue/purple flowers for a long time. I saw one this weekend. Really attractive and doesn't get too big (not a lot of pruning)... and funny because the leaves look like "something else"...
Oh... thought of one more thing. What colors are the crape myrtles in the neighborhood?? I've seen some "shocking" deep red ones here and there that seem quite unusual, not the typical white or pinks. Just a thought...
I just looked up the lilac chaste...very nice. Awfully similar to the crepe myrtle - in a good way. That's exactly what I'm looking for. I do love purple flowers....I think that's why I'm drawn to the mountain laurel. We had a wisteria at the other house, but it never bloomed and was heavy. We staked it, but it just wanted to keep slumping over.
The crepe myrtles here all seem to be dark pink color. Some light purples and whites but a lot of the very dark pinks. They're striking and beautiful, just everywhere. Yours seem to be a little redder that what I usually see. Very pretty.
I'm afraid of the maple too - does yours drop helicopters? Those can be a pain with them reseeding themselves...little maples sprouting up all over....
With mark's allergies we need to be careful what we pick. The lady at the nursery said to stay away from sweet olives, male ash, pine, oak, sycamore, elm, male boxelder, alder, birch, male maples and hickory.
I like the crab apple very much. The flowers are very cute....Mark would like to stay away from cypress trees and anything else that has roots, knees or drops pods. He actually calls trees 'obstacles'...hehe....if it was up to him, we'd have a flat, clear patch of grass that's easy to mow and requires no weedeating on his part. :)
argghh - I'm terrible at decisions like this.
Hee hee. You can do it. You've already got an advantage because you've talked with a local expert. And don't compromise with something that's just like your neighbors' yards! (unless you really like it!)
The red crepe myrtles I'm talking about are seriously dark RED (almost a "vibrant" maroon). In the books I've noticed a red variety listed called "cherokee"... maybe that's the ones I've seen. I consider mine "hot pink"... not sure the variety but one of the more common/popular color ones around here.
I think you couldn't go wrong with the plum, or laurel (but I've never seen that one in person), or crab apple, or the lilac chaste... (that lilac chaste really was pretty, though, this weekend...and I think they bloom most of the summer).
Yep... our maple makes a mess in the spring with the helicopters and in the fall with the huge number of leaves.... and there's lots of surface roots on ours (hard to plant anything under/around it)....
Jill, I have a suggestion based off of my experience with new construction:
before you seed your back yard, DIG. Dig a hole and see what kind of land you have. Dig out in the yard, next to the house, in the back, in the front, etc. My contractor had to put a clay base to support the slab, and wound up spreading it throughout my yard. Needless to say, when I dig beyond 4 inches, its all clay. When we planted the palms around the pool, we had to rent an auger.
Once you have dug, you will know what you are up against, and can pick trees than can handle burrowing their roots through the clay.
I have a purple plum I planted about a month after we moved in, and it has not grown one bit - the clay has basically restricted it to the original root ball, except for a few runners along the surface.
Hope this advice helps!
Hey Lori - Thanks for the heads up on digging...that's a good idea. I hope your ankle feels better soon!
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