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Fast Growing Trees for Ohio
A review of fast-growing trees in Ohio, including hardiness zones and characteristics of evergreen, deciduous and native species.
If you want to enjoy a mature tree's beauty and its other benefits, you have several options:
You can wait it out while a transplanted sapling grows into a mature tree, which often takes many years.
You can fork over hundreds of dollars to transplant a large tree.
You can plant a fast-growing tree if you have neither the time nor the money for the other options.
Ohio's state tree -- the native Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra), a perennial in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 through 7 -- puts on a show in spring with its yellowish-green flowers. It can grow 60 feet tall and have a canopy 30 feet wide. Other trees, though, have faster growth rates than the buckeye.
So plant a buckeye for state pride, but consider planting different trees to fill your Ohio landscape faster:
Evergreen Trees
Evergreens fulfill their name: They stay green year-round, which makes them suitable as privacy screens, windbreaks and noise buffers.
Eastern White Pine
(Pinus strobus)
USDA zones: 3 through 8.
Potential mature size: 80 feet tall by 40 feet wide.
Features: Eastern white pine's 5-inch-long, bluish-green needles grow in bundles of five, a unique feature among southern pine species. When it's young, the tree has a pyramidal shape, characteristic of Christmas trees.
Norway Spruce
(Picea abies)
USDA zones: 2 through 7.
Potential mature size: 60 feet tall by 30 feet wide.
Features: Norway spruce has a pyramidal shape, with upturned primary growth and pendulous older growth. The tree is tolerant of air pollution and resistant to deer browsing. Norway spruce can become invasive in some U.S. locations; remove unwanted Norway spruce seedlings and the tree's dropped cones to prevent that problem.
Deciduous Trees
Deciduous trees block the sun's rays in summer, which will keep your house cooler, and they allow the sun's warmth to penetrate their leafless canopies in winter, which will help warm your home.
Dawn Redwood
(Metasequoia glyptostroboides)
USDA zones: 4 through 8.
Potential mature size: 100 feet tall by 25 feet wide.
Features: Dawn redwood is a deciduous, cone-producing tree with foliage that resembles fern fronds. It has a pyramidal shape with reddish bark when young and exfoliating bark when older. This tree may grow 50 feet in 20 years.
River Birch
(Betula nigra)
USDA zones: 3 through 9.
Potential mature size: 50 feet tall by 40 feet wide.
Features: Thriving in wet soil, river birch is a suitable tree for a low-lying or poorly draining area in your yard. It features shaggy bark, which stands out particularly in winter after its leaves fall.
Native Trees
Native plants are adapted to the climate and soils in their natural habitat. They also provide food sources for wildlife and serve as larval host plants for butterflies and moths.
Red Maple
(Acer rubrum)
USDA Zones: 3 through 9.
Potential mature size: 70 feet tall by 50 feet wide.
Features: "Red" is the key descriptive word for the red maple; its newly emerging leaves are red, as are its stems, twigs and fall leaf color. The leaves have three primary, toothed lobes. Red maple tolerates moist kinds of soil.
Red Oak or Northern Red Oak
(Quercus rubra)
USDA zones: 4 through 8.
Potential mature size: 75 feet tall by 75 feet wide.
Features: Red oak leaves have seven to 11 serrated, pointed lobes that turn brilliant red in fall. This is a tough, urban tree that is tolerant of air pollution and drought.
