‘Acceptable Trees’ Head Off Pepco Pruners

by Marlene Berlin

One day in October, Vera Ertem, an arborist with DDOT’s Urban Forestry division, knocked on my door. She wanted to follow up on our previous discussion about what to do with the many trees that interfere with the electrical wires and require a drastic haircut.

She told me that Pepco wants to remove and replace the trees on our street. I knew this was coming but I thought I could delay the decision by waiting until after Pepco’s contractors had done their pruning. But when I broached this again she asked in return, “Why wait? Why not get the new trees growing?”

Neighbors who would also be impacted had pretty much allowed me to be their proxy in this decision. And to be perfectly honest, our maples had not done well.

I told her that I wanted trees that would spread out and provide shade to the sidewalk in the summer. She offered to send me a list of trees that they consider suitable for our tree box area, 35-feet tall and under. I told her I would contact neighbors to see if they had a particular request.

Here is the list of trees with a maximum height of 35 feet.

Scientific Name	Common Name
Acer buergerianum	Trident maple
Acer campestre	Hedge maple
Acer ginnala	Amur maple
Acer griseum	Paperbark maple
Amelancheir arborea ’Autumn Briliance’	Downy serviceberry
Amelanchier laevis	Allegheny serviceberry
Cercidiphyllum japonicum	Katsura tree
Cercis canadensis	Eastern redbud
Cercis canadensis ’Forest Pansy’	Forest Pansy’ redbud
Cercis reniformis ’Oklahoma’	Oklahoma’ Western redbud
Chionanthus retusus	Chinese fringetree
Cornus florida ’Cherokee Princess’	Cherokee Princess’ flowering dogwood
Cornus florida x kousa ’Rutgan’	Rutgan dogwood
Cornus kousa	Kousa dogwood
Corylus colurna	Turkish filbert
Cotinus obovatus	American smoketree
Halesia tetraptera	Carolina silverbell
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Biloxi’	Biloxi crape myrtle
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Muskogee’	Muskogee crape myrtle
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Biloxi’ single stem	Biloxi crape myrtle single stem
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Muskogee’single stem	Muskogee crape myrtle single stem
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Natchez’	Natchez crape myrtle
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Natchez’ single stem	Natchez crape myrtle single stem
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Tuscarora’	Tuscarora crape myrtle
Lagerstroemia indica ‘Tuscarora’ single stem	Tuscarora crape myrtle single stem
Malus ‘Donald Wyman’	Donald wyman crab apple
Malus’Adirondack’	Adirondack crabapple
Oxydendron arboretum	Sourwood
Parrotia persica	Persian parrotia
Prunus mume’Peggy Clark’	Japanese apricot
Pyrus callaryana’Autumn Blaze’	Autumn Blaze pear
Prunus virginiana ‘Canada Red’	Canada Red chokecherry
Prunus x okame	Okame cherry
Prunus x yodoensis	Yoshino cherry
Styrax japonicus	Japanese snowbell
Syringa reticulata	Japanese tree lilac

The problem is that I don’t know much about them. For those who know about trees, what would you suggest from this list? If we can get blossoming in the spring, great fall color, and spreading, that would be a boon.

And does all this mean I would also be responsible for getting after the neighbors to water? This is what I get myself into when I get interested in something like Pepco’s tree-pruning program – an occupational hazard.