I'm searching for trees to plant. I'm looking for medium to fast growing shade trees that grow well in the Victoria area. I would also like to have good fall colors. What are some good ones? Ones to stay away from? Multiple different species will be planted.

Arizona ash is a fast grower, but no fall colors. Do they have an actual fall in Victoria?

It's not anything close to North Texas, but it's more apparent than the "fall" in Corpus.

Cedar Elm

Are they going to be yard trees? How big of a coverage area are we talking?

I think all of your Oak trees except for live oaks will have pretty fall foliage.

Some in yard, some not.

20 acres give or take.

Red Oak

Red Oak is a broad category.


Post Oak, Bur Oak and Live Oak are the prominent species of natives in your area, so they will be good choices. Pecans are nice. Baldcypress if you have some wetter areas, but also do good in a yard where they can be watered in a dry summer.

A popular non-native is the Sawtooth Oak. Fast growing for an oak.

They will most definitely fall in about 20 years......... don't plant them anywhere close to your house, or better yet dont plant any......

Sycamore, or red oak.

Sawtooth Oak will provide wildlife value and will start producing acorns in a relatively short amount of time compared to other oak species.

Cedar elm, my first choice.
Live Oak, second.

Spanish Oak has bright red leaves in the fall, medium growth.
Live Oaks are slow growing with no fall color but they might give the property more resale value in the long run.

I am in north texas so I don't know how much the tree coverage varies from there to victoria (meaning suitability for trees here vs there), but I went through this exercise when I moved in 11 years ago and what I came up with was this:

Cedar elm- yellow fall colors pretty consistently, good form, slow to medium grower early but can speed up as it gets older
Shumgard Oak (red oak)- red color in fall with wet seasons, holds onto leaves late and they brown up pretty quickly, fast grower with good plant
Chinese pistache- awesome bright multi-colors in fall from purple to orange to yellow to reds, grows medium, but might need some trimming to keep best form early but won't get as big as the oaks or elms
Texas Ash- good consistent yellow color in the fall better with wet years, grows medium, weakest of the trees I have for storms but it isn't big enough yet to cause trouble on that regard
Shantung maple- good consistent yellow fall color, good medium growth rate, not as dense a tree so more a fill in between shade trees than a true shade tree although that may change with time
Fire dragon shantung maple- bright red fall color, but it is suppose to grow like the regular shantung but it doesn't, more of a 15ft decorative tree. Love this tree just wish it got bigger.

Have since put in some chestnuts and pecans for nut production not for color or shade, though those will fill in nicely.


Another great fast grower which will ultimately give good shade and grows well in texas is the bald cypress. I have a couple of those on the opposite side of my yard for screening purposes and after 10 years they are easily 35-40 feet tall and screening the neighbors really well.
Another good screening tree with good summer color is the vitex tree, let it grow as a bush or trim up the bottom and make it a tree, either way it is fast growing, hardy and has great summer blooms, good shade and screening, I have two of these and within 5 years they were screening the neighbors well.

Youpon Holly...

Buckeye has done some research. I am picking up a Vitex Monday. I will shape it to a tree. My father has some (used as shrubs) and the blooms are phenomenal. It will go in a small split in my driveway (20 ft diameter).

This one.

For God's sake do not plant an ash tree.

Don't know where you are planting or if watering will be available but even generally regarded slow growing trees grow pretty fast if you water them.

Do not plant cedar elms close to your house. Unless you like cleaning gutters and running a leaf blower all year.

Sorry, I'm not any kind of tree expert but the one I'm referring to are the one below.
I didn't even know a post oak was considered a red oak and have always just heard them called post oak.

No doubt

Parents had them and though they grew fast they were nothing but problems for sure