fast growing shade trees

I recent had to remove two large trees from my front lawn. i would like to replace them with fast growing shade trees, any ideas? i live in NJ

The Arbor Day Foundation has a search specifically for trees that allows you to choose various parameters.
http://www.arborday.org/trees/treeguide/advancedsearch.cfm

This site may also help narrow down the options. It allows sorting by fastest growing, shade, flowering, etc.
http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/FastestTrees.htm?link=leftnav

Years ago my mother planted Catalpa trees because they were fast growing and provided shade...as well as messy spring blossoms, incredibly long bean pods, and large unsightly fallen leaves. I believe she's removed all the Catalpas, except one in the far corner of the lot. I suggest researching the pros and cons before actually purchasing/planting.

Just be forewarned though, that fast growing trees can often tend to break in strong winds due to the tissue not being hardened and stronger like slower growing trees.

Very true, Jasper. Sparkway, you may want to look at this list of NJ native trees: http://www.npsnj.org/lists_njplants.htm. Scroll to the bottom of the page; they are sorted by county. Good luck!

I have 4 fast growing Maples on our property. They were a gift and I had no clue they were that type. Two of them have already lost their tops in a storm. They grow like weeds and their roots are everywhere. They also sucker alot. They are 30' tall now and only 10 years old. I also have 2 Autumn Blaze maples that are behaving, but they are growing in an old gravel driveway, far away from the house. They at least get pretty fall color, the other ones YUCK!

The fast growing maples are probably silver??? I read some advise about planting 1 fast growing and 1 slow growing kind of near each other so that at the end of the fast growers life you can cut it down and the slow growing one should be tall enough by then to take over.(does that make any sense?)

pastime - I believe Autumn Blaze is a recommended tree by the Morton Arboretum for hardiness in our area and fall color. Does your Autumn Blaze drop any seeds and has it grown fast?

We have so many trees in our area and they are all messy. If and when the Emerald Ash Borer strikes I'll be in the same situation of choosing trees. I think native trees are always a good choice but usually not fast growers.

I don't think it would be appropriate for a front yard, but an option for quicker shade for an area would be to underplant with a smaller tree like an Eastern Redbud or Pagoda Dogwood, just a thought.

Medinac: My Autumn Blazes were growing in a neighbors "going out of business" tree nursery. They were about 10' tall when spaded and transplanted to my yard in the spring of '07. They've grown about 1' since then. I have not seen any seeds. They are doing well considering they're growing in an old driveway. I think they are still recovering from being transplanted. A landscape company bought all the trees from our neighbor, and we allowed them to stockpile the spaded trees on our property until they could ship them to their own site. They only had a month to dig up a couple hundred trees. As a thank you, they let me pick out 3 and planted them for me. I could never have afforded to buy such big trees, let alone dig the huge holes required. The picture is the one planted in the old driveway. You can see the new growth on top. It's looks like about 1'. Considering it's only been a year it's doing ok. I can't wait to see the red, fall color.

pastime - Thanks for the info and picture. It looks like you've got yourself some nice trees there, they are nice and big. Your kindness paid off, it's nice they reciprocated. You should get some great fall color. The more I think about it, if we do lose our Ash trees, I'll replant with the Autumn Blaze and Marmo Maples. Marmo might be better for our clay soil - our lot was swamp wet and they filled in with clay.

Yikes! I'll take the gravel over clay. After we dig through the gravel there's beautiful black, Illinois soil. I could shoot the farmer who made most of the yard a driveway. There must have been other outbuildings on the property at one time, so he made roads to them.

I find the autumn blaze maple the best fast growing tree because they literally grows at 1-3 feet per year when care properly.

The best overhanging trees are no support, versatile, quickly developing, and have incredible fall tone. Maple trees, similar to the Harvest time Burst Maple, October Greatness Maple, and Red Dusk Maple are incredible trees with amazing fall tone. The Sobbing Willow tree is an incredibly quickly developing overhanging tree that endures wet locales.