Ash trees get a bad rap, but these species are actually great for your yard

My love affair with trees began years before I became a landscape architect and arborist. As a kid I loved to climb trees, and my favorite two were mimosa and catalpa because the bark was smooth and easy on the skin.

I went to school at a little college in Lubbock, and it was during my trips back home to Pittsburg, Texas, that it hit me how cool big, beautiful green trees are.

During my first horticulture course, my teacher, while explaining various trees, went on a rant about how terrible the catalpa tree was. Little did he know that I was a catalpa tree expert. My first smoking experience was a catalpa bean pod. I also heard during these courses how terrible ash trees are. Well, some are and some aren't. Let's review.

Interesting foliage and seed pods of wafer ash.(Howard Garrett / Howard Garrett)

Not all ash trees are the same

Arizona ash, found naturally in canyons and riverbanks, is a terrible tree choice for homeowners. Like cottonwoods, they are appropriate to their native sites but no good in residential landscapes. The reason? They don't live long enough and have several built-in problems.

Some of my contemporaries agree with that assessment but make a serious mistake by saying that all ash trees are bad. I agree with them that Arizona ash and the bottomland green ash are not good landscape trees, but there are some excellent ash trees that should be promoted and used more often.

Graceful structure of Texas ash in winter(Howard Garrett / Howard Garrett)

At the top of the good ash list is Texas ash (Fraxinus texensis). It is tolerant of most soils, relatively pest-free, drought tolerant, has beautiful fall color that ranges from yellow to deep reds, and is a strikingly graceful and beautiful tree. It also lives a long time.

The other good ash trees are wafer ash, prickly ash and fragrant ash. Wafer ash (Ptelea trifoliata), also called hoptree, is an excellent small tree for use from Texas to Chicago. Prickly ash or toothache tree (Zanthoxylum clava-herculis) is another small deciduous tree normally found along hedgerows, in thickets and on edges of forests in the central and eastern portion of the country. It is host to the wonderful giant swallowtail butterfly.

Foliage and the sweet smelling flowers of the beautiful fragrant ash (Howard Garrett / Howard Garrett)

Fragrant ash (Fraxinus cuspidata) is a true ash and a terrific tree that grows from Texas to Nevada. It has strongly fragrant white flowers that resemble those of the fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus).

These are all worth trying, and there's more detailed information on dirtdoctor.com.