Big Tree Down, Need To Block View
Question from Jane:
Help! We need a hardy, fast-growing backyard tree, evergreen, low-water, tolerates clay-ish soil, 30-45 ft tall. We’re in old La Mesa, zone 23. Neighbors built a tall, horribly ugly addition, right up to property lines, on their box/house. We have a split level house, 2 stories tall in back,and after losing our tree,The Box seems like all we see out of the living room window. We’re thinking of lophostemon conferta, but see a few reports of it being up to 60 ft or more. Can this be accurate? If so, what are the chances, and how long could it take? The fallen red iron-bark had gotten about 55 ft. and was actually now too tall for very good coverage;it was mostly trunk. Acacias there many years ago caused allergies. I would be so grateful for any help. Thank you!
Answer from Pat:
So very sorry to hear what the neighbors did to your view. Brisbane box (Lophostemon confertus, [Tristania conferta]) is one of your best options, not fussy about soil, needs water and fertilizer to get going but basically drought-resistant and trouble-free once established. It grows in lawns and on streets with regular irrigation and is fine in these situations but won’t die if there is a drought. It is moderately fast-growing. For what you want, don’t cut the top leader or the tree will not go straight up as you desire. But (and this is important) be sure to pinch back the side branches, otherwise this tree has a very open habit of growth. If you want it to fill in be sure to pinch back those side branches so they will create more twiggy growth. If you have a gardener do this caution him over and over not to cut the top too. (I had a gardener prune a tree I couldn’t reach and told him to cut about 1 foot off the tip of every branch but not to cut the tip of the top one and before I could stop him he had misunderstood what I was saying and clipped it off. So I had a round tree instead of the tall one I wanted.) Don’t worry about the future height. If it were ever to get too tall you could control it with pruning, but that will be years hence.
Some of the fastest growing trees are the least worthy in the long run. I do NOT recommend Monterey pine (Pinus radiata), for example. It is very fast growing but is prey to beetles and diseases. However, there is a fast-growing pine tree you might want to consider, which is Canary Island pine (P. canariensis). Canary Island pine tree is often planted in just such a situation as you describe. It tends to grow in a tall pyramidal shape but is often pruned into a columnar shape and is attractive to look at. In age it rounds out but that is a long time hence. I suggest you go to a tree farm and see some of the options so it will be easier for you to choose something you like.
It would be nice if you could give yourself this background tree to wall off your neighbor and also create a view of something more interesting to look at in the foreground, such as small flowering trees and flowering shrubs—bottle brush, for example. Then you could have bird-feeders on tall stands, a tall fountain to bring birds or a rock garden, with statuesque plants in the foreground. I don’t know what you have there currently, but if just a lawn it gives you nothing of interest to look at. A walled patio to look into is another option, with umbrellas or trellises, places to sit, and colorful plants in pots or growing in the ground, like bougainvillea for instance (if you have full sun.) Another way would be to build a pergola and/or patio shade-structure overgrown with vines. The height of it should be higher than your front window. From where I sit in my studio looking out into my patio I see my own patio shade-structure. It is thickly covered with wisteria. If there were a tall ugly building next door I would not be able to see it. Trees and shrubs in the distance prevent my looking out towards the road and the shade structure overhead covers the view of anything higher up. The only view I have is the view I want.
By doing something like this, you can cut out your neighbor and his ugly building and create a lovely view for yourself which no one can ever destroy.
Thank you Pat!
What a relief to hear from you so soon, and with such wonderfully detailed advice! I’m also relieved to hear Lonphostemon will suit our needs, and we don’t need to worry about its height. It’s surprising how few options there are when you have certain requirements.
We have already removed all grass in front yard, imported 15 tons of boulders, left some very nice, mature palm specimens, and integrated lots of drought tolerant and succulent plants. We did this a year ago and it’s looking great. Lots of colorful foliage and an amazing number of flowers this spring—aloes, ground covers, grevillea, etc. We did have a landscaper’s help with that. I am an avid birdwatcher, and most of our plants, incl. trees were planted with that in mind. I do love eucalyptus, and the two remaining (and one smaller) ones are large, but not precarious or brittle like the downed tree.
We’re planning to do the back yard similarly, though we can’t get boulders back there. We plan on more pathways and interesting non-plant features that will nice as we look down on them. There’s a beautiful Eucalyptus torquata at one end, and lots of limonium persius running wild, (not planning to keep much of that) and a 35 year-old bauhinia galpinii which formed an arch that our son’s wife walked under when they got married back there. Sadly, it was crushed by the falling tree!
The back yard hasn’t had grass in decades, and I agree completely with your design ideas for that area. The difficult part is that we see almost everything in this house from the SECOND story. Just about all our living is done in the upper level. The downstairs has the laundry and TV room, and stays cool, but we don’t use it for much else.
The living room (and its big, big window) look DOWN on the back yard and straight across our yard to the monster house, so the view must be blocked from that high up. The kitchen and dining room open onto the upper deck which has a view in 3 directions, and we had just built a small deck off the back (west side of the house) where the tree landed That lower new deck was spared, but the upper awnings and the new wide lower awnings and steel beams we’d just had fabricated and put up on the lower back area last year were all sheared right off the house. We have lots of damage, but everyone agrees that the awnings probably spared us a lot more damage from the tree.
I thank you so much for your kindness, and your interest in helping me–and you really have! If anything else occurs to you, please let me know. I prefer not to have the new tree be overly dense, so it’s good to know we can do a little pruning to open it up a bit.
Brisbane box (Lophostemon confertus) is not a dense tree. It is rather open, especially when young.
I now understand your problem better and applaud all you have done. I hope insurance paid for some of the damage from falling tree. Re: the upper story, immediately I thought of another balcony….could be on legs…. and awnings, or trellises to hide what you don’t want to see, then within the balcony, umbrellas, furniture, and, some plants to look at. I have a friend who has made an entire outdoor room upstairs this way on the garage roof and used walls of canvas for privacy and to hide unwanted views. Bamboo and other natural materials are also available for this purpose and if installed flat can make a satisfying background.
All you have done with your garden and the sophisticated choice of plants are worthy of applause. Instead of large boulders in the back, could you sculpt the ground into hills and valleys and use smaller rocks to create a sort of rock-garden effect? Rocks help hold moisture in the ground and provide a cool, moist root-run for plants. The only problem with changing the level of the ground is that the mounded soil can shed water but drip systems and mulch help control that. Sometimes these mounds dry out, but I have seen them work well when the raised area is large enough—you don’t want mini-mounds. Another way to go is to use terraces and fill them with good soil. I did that on a sloped area of my own garden and it has been hugely successful over the long haul, but the ground does not need to be sloped to make this a good system. I have seen some stunningly designed gardens on flat ground with extensive terraces or raised planters in them.
Another idea for an upstairs balcony: Hanging baskets are a divine way to hide ugly views. I used to grow many baskets of fuchsia in my patio, all on drip, and all hanging from the overhang trellis. They shaded the house from late day direct sun and hid phone and electric wires in the distance. When you have something up close to look at—could be a tubbed Solanum rantonettii, for example,— you see what is in the foreground and can ignore what is away in the distance. In Mexico City I had lunch once at a rooftop restaurant, where tubbed shrubs hid the ugly building next door but straight ahead you could see the sacred mountains. An acquaintance near where I live even grows roses in tubs on a balcony in full sun and they are surprisingly attractive.
Here is a funny idea: Up in the air in front of your house: an artistically designed arrangement of poles, like flag poles with cross pieces or cross wires between them (and perhaps over head shade cloth hanging above that), with an overhead system of hanging plants on the wires, like at Weidners Nursery in Leucadia—(good source for the hanging baskets)— and the whole thing on drip and with an arrangement of pulleys to pull them up and down for tending. Obviously, I am in Rube Goldberg mode now! This would have to be done with great taste in order not to be an eyesore, but I bet there is a way. I work from the point of view that there is always a solution if only we can find it.
I didn’t want to tell you I have never been crazy about that tree because it’s basically trouble-free. I thought you might love it for being well-behaved, but it is a boring tree. I am with you I’m afraid I cannot really love a boring plant, no matter how well it behaves. Yes, as apparently you noticed, I do love California pepper (Schinus molle) and it is NOT well behaved except at a distance from one’s home. But I thought you wanted a tall tree. California pepper tree (Schinus molle) is as broad as it is tall tall—25 to 40 feet wide and tall.There are many good things about it:— feathery foliage, attractive to birds, drought-resistant once established, fast growing, etc, but these virtues are balanced by its sins: It’s prone to scale and peppertree psyllid, though I think psyllid problem is perhaps being controlled by beneficials since it does not seem as bad now as a couple of years ago. And the roots of Schinus molle are devilishly invasive and get into pipes. I had to have my sewer pipe lined a few years ago due to roots of invasive trees, but this is a permanent fix and tree roots no longer invade them. (The trees are still there but causing no damage now because they can’t cause damage.) So this is one way to go: Have the pipes lined. Almost any tree is going to invade pipes if they can do so. But if what you are looking for is just a we-behaved green tree, maybe a peppermint willow (Agonis flexuoso) would fill the bill. It has nice bark and weeping foliage, is a fairly fast grower to 25 or 30 feet and it’s basically trouble-free.
Now that I have a better idea of what you want I’m going to say what has been in my mind all along: Why not get a flowering tree? A flowering tree would really give you something wonderful to enjoy and love. Here are several suggestions: If it’s a hot spot protected from wind: Jacaranda—(briefly or partially deciduous, but soon puts on leaves or flowers.) What can be more beautiful in bloom than a jacaranda? You would certainly look at the tree and not the building and I think 25 feet away is okay for the roots. It is not fussy about soil and is fast growing. I also love Cape chestnut (Calodendrum capense) reputed to be slow growing and will not flower for 5 years but so well worth the wait. A specimen on Leucadia Blvd at the top of the hill on the left driving inland seems to have grown pretty fast and I don’t think it took it 5 years to bloom. The bloom is delightful and lasts two or three months from spring into summer. I love the specimen at the zoo that has now been there many years over towards Children’s Zoo. Another idea is the weeping bottle brush (Callistimon viminalis). It takes moderate to regular water, is fast growing and drips a bit but who cares in the back yard? It blooms in waves of bloom year round and mockingbirds love it as do many other birds. I would plant one in a heartbeat if I had a spot. It sure would hide the building next door. I think this is your best option and is my top recommendation. Also, very little pruning is needed and it brings hummingbirds. I just love seeing a mature weeping bottlebrush tree in bloom, and the great thing is it happens several times a year. It grows fast to 30 feet tall.
A word about pruning bottle brush: Don’t cut into bare wood, it will not recover. Just prune lightly if necessary to remove any dead or weak growth in late winter before the big flush of spring bloom.
A couple more spectacular choices: Floss silk tree (Chorisia speciosa, I would choose a non-grafted specimen, since I like the thorns on the trunk), and tipu tree (Tipuana tipu.) Hope this helps!
I love many of your suggestions! ESPECIALLY the weeping bottle-brush! I know how much the birds love it. We have one upright one back there now, and there is a little rufous hummingbird who has a favorite branch he sits on every day–staying at our house, I like to believe, much longer than they usually do in migration, because he loves that tree so much. I do love flowering trees, but so many of them turn out to be deciduous or semi-deciduous. In fact, I’d just seen a huge bottlebrush and had never noticed that they got so big, so I’m glad to know it wasn’t an anomaly! I actually think I’d like that even more.
It was soooo demoralizing yesterday at Kniffing’s I just can’t tell you. The young Mexican man who was driving me in the little cart looked at me when we got to the place where the B. Box was, and though he didn’t speak a whole lot of English, it was very clear what both of us thought about that tree. He showed me a gorgeous little Desert Museum Palo Verde that was one of his favorites. I love Palo Verde, and would persuade my husband to endure the mess, but I worry about the clay soil, even though 3 people at the nursery told me that if I did the hole, put in liquid gypsum twice, letting it drain, the tree will do well, and as it grows, roots will go outside the hole. I do think I’ve read the other Palo verde with dark bark is better for here, and I see many of them in our neighborhood, but they’re not often very pretty, and I’m still skeptical about Desert Museum.
When we moved here my husband Larry dug a hole 4 feet deep and 3 feet wide and filled it with water in back where we wanted to plant the euc. It was many, many days–maybe 2 weeks-we waited for that water to drain! Finally, he backfilled it, and we planted the fated red iron-bark, which grew to about 55 feet in 40 years, and then so inconveniently crashed. (Our bad there–we had tried to salvage that wayward, broken limb for many years and just let it get too big.)
So…this morning just before I read your email, we had “decided” on Melaleuca quinquenervia. We have one in front, and we like it a lot. It’s close to the house (about 40 yrs old also) and looks great with our new landscaping, and the gorgeous bark is beautiful with the new house color. We know it does well here with virtually no care, and has never caused any problems, except needing to be trimmed a little bit over the roof when we just got a new one. It’s gotten very little water. I do forget how fast it grows, but Sunset says “most are vigorous and fast growing” so I assume it’s pretty fast. I thought of Melaleuca when looking through Sunset book at breakfast—my only reading these days—and saw this sentence: “Trees planted 8-10 ft. apart and thinned occasionally make a pleasant grove.” Hmmm….We do have room to do that, and were thinking planting multiples of some appropriate tree would give us the crown width we need to screen the ugly house more quickly than any of our other ideas. What is your opinion on that? Please be honest! I really value your opinion, and I love the idea of the weeping bottlebrush too, so it’s not like I’d be feeling yesterday’s despair if it’s not a good idea. In fact, I’d just seen a huge bottlebrush on a walk, and had never noticed that they got so big, so I’m glad to know it wasn’t an anomaly! I actually think I’d like that even more than Mel.
Today we’re going to go out there and measure for sure the height we need. Larry is great with mathematical things like that, taking into consideration the distance the tree is from us and the house, the angle we look at it from both upstairs and downstairs and how that affects the height requirement, etc. And he was a surveyor, so he definitely has the skills to measure. : )
And again-thank you, thank you, thank you!! Your help is making such a difference! I am in total amazement at your generosity with your time and wisdom, and quite literally, don’t know where I could have gone to get this quality of such very specific advice.
Melaleuca quinquenervia is one tough tree and yes, good in groves. That would be a pretty sure bet I would think and it is bushier than the weeping bottle brush, which is sometimes wispier, just depending on the tree so it would do a good screening job. I didn’t mention it since I personally like the bottle brush better but it ran through my mind. The choice is yours.
The other point that ran through my mind is that you should be sure to mix plenty of gypsum into the bottom of your planting holes before planting in them to increase drainage in your hard clay soil, and it’s generally better to plant straight into the native ground instead of amending the soil in the hole. The tree roots have to get out there sooner or later and it might as well be sooner. But be sure to rough up the sides of the hole so it’s not like a hard wall against the roots.
If I were you I would apply gypsum all over the ground of your yard. (Follow package directions as to amounts.) Do this once every 2 years and water it in. Perhaps do it now and again before the rains in fall. This should greatly improve drainage over the long haul. Purchase the soluble gypsum. With your soil conditions the rock type of gypsum won’t penetrate enough to do much good.
Pat I have a similar situation. My wife and I recently located to southern california from Las Vegas due to my wife’s respiratory issues. She just got out of the hospital again yesterday, after a sever bout with asthma. She is typically hospitalized 5-6 times per year in Las Vegas for 10 days at a pop. Recently at our rental home in orange county, our landlord cut down four very large trees which cover the adjacent house. It was completely unnecessary for them to do it and all that was needed for them was trimming them back a bit. Well needless to say, the cutting down fo the trees triggered my wife’s ashtma and she is in the hospital. They were goint to put some smaller trees in the yard as a replacement, which won’t give the house coverage. I told them they need to put in larger trees as the yard is just bare now and the house bakes. The type of tree that they are replacing the old trees with are called ‘Tristenia Conferta’ which seem that they will do the trick, but in reading into them, it mentions they bloom a flower in the summer, which leads me to a very important question. Will these flowers blooming in the summer produce an inordinate amount of pollen, therefore cuasing more problems for my wife’s breathing issues. It is a life and death question for her and any input would be very helpful in understanding. The trees that were there before were awesome as they did not bloom nor caused any problem. Thank you very much for your assistance in this very important matter.
Vincent
Hi Pat-
I planted the Tristania Brisbane Box in my backyard this past March 2014 and they are getting very tall after only a short time. The stalk of the tree is skinny and supported only to about 8-10 feet. I want these to grow to their max height but I am concerned about how they seem delicate in the wind. Should I just brace these up higher for now and when the time comes, how does one “top” or prune the upper tallest leader? Thank you
The botanical name of Brisbane box (Lophostemon confertus, Tristania conferta) was changed a few years ago from Tristania conferta to Lophostemo confertus (a name I find difficult to remember.) It tends to have bare branches with all leaves concentrated at the tips. For this reason these trees need pruning often from youth onwards by occasionally pinching back the tips to make the foliage fill in. Just take a pole pruner and cut a foot or so off the tips of all the branches except the leader. This will give you better leaf distribution. If you have not done this begin now and continue the practice at least once a year. Pruning in summer tends to slow growth. If you do not want that effect do the job in spring or fall. This treatment will also help to strengthen the tree. When the tree as tall as you desire it to grow, cut two or three feet of the tip of the leader also. This will tend to create a rounder head sooner than it would otherwise occur. Unless you have a very long pole pruner, you will need a tree man to cut back the central leader. When staking any young tree make sure that you stake two or three ways with loose straps that do not encircle the tree, but allow it move back and forth in the wind. This will help the trunk to strengthen. Trees that are staked tightly so they cannot move often develop weak trunks especially if several trees are growing too closely together. If a tree gets blown over when young, simply stick it back up again. Years ago I learned that many young street and park trees get blown over in Japan every year and the gardeners run round the next day and stick them upright again. I heard this shortly before a pine tree I’d planted a year earlier and had shot up fast to 10 or 15 feet tall, and fell over onto my drive. This happened 50 years ago. It was on a bank so I am not sure how I had the strength to stick it back up again, but indeed I did it! In a few years it was 30 feet tall and stood up to strong winds for many years, but when it was young and had fallen over and I had stuck it straight up again, I staked it so the trunk could move back and forth with the wind without being blown over. These days you can buy special kits for correctly staking a young tree while allowing the trunk to move.
This is a similar question, but probably requires a different kind of tree:
We would like a tree max 24’h X 15’w to filter the view between ours and our neighbor’s 2nd floor bedroom windows. There’s only 16′ between our houses and we don’t want to block too much light. Would like a tree so we could open windows/shades to let in light & air and still maintain some privacy. Trees that have been suggested have dense foliage and/or grow too tall, or would drop leaves/berries on my neighbor’s walkway (that would be very inconsiderate).
No tree is “perfect”. They are living beings and have characteristics, some of which you will love and others not so much. That said, have you considered sweet shade (Hymenosporum flavum?) This tree works well in groves and has marvelously fragrant flowers in early summer which will need sweeping up after bloom. It is a tall, sparsely foliaged, narrow tree that works well in between buildings. Pinch back branches to shorten and strengthen them when young, which is important not to neglect. It needs good drainage. When it reaches the height you want simply pinch back the top to control the height.
Another idea is to plant a narrow hedge such as African fern pine (Podocarpus gracilior) grown from cuttings, not from seeds. It needs support and pruning. Or install a tall fence and plant it with a flowering vine or several of them and let them fight it out. I have seen in Hollywood a backyard hedge of Eugenia (Syzygium paniculatum) covered with blood red trumpet vine, lavender trumpet vine (Clytostoma callistegioides), Carolina jessamine and blue dawn flower (Ipomoea acuminata). It was a sight to behold and the Syzychium had no pests as is usual with that tree.
Hi Pat,
In my recent post beginning “This is a similar question, but probably requires a different kind of tree” I forgot to mention my concerns about a tree suggested by a local nursery: African Sumac. I like the look of these trees, and they have some about 10′ tall, however, when I researched on line I found conflicting info. Some websites said they max at 25-30’h with a sparse 20’w oval canopy, others said 45-55’h with a dense 30-40’w round canopy. All had the same botanical name, Rhus lancea, so it’s frustrating to make a choice based on such different descriptions. Also, the sites mentioned flowers but did not say whether they are serious allergens, an important factor for me.
Kathryn
Rhus lancea is a tree with many problems. It is a very poor choice, since though it’s drought resistant, it’s not particularly attractive and much too wide.
Additionally, you didn’t tell me where you live or mention your climate zone. Rhus lancea does better inland than along the coast.
Hymenosporum flavum is for zones 14 to 24. It has very few bad habits. I have no idea if pollen from the flowers causes allergies. You would need to find that out. Though I am unaware of problems, that does not mean there are none. People differ in what they can and cannot be subjected to. Largely, the main allergens in Southern California are likely to be the flowers of grasses, not trees. Many people are now growing ornamental grasses in their gardens in the effort to save water.