Shade Tree Suggestions for Southern Interior of BC

We are looking for suggestions for shade trees for our home in Merritt, BC.

The situation: Merritt is located about 260 km east of Vancouver, at 600m elevation. We get around 190 mm of rainfall, 250 frost free days, temp ranges from -30 to +35 c. It is quite windy in the spring and summer. We are in Zone 3-4. Our house is located on the flats and we get sun all day.

Our soil is an interesting problem. When the subdivision was put in, they used a very course fill (cobble to boulder size is common) on top of the natural soil. Some of the fill is up to 1m deep. As expected, it drains rather quickly.

We have a 12 year old Paper Birch in the back yard that is growing very well, but a mate planted at the same time died after about 5 years.

We want to plant a shade tree in the front yard (house faces south) plus a couple more in the back. Given the poor, quick draining soil and the weather we get, any ideas of what would work well?

We have considered some maples, notably Princeton Gold, Deborah (both in stock at the local Canadian Tire, any others would have to be brought in from Kamloops), Silver and Cut Leaf. We have also thought of another Paper Birch, plus Lombardy Poplar as they seem to grow well here (except for 50% survival rate of our 2 birch's).

Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

 

I think one detail in particular is missing: how much room (particularly spread and height) is available for the trees.

Another smaller detail is how fast-growing you're hoping for.

 

On the front side, we have about 3m from house to fence, then 1 1/2 m to the sidewalk.

In the back, it is about 5m to the fence, 4m to the house, side to side is a bit more than the 5m.

As for growing, we would like a fast grower in the front, and a medium-fast in the back.

As for height, there are no issues as far as wires (they are all underground), for the front we would like it to provide as much shade to the house as possible to take some load off the A/C. It is a 2 story house.

Thanks, Tman

 

To give you an idea of the possibilities, I recommend having a browse through the Jeffries Nursery Catalogue - it's fairly comprehensive and pretty much anything in there will survive the winter cold in Merritt (the difficulty is to find those plants that will take the summer drought).

That's a fairly confined space in the front - a lot of trees will eventually want more room to grow than what's there. I think you are going to need to look at one of the poplar cultivars, perhaps not Lombardy poplar.

As for the backyard, you have more room and therefore more choice. Have a look through the selection of plants in that catalogue, and see if anything strikes your fancy. If so, add it to the list of your possibilities on here, and maybe I or someone else can help narrow it down to a few choices for you.

 

Thanks, I will take a look through there. And yes, water is an issue as ideally we would like the trees to be able to survive in the event a total watering ban is put on as well as on minimal watering anyway.