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What are the best shade trees to plant?
Some elms do well for us. One that I like is lacebark elm. It gets to be about 30-40' in height and width, with the typical vase-shaped elm form. The shedding bark reveals a warm amber/orange tint on the trunk that is also quite attractive.
If you've got a very marginal soil—some of these rocky, shallow soils or very droughty areas—cedar elm is especially good. It will grow in nice soil, too, but it's one of the trees that can take about the worst soils that our area can give and still do quite well. And it has a nice golden fall color. It gets to 25-50' tall with a spread of 25-35'.
There are so many great long-lived oaks to consider, too. One of my favorites is Monterrey Oak—a Mexican light oak is another name for it. It's a beautiful, fast-growing oak. It grows quite well, quite fast, but yet it lives a long time. It's a good quality tree for our area—not so prone to some of the leaf diseases that some of the other oaks are. It will grow to 30-40' in height and width.
The red oak that is native to our area is a good choice. Choose the Texas red oak (Quercus texana), which is about 15-30' in height and width.
Lacey oak is definitely one to consider for it's slightly blue-tinged leaves and its resistance to oak wilt. It's extremely tough and drought resistant. It's a smaller tree to about 20-30' high and 25' in width, so is good for smaller landscapes.
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