What are appropriate trees for sunny san diego?

[SoCalKid]

Although I go to college in the bay area, the garden that I work on is in San Diego. I am from San Diego and love gardening. I am no expert by any means, but it's one of my many hobbies. I am a 20 year old male. I don't know why I like working in the garden, but I do. My house in San Diego is less than 1/4 mile from the beach in the North County region, about 35-40 miles north of downtown. You can basically plant anything you want.

I come here on a sad note...my dog died and I was wondering what a good memorial tree would. Suggestions? I was thinking a jacaranda or a cherry tree. I like trees/vines that are deciduous...they give a sense of season that you don't really get in San Diego.

One of my other problems is that my garden has really grown into a jungle. Everything grows really well...almost too well. Spring & Summer have almost constant battles with magnolia vines and date palm seeds from our huge palm tree.


So what kind of tree do you suggest?

Thanks!

SoCalKid

















This looks more like the above pic now...and the above pic is a lot more grown in:





I'll up date the pics when I go home in 2 weeks...these are over a year old.

Thanks!

[Linda Xing]

Welcome to Helpful Gardener Forum, I'm also very new here actually but I find it's a very friendly place. I love your garden, all the trees look very beautiful, you must take very good care of them. Very sorry for your great loss, hope you can find a great tree for your dog. Bless.

[rainbowgardener]

Your garden is fabulous!

I love jacarandas, it would be a nice choice. If you have space for a jacaranda, I guess you are thinking about a pretty big tree.


I know you said you like deciduous, but memorial trees are often evergreen for the symbolism (ever green in memory). If you are willing to think about that, I love the Arbutus (Pacific madrone) :

"This is a tall tree, with a graceful, wide-branching habit and oblong, gray-green evergreen leaves. Handsome with tall, reddish-brown trunk and open, narrow, rounded or irregular crown of stout, smooth red branches. Small, white, urn-shaped flowers occur in drooping, terminal clusters and are followed by small, red-orange fruit. The bark peels in thin flakes leaving a polished, reddish-brown surface.

Pacific Madrone is one of the most beautiful broadleaf flowering evergreens, with its glossy foliage, large clusters of small white flowers, orange-red fruits, and very showy, reddish, peeling bark. "
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result ... plant=ARME
birds, bees, butterflies like it. (See also http://www.nwplants.com/plants/trees/arb_men_index.html)

Some traditional memorial trees are cedars (incense cedar is a California native), cypress, dogwood (it's deciduous, has beautiful flowers, and there is a Pacific dogwood native)

Check out http://www.wildflower.org/plants/ It is the database of the LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center. You can set it for California (unfortunately not Southern Calif), Trees, what the sun and moisture conditions are and it will give you a list of native trees.