Plant a Siouxland, Skyfest or Robusta cottonwood and you get serious height with none of the cotton. Add Northern Acclaim honeylocust and Prairie Expedition American elm to that short list. Those are the cold climate fast trees NDSU Extension ranks at the top for the northern plains. Every one of them is a named release. That name is the part doing the work.
The cultivar on the tag changes your result more than the species does. A cottonwood that dumps cotton across your driveway each June and one that drops none are the same species, so the word cottonwood by itself tells you almost nothing. The same trap catches people shopping for hardy shade trees. Two trees with matching species labels can differ by decades of cleanup, or by whether the tree shrugs off the disease that kills its own kind.
Speed is the easy part up north. Survival is the filter. A tree that shoots up fast and then dies back in a hard winter has cost you every year you spent waiting on it. That is why these releases carry names at all. A selection earns a name once it has proven itself, and the name is your shortcut to that record.
Hardiness, disease resistance and growth habit get bred into one specific release. None of it spreads across the species. American elm still falls to Dutch elm disease, but disease-resistant American elms exist now, and Prairie Expedition is the NDSU selection. Jefferson and St. Croix resist it as well. So do the Asian hybrids Triumph and Accolade. A no-name seedling elm off a garden center rack carries none of that protection.
Cottonwood ranks among the largest and fastest growing trees in North Dakota. The cottonwood selections Siouxland, Skyfest and Robusta give you that speed with no cotton mess. Northern Acclaim honeylocust is the hardiest honeylocust there is, and its open airy leaves let lawn keep growing right under the canopy. That one is an NDSU release too. Prairie Reflection laurel willow is a 35 foot (11 m) tree with dark green leaves that glisten in sun.
Match the tree to the job before you shop. Over a lawn you want to keep green, the honeylocust wins, since thin shade and grass get along. Cottonwood needs room, so give it the back of a big lot. The laurel willow builds a wall of dark, glossy leaves. And the hybrid poplar does its best work as a screen.
Hybrid poplars may grow 5 feet (1.5 m) or more every year, which is the fastest cover you can plant. Several varieties grow in a columnar habit, so you can set them in a line along a property edge and have a privacy screen in a few seasons. Put those where you need cover soon. Put the elm or the honeylocust where you want shade for the long haul.
These selections come out of North Dakota extension work. Confirm the same cultivar with your own state or provincial extension service before you place an order.
Ask the nursery for the cultivar by name and read the tag yourself before you pay. A label that says elm or poplar and nothing else is a coin flip, and you will not know how it landed for years. Among northern fast growing trees, the ones with a breeding record behind them repay the search. Walk past any cold climate fast trees sold with no cultivar name on the tag.
Read the full article: Fast Growing Trees: What Speed Really Costs
