Nominating Worst tree

[RPH]

I’ll add another one to my list.
Mulberry- cut one down today. What a tangle of branches.

 

[oldmachinenut]

I hate mimosas... those and tree of heaven(HELL) are super prolific invasives around here.

I added “Hell” to the tree of heaven because we had a neighbor with a huge Ailanthus tree, same tree. If I hadn’t aggressively dug/pulled out the shoots or suckers my whole neighborhood would be a forest.

 

[starquestMM]

I have a black walnut, July - September it drops tennis ball size projectiles, it's days are numbered

yeah, old house had a hickory and walnut overhanging the deck. Right time of year and a wind storm was like natures xylophone keeping me awake.

 

[scofo]

Here in the ATL-
Sweetgum and Mimosas.

Mimosas are considered weeds- they proliferate like crazy if they're not cut down early! But it's amazing how many people actually like them because of their bloom- if they only knew!

That's true! Forgot about that one. I cut down any I could reach on my property, but the neighbors still have a few and they're some of those who like them. grrrr... So I end up plucking probably a thousand volunteers every year from my yard.

Mimosas are bad news

I hate mimosas... those and tree of heaven are super prolific invasives around here.

I see a few responses with contempt for mimosa trees. Why? There were a few around my childhood home. I dont recall them being a bad thing. I loved to smell the blooms. What are the problems with this tree?

 

[jar944]

I see a few responses with contempt for mimosa trees. Why? There were a few around my childhood home. I dont recall them being a bad thing. I loved to smell the blooms. What are the problems with this tree?

They drop all those damn leaves and blooms, they are invasive and spread easily, they are short lived and eventually start dropping branches/limbs/splitting.

Other than being pink and fast growing initially they have no redeeming qualities. They are also banned in a lot of places due to their invasive nature.

 

[4xdog]

They drop all those damn leaves and blooms, they are invasive and spread easily, they are short lived and eventually start dropping branches/limbs/splitting.

Other than being pink and fast growing initially they have no redeeming qualities. They are also banned in a lot of places due to their invasive nature.

...and mimosas leave a sorta sticky, dirty stuff from the blooms that makes a mess of anything underneath. Good riddance to all of them that were on my fenceline when I moved into this place. I keep offering to loan my neighbors my chainsaw... But they keep their half-dead, messy tree and all its hateful seed pods. They also feed the f'ing squirrels, so there's that too.

 

[HalfTonTom]

I nominate the Family Tree.

 

[bwringer]

Some past numbnuts of a previous owner planted an apple tree about three feet from one corner of our deck. By the time we moved in it was fairly mature.

The local bugs, birds, and other critters loved it, anyway. Bees, wasps, and flies galore from the time the blossoms started.

If we slept with the window open, it was lots of fun hearing thumps all night from apples dropping onto the deck and nocturnal animals rummaging around. The occasional raccoon fight was an eye-opener. One night the cat woke us up yowling at a raccoon poking at our window screen.

It was just one of several trees and bushes in our back yard that some brainless idiot planted or allowed to mature in the worst possible place. There was also a cherry tree maybe ten feet from the house, several bushes planted far too close, etc. They're all gone, but it was a lot of work and expense...

I might also nominate any willow tree closer to a house than maybe a half mile or so. Soft, weak wood, trash everywhere all the time, and huge branches came down twice. The second one took out a large chunk of my deck (touched the house but didn't damage it, thankfully), and my insurance company actually paid to have the whole tree removed because this would just keep happening.

Willows are fine at a distance. Terrible idea in yards.

We also have a pretty nice maple in our front yard. Maples are fine, but again, some long-ago absolute numbnuts planted it about four feet from the tile sewer line. Eventually the inevitable happened, and there was a rather large, sudden plumbing bill for laying a new seamless sewer line via a different route. We let the tree live. This time...

 

[CombatNinja]

Anyone spotting a theme here? Any tree in vicinity of your house/deck/pool/driveway/whatever is a pain in the ***.

I have nothing within 30 feet of my house and those are just ornamental crape myrtles (which, by the way are also a pain in the ***).

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

I have a black walnut, July - September it drops tennis ball size projectiles, it's days are numbered

We have several hundred of them in our yard. Last year we picked up about a pickup load. I would guess we got about 1/3 of them.

 

[ptabatcher]

Sweetgums drop those balls- and they're scraggly lookin

Sweet gums are the worst. Had one in our backyard. Those spikey balls are the worst. I miss the shade but, not filling bag after bag after bag full of those balls. No way to really get them picked up other than with your hands. They are all over our town too.

 

[The Bean]

I skimmed through this thread from start to end. Most of my list has been mentioned.
Bradford Pear
Sweet Gum
Maple (particularly Norway variety)
Mulberry
But I didn't see this one that I have to be careful where I park my car:
GINKO

 

[4xdog]

Sweet gums are the worst. Had one in our backyard. Those spikey balls are the worst. I miss the shade but, not filling bag after bag after bag full of those balls. No way to really get them picked up other than with your hands. They are all over our town too.

Here's a street near my place early this spring covered in spikey sweetgum balls. Ugh.

 

[4xdog]

I skimmed through this thread from start to end. Most of my list has been mentioned...
But I didn't see this one that I have to be careful where I park my car:
GINKO

Gingko is an interesting tree in that each one is either male or female. Not every one produces all those fruits.

 

[PCustoms]

Striped maple.

Garbage trees that outcompete other growth, but then get too big to support themselves and create blowdowns. I cut them whenever I can.

 

[Wiz02]

Gingko is an interesting tree in that each one is either male or female. Not every one produces all those fruits.

Which ever one makes that mess definitely belongs on this list.

 

[4xdog]

Which ever one makes that mess definitely belongs on this list.

If it's producing fruit, the ginkgo is a female.

 

[gtae07]

Tree of heaven:

Tree-of-Heaven

Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is an invasive tree and noxious weed in PA. This article displays images to assist with identification and provides recommendations for control, including a management calendar and treatment and timing table.

extension.psu.edu

I waged war on one of these fuckers for two years. Finally found out what it was, cut every stem I could find, bored holes in the stumps, and soaked it in some highly concentrated tree killer. Dug up the rotted stump and roots the year after.

 

[Cooter Brown]

Lombardy poplar. A neighbor planted some near the property line. They grow amazingly fast and shoot out radial roots that stick halfway out of the ground and make mowing a PIA. In the summer they shed stuff that looks like kapok. When the girlfriend moved out--she planted them--I talked him into letting me cut them down. It took 3 years of playing whack-a-mole with the little plants popping up to finally get rid of them, and I had to chop up the roots to get them out of the way so I could mow.

 

[Innovate1]

Ayuh,..... That is Huge money, in the hardwood market,.... $1,000s,....

 

[Innovate1]

Anyone spotting a theme here? Any tree in vicinity of your house/deck/pool/driveway/whatever is a pain in the ***.

I have nothing within 30 feet of my house and those are just ornamental crape myrtles (which, by the way are also a pain in the ***).

Have to agree on that. Have some close to the garage that are going to go. Have a willow near the house that I need to trim. It attracts the birds and my wife likes that so it staying but needs a serious cut back. Our area has rule against planting them but these were in before the rule. Not sure it is enforced either.

 

[GirchyGirchy]

Anyone spotting a theme here? Any tree in vicinity of your house/deck/pool/driveway/whatever is a pain in the ***.

Oh...I just thought it was "people will ***** about anything."

 

[CombatNinja]

The only people that seem happy living under trees are those that are kind of laid-back and don't worry about things like sap all over their cars, branches down all the time so you can't mow, busted up foundations/sidewalks/driveways, birds shitting all over the place, squirrels wreaking havoc and just general mess. I'm just not one of those people so I removed all the trees that could even potentially aggravate me. I have a little woods at the back of my property if I feel the need to hug a tree.

 

[m6z]

Zero trees on my tiny lot and it's going to stay that way.

 

[CN Spots]

Oh...I just thought it was "people will ***** about anything."

My tree has already been covered so I'm bitching by proxy.

 

[m6z]

Anyone spotting a theme here? Any tree in vicinity of your house/deck/pool/driveway/whatever is a pain in the ***.

I have nothing within 30 feet of my house and those are just ornamental crape myrtles (which, by the way are also a pain in the ***).

Yeah.

It would seem that a majority of people who plant trees have zero forethought on how big they're going to grow. Lots of trees big mature trees right next to houses and driveways.

I remember looking at a house a few years back that must have had 40 or more trees surrounding the house. Limbs and leaves dropping on the roof constantly from the looks of the shingles.

 

[ATC]

Anyone spotting a theme here? Any tree in vicinity of your house/deck/pool/driveway/whatever is a pain in the ***.

I have nothing within 30 feet of my house and those are just ornamental crape myrtles (which, by the way are also a pain in the ***).

Nah, I love trees. What little bit of nuisance they can be is easily overwhelmed by the shade, cooler temperatures, birds, sounds, smells...and of course, a reason to buy more tools to deal with them!









If I had to nit-pick, it would be the damn Oak trees that drop these for about 6 weeks out of the year:
They get all over my vehicle's wipers and clog the cowl drains.

 

[firebirdparts]

This talk about black walnuts has been as if the little bombs weren't all full of tar that sticks to you like never-seez. When I grew up, we used to eat them (because we were poor) and we would put the walnuts in the road and run over them with a car for a month. During that, the tar would dry up some and you didn't have to get as much on you. Back then, there was nothing I ever encountered that would clean it off your hands. Maybe somebody has invented something since then. I don't mind them as long as the bombs are falling not on the house, but I know better than to pick them up.

 

[The Bean]

Gingko is an interesting tree in that each one is either male or female. Not every one produces all those fruits.

Well, I have the one that drops the fruit. When ripe, they fall and smash on the car. If they bake in the sun, it's a devil of a clean-up on the paint finish. And when the fruit is fully developed, and the branches are heavy, a strong wind can bring down a branch as thick as my leg.
The leaves are beautiful on the driveway in the Fall however.

 

[Wes Tex]

I thought a Mulberry was a bad tree until I read about all these other trees.

 

[The Bean]

I thought a Mulberry was a bad tree until I read about all these other trees.

Well, the mulberries will stain just about anything they hit. And birds eat them and sh!t out that stain over a broader area (maybe on your furniture or umbrella).
However, the ginko fruit stinks worse than anything on your property save for manure or dead animal. You have to sweep them constantly to prevent that annoyance.
I'd be hard pressed to choose between the two. Since we have one of each, not to mention a sweet gum and Bradford pear, I guess I'll just bear it. [I don't own a chainsaw, LOL]

 

[Shocker]

Ponderosa Pine. Needles, large cones and sap. All over the deck. Have to hit each glop with Goo Gone to get it off.

 

[bbxlr8]

One nobody mentioned is tulip poplars - Grow fast, "look" like a great tree, drop the whirly seeds that clog gutters, also split, rot from the inside, get hollow and go squirrely when you take them down! Come down regularly in storms, also low BTUs for the stove; but on the other hand make great campfire wood for those in the business

 

[vrinner]

Here in SoCal there are a lot of neighborhoods with Jacaranda trees. My parents house had them, one of my houses had them. They are beautiful trees when they are blooming but the flowers leave so much sap all over everything (cars especially) that I just hate them.

Picture for reference

 

[4xdog]

Jacarandas are so beautiful I'd try to find a way to put up with them if they survived around here. Living with Jacaranda mimosifolia sounds a bit like living with our mimosa trees (Albizia julibrissin) around here -- kind of a sappy, messy tree.

 

[engineer2]

After reading these posts I am beginning to understand why some people cut down all the trees on their property.

 

[anomm701]

I've got an unknown tree in my yard that hangs over the driveway. In the spring it flowers and drops petals everywhere. Then in summer it grows little cherry-sized apple-things that fall off, or squirrels and birds eat, and then they are in little bits n pieces all over the driveway. The wildlife picks them from the tree or the grass and carries them up on cars or trailers and make a mess up there. The leaf blower is now my best friend. Its a daily task almost. Homeowner life is great, wouldn't trade it for renting ever.

That's a crab apple tree

 

[anomm701]

I'd plant a poplar , silver maple or a weeping willow

 

[77thor]

Almost every type of tree has a downside, it's just what you're willing to put up with.

 

[rlwhitetr3b]

When we were building our house I tried to give a couple of dozen that were 12 inches in diameter away for taking the down. No takers.