Three flower maple in mid-October at NYC Hi-Line

Look Up before you plant. From city streets to country roadside are a myriad of power (utility) lines, e.g. electric, telephone, and cable TV wires. Utility companies have a “right of away” clearance to operate their lines. In most municipalities, mature trees growing into their lines can be cut down or all offending branches removed. Large trees often end up massacred.

The mature heights of the following species rarely exceed 25 feet and eliminate tree/utility line issues. Most tolerant of a wide variety of soils, urban growing conditions and hardiness rating. Disease and pest resistant, drought tolerant, require minimal maintenance. This list includes a few large shrubs that can be trained into small trees such as smoketree, American witchhazel, and fringetree. All are hardy in USDA plant hardiness zones 5-9 except where noted.

Trident Maple (Acer buergerianum)

Hedge Maple (Acer campestre)

Flame Amur Maple (Acer ginnala ‘Flame’)

Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) – lots of great choices; however many are not tree forms

Three Flowered Maple (Acer triflorum)

Shantung Maple (Acer truncatum)

Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia)

Autumn Brilliance® Serviceberry (Amelanchier × grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’)

Princess Diana Serviceberry (Amelanchier grandiflora ‘Princess Diana’)

Snowcloud Serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis ‘Snowcloud’)

Pawpaw (Asimina triloba)

American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana)

Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

American Fringetree (Chionanthus virginicus)

Smoketree (Cotinus coggygria)

Flowering dogwood (Cornus florida)

Chinese Dogwood (Cornus kousa)

Kousa dogwood in May

Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas)

Winter King Hawthorn (Crataegus viridis ‘Winter King’)

Sweetheart Tree (Euscaphus japonicus)

Carolina Silverbell (Halesia tetraptera)

American witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia x) (zones 6-10)

Amur Maackia (Maackia amurensis)

Little Girl series of Magnolias (Magnolia x liliflora) – cvs. ‘Ann’, ‘Betty’, ‘Jane’, or ‘Susan’

Saucer Magnolia (M. soulangeana)

Star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata)

Select Crabapples (Malus ‘Adirondack’, ‘Prairifire’, ‘Sugartyme’, M. sargentii,  M. floribunda)

Ruby Vase® Parrotia (Parrotia  persica ‘Inge’s Ruby Vase’)

Crimson Pointe™ Plum (Prunus cerasifera ‘Cripoizam’)

Thundercloud Plum (Prunus cerasifera ‘Thundercloud’)

Newport Plum (Prunus ‘Newport’)

Okame Cherry (Prunus x ‘Okame’)

Japanese tree lilac (Syringa reticulata ‘Ivory Silk’)

Peve Minaret bald cypress (Taxodium distichum ‘Peve Minaret’)

City Sprite zelkova (Zelkova  serrata City Sprite™)