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It is a handsome multi-stem, upright shrub that gets about 6 to 10 feet high. It is native to the Great Plains from southern Saskatchewan to Nebraska. Best only planted in USDA Zones 4 & 5, as it is not adapted to farther south.

Back in the 1970's the landscape designers discovered how wonderful serviceberry trees were and bought up the nursery stock of this Shadblow Serviceberry and the Alleghany Serviceberry, which were only sold as the straight species back then. The Shadblow usually has more stems and more slender ones than the other serviceberry tree species, giving a little finer texture. This shrub-tree species is still popular with landscape architects and designers. The average gardening public does not buy lots of Serviceberry trees of any species, too bad. Serviceberry is so awesome with its smooth gray bark, clean habit, neatness, handsome buds, pretty foliage, good fall color, and delicious berries, loved by people and birds. The berries taste sort of like cherry. This Shadblow species has a native range from Newfoundland to southern Ontario through New England down to northwest Florida & the edge of Louisiana to northeast Oklahoma to south & east Iowa through Wisconsin to northeast Minnesota.

I bought two about 6-8 feet high B&B Autumn Brillance Serviceberry from the garden center where I was working and planted them in the backyard in June 2002. They grew into two beautiful ornamental trees about 25 feet high and wide at the top crown here in southeast Pennsylvania now in 2022. The two full-grown Serviceberry trees with one Gray Birch, about the same size, are casting a good amount of shade below them, so that the original sunny prairie garden with forbs and grasses is now only on the west end away from the trees; only shade loving plants are below there now. This is probably the most common cultivar of the Apple Serviceberry that is a natural hybrid of the Downy Serviceberry (A. Arborea) x the Alleghany Serviceberry (A. Laevis). The former species has slightly larger, coarser leaves that have some hairiness.

A neat, clean, beautiful small tree with smooth gray bark, white flowers in early spring, handsome foliage, good fall color, and delicious purple berries in June good for birds, wildlife, and humans. The fruit tastes sort of like cherries. Native to southeast Canada, New England, down the Appalachians to north Alabama to Missouri, Iowa, and eastern Minnesota, all around the Great Lakes. Grows about 1.5 feet/year and lives about 150 years. Grows in and along upland forest in moist or average, acid to slightly alkaline soil, pH 6.0 to 7.5. In landscapes it can be planted in open, exposed locations though it grows in or around shady woods in nature. Some large, diverse conventional nurseries and native plant nurseries still sell the regular species, but there are some cultivars as 'Cumulus' or 'Prince Charles'. What is sold much more is the Apple Serviceberry that is a natural hybrid between this Alleghany Serviceberry x the Downy Serviceberry that is sold in several cultivars as 'Autumn Brilliance' and 'Princess Diana'. All are fantastic ornamental trees that should be used more in landscaping, though the general gardening public does not know of this genus.

Sweet Birch is a lovely forest tree native to New England, New York, Pennsylvania, northern New Jersey, east Ohio, and down the Appalachians into northern Georgia and Alabama, growing wild in upland mesic (moist) or dry mesic forest, and usually on north or east facing slopes of hills and mountains in acid soils. It grows about 1 foot to 1.5 feet/year and lives about 150 to 200 years. Some large, diverse nurseries grew some in northeast Illinois in the 1980's and probably still do. I saw a few planted in park districts in the Chicago area where the silt-clay loam soils have a pH that is usually about 6.8 to 7.1. I remember seeing the first Sweet Birch tree in a cemetery in Urbana, Illinois during a woody plant class expedition at the University of Illinois with Dr. Michael Dirr, and it looked good being about 30 feet high in full sun and surrounded by lawn, (and the soil must have been a silt-clay loam with a pH about 7.0). When this lovely tree is used in landscapes, it is best not to place it in hot, dry, exposed locations. This is the birch from which birch beer is derived. Its crushed twigs have a wintergreen flavor. The leaves are 2.5 to 5 inches long x 1.3 to 3 inches wide. The strobiles are erect and ovoid and hairless. Its bark begins as thin, smooth, almost black bark or dark red-brown ; then bark becomes gray-brown and still basically smooth; then it becomes brown-gray with scaly plates; no peeling. It develops the best golden autumn color of any birch species, though not much better than the very similar species of the Yellow Birch that has some peeling of its bark. I'd like to see this species used a lot more in landscaping as it is so lovely.

Yellow Birch is common in some spots in its native range from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia and southeast Canada, New England, around the Great Lakes, and down the Appalachian Region to north Georgia, in elevated floodplains up to the northern and eastern slopes of hills or bottoms of mountains. It is a forest tree that tolerates a good amount of shade. It is a lovely tree that should be planted much more in landscapes with its beautiful exfoliating bark that has some papery curls on it and a gray color with a yellow sheen in it. It displays excellent golden autumn color. It grows about 1.5 feet/year and lives about 150 years. Some large, diverse nurseries grew some in northeast Illinois in the 1980's and I am sure they still do. In southeast Pennsylvania it is found growing in mature forest, often with or near Eastern Hemlocks and Sweet Birch, that also like shady, sheltered sites in nature. Reseeds burned areas quickly. Not for hot, dry, exposed sites in landscapes. Grows well in acid or alkaline soils that are draining wet, moist, or of average moisture. The crushed twigs have a wintergreen aroma. Leaves are 3 to 4.5 inches long x 1.5 to 2 inches wide. I'd like to see this species used a lot more in landscapes as it is so lovely.

Striped Maple is a large shrub to a smaller tree, about 15 to 40 feet high, with a native range from Nova Scotia into south Quebec & Ontario to Upper Michigan, New England, New York, Pennsylvania, down the Appalachians into southern Tennessee in cool, moist, shaded situations and on mountain tops. I've seen many wild trees on Hawk Mountain north of Reading, PA. It is not common in most of its range, just found in some spots here and there. It is rare in landscapes, even in Pennsylvania. It must have shelter from strong sun and winds, and it grows in shade, even deep shade. It must have a good quality moist, acid soil with a pH range from 4.0 to 6.0; it might adapt up to 6.5. It grows slowly, about 6 to 9 inches/year, and lives about 150 years. The young bark is green with white stripes, thus the name. Older bark finally gets gray and scaly. The 3-lobed leaves are 5 to 6 inches long by 4 to 5 inches wide. The yellow flower clusters are borne in slender, drooping racemes about 4 to 6 inches long in late spring when leaves are nearly full grown. Staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flower clusters are separate, but both on the same tree. The paired samaras have the wings widely spread apart. The twigs and buds are smooth, without hairs. It develops good yellow fall color. It is a beautiful tree! It is sold by some native plant and specialty nurseries and some large, diverse, conventional nurseries.

It is a very common tree in its native range from southeast Canada down to all of Florida to east Texas up to northern Minnesota. In Pennsylvania I see it growing in upland mountain ridges as on Hawk Mountain near Reading or it makes up a good part of the regular mature upland forest or it grows in swamps and bottomlands. It grows about 1.5 to 2 feet/year and lives about 100 to 150 years. It has shallow, fibrous roots and it is easy to transplant. It is sold by many nurseries and it is an abundant landscape tree. I have seen it do poorly in parking lot islands when there is lots of drought. In northern and central Illinois it sometimes develops magnesium deficiency and the foliage yellows and the tree dies unless treated with micronutrient chelate fertilizer; this happens because the pH is often higher than 7.0 in the soil of that region. A good quality tree that is most often sold as a cultivar that develops red or orange-red fall color as 'Red Sunset' or 'October Glory' the most; and there are many more cultivars that I have never seen.

Because the Silver (Soft) Maple is weak-wooded and grows so large, it is not recommended for the residential yard. It is a very common tree growing along rivers and in bottomlands in eastern North America, from southeast Canada to northwest Florida to eastern Kansas up to central Minnesota. It is fast growing of about 2 to 3 feet/year and lives about 100 years. It drops some twigs and small branches and produces lots of large samaras ( winged seeds) in early summer. I lived near a specimen for a few years that had very yellow leaves, showing magnesium chlorosis in higher pH soil, probably above 7.5 or so. My mother bought a 'Silver Queen' cultivar from a nursery in the 1960's in the Chicago area, and it is still doing fine in the front yard in 2019, and has not really had any bad damage; though it has gotten bigger there and may eventually pose some danger as it gets old. Most nurseries don't sell this species anymore, which is wise. It would be alright for a large park or commercial property, but it is not a really great tree for residential landscaping. Some cheap mail order nurseries still sell some, and some special native plant nurseries grow some for conservational purposes in natural parks and wildlands. There are some hybrid Red x Silver Maples (Freeman Maples) that are better for landscaping.

A nice white-barked birch tree native to Nova Scotia, southeast Quebec and Ontario, New England, New York, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania. It has small leaves about 2 to 3.5 inches long in a triangular form, with a long apex and a rounded base. It gets a good golden fall color that can be as good as Paper Birch. It looks a lot like the European White Birch, but is often more irregular in form and with more twigginess. (Gray Birch has been crossed with red-leaved cultivars of European White Birch to get more heat and drought resistant trees.) The white bark of Gray Birch is tight on the trunk and develops gray streaks when old around the base of the tree. It grows in dry to draining wet soils in sandy, silty, good clay, or peaty bog soils. It grows fast of about 2 feet to 2.5 feet a year. It lives about 30 to 50 years. It has a wide, shallow fibrous root system and is easy to transplant. It is quite common in the wild in northern Pennsylvania whether on mountain ridges or in bogs. A good number has been planted around the Philadelphia area of PA. It is more resistant to the Bronze Birch Borer than most other birches, except River Birch. A cultivar called 'Whitespire' from the arboretum at the University of Wisconsin in Madison was selected and has been commonly planted around in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest since the 1990's that is neater in form than the mother species usually tends to be, and its leaf bases are flat across instead of rounded. I have two Gray Birches and one Whitespire Birch in my southeast Pennsylvania yard that I planted in 2002, and I love them. (Unfortunately, the Spotted Laternfly likes their smooth bark, so I spray them once-in-awhile with Malathion contact insecticide.)

I consider the Sugar Maple to be the most lovely of all large maple species in the world. It has a large native range in southeast Canada and New England down to northern Georgia to eastern Kansas and up to northern Minnesota. It is a common species in much of its range. It is one of the shade tolerant tree species that are climax forest trees. It and American Beech in a number of areas are the final climax forest trees; otherwise it shares the mature forest with oaks, hickories, and others. Most nurseries sell this species as a shade tree. It is a high quality species, but it is not made for polluted or tough urban environments. It needs plenty of room for head and roots in good quality, moist soils. I used this Acer saccharum saccharum designation because of its sister variety of the Black Sugar Maple of Acer saccharum nigrum.

The Black Sugar Maple is a variety of the Sugar Maple that has three-lobed leaves rather than 5-lobed leaves. Sometimes it even has two stipules at the bottom of the petiole. Its native range is similar to the regular Sugar maple, but does not go quite as far east or north; the range being southeast Ontario, western New England, New York, central and western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, most of Iowa and Missouri, southeast Minnesota, and south & western Wisconsin. It grows about 1 foot/year and lives about 200 years. It can be tapped for maple syrup. It gets great fall color. A some cultivars have been selected from this tree that come from its more western populations that show more drought tolerance than eastern populations or most Sugar Maples. 'Greencolumn' is such a cultivar from Iowa. 'Green Mountain' is a hybrid of Black x Sugar maple with dark, leathery leaves more resistant to heat scorch and heat and drought. I consider the Sugar Maple and its Black variety as the best large Maple species in the world.

The Frasier Fir or Southern Balsam Fir is native to the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee at altitudes of 3,000 to 6,000 feet. In the last few decades it has been used as the most common Christmas tree, being grown in tree farms a lot in the northern US and the Appalachian region. It infrequently is used as a landscape tree in the northern USA. It is more heat and drought tolerant than the very similar Balsam Fir. Its blunt, soft needles, to 1 inch long, crowd the twigs more than Balsam Fir, but don't have the strong balsam scent. Its 1.5 to 2.5 inch long cones have definite bracts that bend down and are longer than the scales. There is a Balsam Woolly Adelgid insect from Europe that has been killing off a lot of trees in the Appalachians.

Balsam Fir is an abundant, dominant tree in the northwoods country of much of Canada from northern Alberta to Newfoundland, the Maritime provinces, much of Quebec and Ontario, then down into New England, parts of New York, spots in northern & central Pennsylvania, some spots in the Virginia and West Virginia mountains, and the Upper Great Lakes of northern MI, northern WI & MN. It is still used a lot for Christmas trees, whether harvested in the wild or on farms. It can be an infrequent landscape conifer tree in the northern USA. It makes its best growth in draining wet, acid soils near lakes and streams. It grows slowly from 4 to 6 inches to maybe a foot/year, and lives up to about 200 years. Its soft, blunt needles are directly attached to the twig, get to about 1.5 inches long, and normally are very fragrant when crushed. It bears erect cones about 2 to 4 inches long at the top of the tree that disintegrate when fully mature; they don't fall as a whole cone. It very infrequently was used in landscapes in the Chicago, IL, area, but usually did not thrive due to hot and dry summer times and heavier, less acid soils. I've found a few trees planted in southeast Pennsylvania doing alright in some scattered locations. In landscapes it usually only gets to be about 20 to 40 feet high and about 10 to 15 feet wide and it can adapt to such situations with moist, well-drained soil with a pH up to almost 7.0. I just found a large, about 40 feet high, specimen growing here in southeast Pennsylvania near a church parking lot in an open site that really looks good and is full.

Blue Ash is not a common tree species. It is found in certain spots here and there in its native range of northern & central Illinois, most of Indiana, eastern Ohio, central Kentucky, central Tennessee, most of Missouri, and southeast Kansas. Its compound leaves are 7 to 14 inches long with 7 to 11 leaflets that have sharp teeth on the margin; leaves are dark green and lustrous above and develop a poor to average yellow fall color. It has square twigs where it gets its scientific species name of "quadrangulata." The common name comes from the mucilaginous substance in the inner bark that turns blue when exposed to the air. It usually is found growing in dry or well-drained alkaline soils derived from limestone, but it can also grow in draining wet soils that are acid, with a pH range of 6.5 to 8.5. It is fast growing in lowland sites about 2 feet/year, but medium in upland sites of about 1 to 1.5 feet/year, and lives about 100 to 150 years. It makes a good shade tree with an interesting texture and it is occasionally grown by larger or native nurseries. It has shown resistance to the Emerald Ash Borer, but we'll see whether that continues when the other ashes are depleted. I last visited Glenwood Park in Batavia, Illinois on the east side of the Fox River in late October of 2023 and found several mature wild Blue Ash trees there doing well in that site with dolomitic limestone soil. Three big old trees were showing dead branches and decline; however, it was hard to tell their condition with it being autumn and the leaves had fallen. Some nearby Green Ash trees were killed off about 2014 or 2015. Once again as I had done a few previous occasions, I cut to pieces a bunch of invasive Common Buckthorn & Amur Honeysuckle that were bothering young Blue Ash trees growing up. The two Blue Ash trees in the Olive Family Collection at Morton Arboretum in northeast IL were doing well in October 2023, while most American ash species were gone from the collection.

Black Ash is common in some swamps and bottomlands in the northern forest areas of southeast Canada, New England, and the upper Great Lakes. Its native range goes down to New Jersey, most of Pennsylvania, some of West Virginia, most of Ohio, much of Indiana, northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, and then back up into all of Wisconsin & Michigan, and much of Minnesota. It is not common in most of its range, just a little here and there. White and Green Ashes are the really common species everywhere and used much more in horticulture. Black Ash makes a perfectly good shade tree for draining wet or well-drained soils of a pH range of 4.5 to around 7.0. It is fast growing in swamps of 2 to 4 feet/year and still relatively fast in landscapes. Lives around 100 years. There are a few cultivars of this species, and of a hybrid between this American species and the similar Manchurian Ash of northeast Asia. It is endangered by the new pest from China of the Emerald Ash Borer, as it is almost as susceptible to being killed off as the Green Ash species. If resistant strains or cultivars come forth, it makes a perfectly fine shade tree that should be used.

A wonderful tree native to most of the South, even down into southern Florida, up into southern PA and New Jersey and southern IL, IN, and OH, most of MO, southeast KS and eastern OK & TX. It is slow growing, about 3/4 to 1 foot/year and lives around 100 years. Develops a strong, deep taproot, so it is hard to transplant; move as a small tree in spring. Likes acid soil of about pH 6 to 7 and well-drained or can grow well along water courses where the wet soil is aerated. The female trees bear the delicious orange berry; edible in September to November. I collected some of the large brown seed in late November of 2019, kept them in moist potting soil in a pot in the refrigerator until May, then they germinated in June when it got warm, and I had some good seedlings.