I find it interesting to grow different trees in my woods. Most are rare in Southern Minnesota. They may also be marginal for our zone 4 climate. Below are some of the trees I have planted in the last few years.

Bald Cypress: a tree well known in the south. I have heard of a few of these in Southern Minnesota. It is planted in a protected site. Picture below of it’s fine leaves.

Bur Gamble Oak: This is a hybrid white oak which isn’t rare. The Gamble oak is a small oak from the western United States and that’s what makes this rare for Southern Minnesota.

Heartnut: This is a hybrid of a Japanese Walnut. It is related to the native Black Walnut. The nuts are a really cool heart shape.

London Planetree: A very large and unique tree which is marginal in zone 4. I have seen many of these in Europe and the thin green bark is special.

Persimmon Tree: Back in the day I knew of persimmon as the wood used to make my golf drivers. It has unusual fruit too.

Sycamore Maple: Don’t know a lot about this tree. Found it on sale at Knecht’s nursery in Northfield. It was a 8 foot tree but died back over the first winter. It is growing great from the stump so we will see how it does.

Tulip Tree: Farther south and east this tree grows to huge size. We will see how it does in Southern Minnesota. I have planted 4 of these trees as small 2 foot seedlings.

Black Gum or Tupelo Tree: I saw a large Tupelo at the Arboretum in Madison Wisconsin. I had planted a Black Gum years ago, but maybe didn’t water it enough in the first year and it died. I have two larger Tupelo trees which are doing okay, not great. We will see.