Trees offer shade, charm, and value to commercial properties. Choose the right tree species for your commercial site in the greater St. Louis region by following these tree-selection tips.
Know Your Goals for Tree Installations
To choose the right trees for your property, make a list of the goals you want to achieve with your planting efforts. Knowing the roles you want your trees to perform helps you narrow down appropriate tree species for the landscape.
Commercial property owners have a lot of good reasons to plant trees. Recent research has shown that planting trees can offset some carbon dioxide emissions, so installing trees on your retail, industrial, office-space, or hospitality property is a great way to show customers and clients that you're committed to sustainability.
Additional goals you may have for your landscape's trees include the following:
- Improve campus appearance
- Screen neighbors or street
- Screen operations and sensitive areas
- Create client and staff parks, walkways, and gardens
- Upgrade hospitality image
Hotels, restaurants, and upscale commercial structures are enhanced with specimen trees like the Amur corktree, Nikko maple, or paperbark maple. After dark, colorful spotlights can reveal the interesting bark and growth forms of specimen trees outside windows and entryways. Unique trees mixed into the landscape create a magical atmosphere for your guests and can help people notice you via social media.
If you want trees to act as a screen, evergreen trees like white fir, American holly, and Chinese juniper are some of the best tree choices. While deciduous trees normally shed their leaves in autumn, evergreens, including most conifers, don't lose their foliage every year.
Write down your goals for your trees, then talk to your tree service professional. They know which trees will meet your landscape goals.
Get Inspiration From Trees Around You
If you're not sure how you want your property to look, or even how to go about choosing trees for your commercial site, take a tour of your area by car or the world by WiFi. Note the attractive campuses and lush commercial properties you admire, and picture similar arrangements of trees on your property.
As you cruise the city or surf the web, you may notice trees you really like in the commercial setting. Perhaps you're smitten with flowering trees like saucer magnolia and flowering cherry that offer bright blooms and color in otherwise dull vistas. Or, you might see a towering row of white oaks that give a commercial facility's entry drive gravitas and substance.
In-person and internet tours of other commercial properties provide endless ideas and inspiration for your own tree choices.
Take pictures or save screenshots of commercial landscapes you find online. Your tree service professional can identify any trees you don't recognize and let you know if a tree is suitable for your site.
Understand the Lifelong Needs of Trees
Your tree selections are limited by the USDA hardiness zone in which your property sits. Most St. Louisarea residents are in
zones 5B to 6A, so the trees you select must be adaptable to those zones. Missouri's
119
common native tree species are often the best choices for these zonal ranges.
Individual factors that determine a tree's suitability for the commercial landscape include the tree's tolerance for the following conditions on your site:
- Moist or waterlogged soils
- Dry soils
- Full sun
- Light or heavy shade
- Urban or street side location
- Soil pH
- Height and root restrictions
- No attention available for routine maintenance
Numerous trees are tolerant of one or more of the individual conditions listed above. Your tree service evaluates your property and helps you select trees that can withstand the conditions offered by your particular landscape.
If you plan to upgrade your commercial property and planting new trees in the Greater St. Louis, Missouri, area, contact
County Tree Service
to remove unwanted trees and stumps. We evaluate and make room on your site for new tree installations with our expert tree-care, tree-clearing, and tree-trimming services.