Every native tree has its own preferences, but a few habits keep almost any tree healthy. Plant it in the right spot at the right depth. Mulch it in a wide, flat ring. Water it deeply in dry spells, keep lawn equipment off the trunk, protect its roots and prune it lightly at the right time of year.
This guide covers the native trees we see most often in Virginia yards, from Hampton Roads to Richmond and Fredericksburg. For each one, you'll find where it grows best, how to care for it and what problems to watch for. For more detail on general care, see our articles on planting, watering, mulching and pruning.
White Oak
A long-lived, slow-growing giant that can shade a yard for centuries. It usually reaches 50 to 80 feet tall with an even wider spread in the open, and it supports more wildlife than almost any other tree.
- Best spot: Full sun and deep, well-drained, slightly acidic soil, with plenty of room. Plant at least 30 feet from buildings.
- Care: White oak is very sensitive to root disturbance. Avoid trenching, paving, soil fill or grade changes anywhere under its canopy, and keep vehicles off the root zone. Water mature trees in long summer droughts and mulch as wide as you can.
- Pruning: Prune in November or December. Avoid pruning from March through August. If a storm-damaged limb must be cut in the growing season, cover the fresh wound with wound dressing or latex paint.
- Watch for: Oak decline after drought or root damage, two-lined chestnut borer and hypoxylon canker in stressed trees, and spongy moth defoliation in northern and western Virginia. Leaf galls and oak leaf blister look alarming but are cosmetic.
Willow Oak
One of the most common shade and street trees in Richmond and Hampton Roads. Its narrow, willow-like leaves make it look fine-textured despite its size, usually 40 to 75 feet tall. It grows faster than most oaks.
- Best spot: Full sun. Tolerates wet, compacted and clay soils better than most oaks, which makes it a good fit for low spots.
- Care: Give it a wide mulch bed, because surface roots are common and they fight with mowers. Water during drought. Avoid liming nearby lawn, since it yellows in high-pH soil.
- Pruning: Prune in November or December. Avoid pruning from March through August. Remove dead limbs promptly on older trees.
- Watch for: Bacterial leaf scorch, which shows as leaves browning from the edges in late summer and getting worse each year. Mature trees can drop large limbs, especially where old wounds have decayed. Yellow leaves with green veins mean the soil pH is too high.
Live Oak
An evergreen oak with a broad, sweeping canopy. Its native range reaches the warm coast of southeastern Virginia, and it's one of the most wind-resistant trees you can plant. Expect 40 to 60 feet tall and often wider than it is tall.
- Best spot: Full sun near the coast, including sandy and salty sites. It does best in the warmest parts of Hampton Roads. Farther inland it can suffer cold damage in hard winters. It needs a lot of room.
- Care: Water regularly for the first two years. After that it is very drought tolerant. Keep a mulch ring to protect the trunk.
- Pruning: Train young trees to one central trunk and remove competing leaders. Its long, low limbs can be raised gradually over several years, but never strip the inside of the canopy. Follow the oak timing: November and December are best, and avoid March through August.
- Watch for: Few serious pests. Leaf galls are cosmetic. Cold injury may appear as brown leaves after an unusually severe winter.
Red Maple
A fast-growing native with red flowers in late winter and red, orange or yellow fall color. It usually reaches 40 to 60 feet. It grows naturally in Virginia swamps and bottomlands, so it handles wet soil well.
- Best spot: Sun to part shade. Wet to average soil. It struggles in hot, dry, compacted spots.
- Care: Its thin bark is easily wounded by mowers and trimmers, so mulch around the base is essential. Shallow roots dry out quickly, so water during drought. It's also prone to yellow leaves in high-pH soil.
- Pruning: Remove competing leaders and tight V-shaped forks on young trees, because they tend to split in storms later. Pruning in late winter causes harmless sap bleeding. Early summer pruning avoids it.
- Watch for: Storm splitting at weak forks, trunk wounds that lead to decay, scale insects and sooty mold, and spotted lanternfly in areas where it has spread. Tar spot and other leaf spots are cosmetic.
Tulip Poplar
One of the tallest hardwoods in the eastern United States, often 70 to 100 feet or more, with a straight trunk and tulip-shaped flowers in late spring. It's a fast grower.
- Best spot: Full sun and deep, moist, well-drained soil. Plant it well away from houses because of its height.
- Care: Water during summer droughts. Stressed trees drop a lot of yellow leaves in July and August. That is a drought signal, not a disease. Mulch well and protect the roots.
- Pruning: Prune in the dormant season. Remove dead limbs and correct weak forks early. Its wood is fairly soft, so large limbs over structures should be evaluated.
- Watch for: Tuliptree scale and aphids dripping honeydew that turns into black sooty mold, spring leaf mining by the yellow-poplar weevil (usually cosmetic) and limb breakage in storms.
Loblolly Pine
The most common pine across Virginia's Coastal Plain. It's tall and fast growing, usually 60 to 90 feet, with long needles in bundles of three.
- Best spot: Full sun. Tolerates poor, sandy and clay soils and occasional wet spells.
- Care: Protect the roots. Construction damage, soil fill and trenching are the most common reasons pines near homes decline and attract beetles. Leave pine straw under the tree as natural mulch. Water young trees and water mature pines during severe drought.
- Pruning: Remove dead lower branches as needed. Never top a pine. Mature pines near houses should be checked for decay and lightning damage, especially before hurricane season.
- Watch for: Southern pine beetle and engraver beetles, which show as pitch tubes on the bark and needles turning yellow then red across the crown. Also watch for fusiform rust galls on branches and trunk, and lightning strikes. Some yellowing and shedding of the oldest inner needles in fall is normal.
Bald Cypress
A deciduous conifer native to the swamps of southeastern Virginia, including the Great Dismal Swamp. Its soft, feathery needles turn rusty orange and drop every fall. It usually reaches 50 to 70 feet and is one of the most wind-firm trees available.
- Best spot: Full sun. It's surprisingly adaptable: it grows in standing water, average yard soil and even fairly dry, urban sites. It prefers acidic soil.
- Care: Water during its first two summers. Don't be alarmed when it turns brown and bare in fall. It's supposed to. In wet soil it may form knobby "knees" around the base.
- Pruning: Needs very little pruning. Remove competing leaders when young and dead branches as needed, during the dormant season.
- Watch for: Bagworms, spider mites in hot, dry summers, and yellowing in alkaline soil.
Flowering Dogwood
Virginia's state tree and state flower. A small understory tree, usually 15 to 30 feet, with white spring blooms, red fall color and red berries for birds.
- Best spot: Morning sun with afternoon shade, in moist, well-drained, acidic soil rich in organic matter. It struggles in full, hot sun and compacted soil.
- Care: Dogwoods have shallow roots, so mulch is essential and deep watering in dry spells makes a big difference. Keep mowers and trimmers away from the trunk, because wounds let in borers.
- Pruning: Prune right after flowering to keep next year's blooms. Remove dead twigs, crossing branches and sprouts along the trunk.
- Watch for: Dogwood anthracnose, which shows as tan leaf spots with purple borders and twig dieback in cool, wet springs. Also powdery mildew, dogwood borer at wounded bark near the base, and leaf scorch in drought. Resistant varieties such as 'Appalachian Spring' are a good choice for replanting.
Eastern Redbud
A small tree, usually 20 to 30 feet, covered in pink-purple flowers on bare branches in early spring, with heart-shaped leaves. It grows quickly but is relatively short-lived.
- Best spot: Full sun to part shade in well-drained soil. It does not like wet feet.
- Care: Water during drought, mulch the root zone and avoid wounding the trunk.
- Pruning: Prune right after flowering. Train young trees to avoid tight V-shaped forks, which tend to split as the tree ages.
- Watch for: Botryosphaeria canker, which causes sunken, dark cankers and branch dieback. Prune infected branches well below the canker in dry weather. Also watch for verticillium wilt and leaf-folding caterpillars, which are cosmetic.
American Holly
A slow-growing broadleaf evergreen, usually 15 to 50 feet, with spiny glossy leaves and red winter berries that feed birds. Holly trees are either male or female. Only females bear berries, and they need a male holly nearby.
- Best spot: Sun to fairly deep shade in acidic, well-drained soil. It does poorly in soggy ground and in high-pH soil.
- Care: Mulch the root zone and water evergreen hollies during dry winters as well as summers. Plant a male within a few hundred feet if you want berries.
- Pruning: Prune in winter. Cutting branches for holiday decorations is a fine time to shape it. Avoid shearing it into a tight shape, which creates a thin, twiggy shell.
- Watch for: Holly leaf miner, which leaves winding tan trails inside leaves. Also scale insects, and yellowing from poor drainage or high soil pH. Some yellow leaf drop in spring is normal as old leaves are replaced.
Sweetbay Magnolia
A native magnolia with lemon-scented creamy white flowers from late spring into summer and leaves with silvery undersides. It usually reaches 10 to 35 feet and is semi-evergreen in the mild winters of southeastern Virginia.
- Best spot: Sun to part shade. It thrives in wet, acidic soil, making it a great choice for low spots and rain gardens.
- Care: Keep it watered in dry sites and mulched. It needs little else once established.
- Pruning: Prune lightly after flowering to shape it or to choose between a single trunk and multiple trunks.
- Watch for: Yellow leaves in alkaline soil, occasional magnolia scale, and drought stress when planted in dry ground.
Black Gum
Also called blackgum or black tupelo. A handsome, pyramid-shaped tree, usually 30 to 50 feet, with glossy leaves that turn some of the brightest scarlet in fall. Its dark berries are a favorite of migrating birds.
- Best spot: Sun to part shade. Tolerates both wet and dry soils. It prefers acidic conditions.
- Care: Black gum has a deep taproot, so plant young trees and plant them where you want them to stay. It rarely needs extra care once established.
- Pruning: Needs little pruning beyond removing dead wood and correcting competing leaders on young trees, in the dormant season.
- Watch for: Few serious problems. Leaf spots in late summer are common and cosmetic.
River Birch
A fast-growing tree, usually 40 to 70 feet and often multi-trunked, known for its peeling, cinnamon-colored bark. It is the most heat-tolerant birch and resists the bronze birch borer that kills other birches.
- Best spot: Sun to part shade in moist to wet, acidic soil. It works well along streams and in low spots.
- Care: River birch needs water. In summer droughts it drops a lot of yellow leaves to cope, so deep watering keeps it looking good. Mulch over its surface roots.
- Pruning: Prune in summer to avoid heavy sap bleeding in late winter and early spring. Remove crossing and rubbing trunks while young.
- Watch for: Drought leaf drop, aphids and honeydew, and yellow leaves in high-pH soil.
American Beech
A stately, slow-growing shade tree, usually 50 to 70 feet, with smooth silver-gray bark. It holds its papery tan leaves through much of the winter.
- Best spot: Part shade to sun in moist, well-drained, acidic soil. It is one of the most shade-tolerant large trees.
- Care: Beech is among the most sensitive trees to root compaction, soil fill and grade changes, so protect the entire area under its canopy. Its dense shade and shallow roots make grass hard to grow, so use mulch instead. Carving the bark leaves permanent wounds.
- Pruning: Prune minimally, in the dormant season, removing only dead or damaged wood.
- Watch for: Beech leaf disease in Northern Virginia, which shows as dark stripes between leaf veins and curled, leathery leaves. Report suspected cases to the Virginia Department of Forestry. Also watch for decline after root damage, and beech bark disease.
Eastern Red Cedar
A tough native juniper, usually 30 to 50 feet, that makes an excellent evergreen screen. Its blue berry-like cones are a favorite of cedar waxwings and other birds.
- Best spot: Full sun. It handles poor, dry, rocky and sandy soil, salt spray and drought. It thins out in shade.
- Care: Once established it needs almost nothing. Water young trees during their first summer.
- Pruning: Shape lightly in late winter. Don't cut back into bare interior branches, which won't sprout new growth.
- Watch for: Bagworms (pick off the bags in winter), and cedar-apple rust galls with orange, jelly-like horns in spring. The galls are harmless to the cedar but harm nearby apples. Also watch for tip blight on new growth in wet weather.
Sweetgum
A fast-growing tree, usually 60 to 80 feet, with star-shaped leaves and some of the most colorful fall foliage of any native: red, purple, orange and yellow on the same tree. It is known for its spiky seed balls.
- Best spot: Full sun. Tolerates wet and clay soils. Plant it away from sidewalks, driveways and patios, where its surface roots can lift pavement and its seed balls roll underfoot.
- Care: Mulch over surface roots and water during drought. When planting new, fruitless varieties such as 'Rotundiloba' skip the gumballs.
- Pruning: Prune in the dormant season. Remove root and stump sprouts as they appear.
- Watch for: Few serious pests. Occasional bagworms and leaf spots. It sprouts readily from roots and stumps after removal, so grinding the stump helps.
When to Call a Professional
Call for help when a tree near your home shows dead limbs in the top, cracks, mushrooms at the base, a new lean or sudden dieback. The same goes after root damage from construction, or if you're not sure whether a problem is cosmetic or serious. Our crew can tell you whether trimming will fix it or whether removal is the safer choice. For pests and diseases, your local Virginia Cooperative Extension office can also help identify the problem.