Cedar Elms?

[spotsanddots]

Seeing that other tree thread got me thinking. Does anyone have experience with cedar elms or texas elms? I live in the coastal south texas area. Clay soil. Wondering if those cedar elms would be a good tree to plant? Get hit with wind in my backyard. How do they stand up to the wind? Any negatives to one of them?

[TxAg]

They are hardy so they'll do fine. They aren't as strong as an oak, but they aren't wimpy either

[E.TX.BOWHUNTER]

They grow well in clay soil. I hate that they propagate very easily.

[sboudreaux]

I have 5 or so cedar elms & a bunch of oaks. If we get a rowdy t storm or a really stiff blue norther I will have cedar elm branches on the ground. They grow quicker and have good shade but they are definitely softer than oaks. Overall I think they are fine.

[bowhuntertex]

Once they get to a certain size strong winds will blow the tops off of them. they are good trees and grow fairly quick but don't hold up as well as live oaks.

[Sackett]

They are probably the most prolific tree we have in Texas. You will find them from Orange to Abiline and everywhere in between. They do well in clay alkaline soil. The only drawback is they are prone two limb breakage once they get larger and squirrels love to peel strips of bark to make their nests.

[spotsanddots]

I have one live oak in the yard already. Its probably 20ish feet now. Just wanted something different than the same type of trees in the backyard for a little variety. Fairly new subdivision so hardly any trees in the yards, unless guys like me planted some. We do have pretty strong winds banging it around almost all the time though. We wont stick in a "baby tree". If we put one, it'll be a decent sized one already. I dont want to be an old dude before i get to enjoy a "tree".

[BolilloLoco]

Deer love to browse on them.

[mastercraftka]

We have heavy clay soil and they are everywhere. They do grow quick but the also fall over and die fast as well! I would not recommend planting them at all especially if it is somewhere that they can fall on top of something important.

I getting ready to cut one down at the ranch that is about to fall on the house.

[jerp]

Our soil is heavy clay and there are about 30 mature cedar elms on my lot. We did not plant them, all were already there when the house was built. There are a few things about them some would consider downsides. A lot of them tend to grow very asymmetrically with branches growing every which way - up, down, sideways and crooked so it doesn't make for a very pretty tree unless you keep them shaped to your liking. The other thing as mentioned above is when they get big they produce a ton of dead limbs. I try to keep them trimmed but many are way too high for me to reach even with a ladder and a pole saw. After a big wind there are dead limbs all over the yard. I don't mind that so much - they make great kindling for the fire pit.

[TexasTK]

I have 100s of them. They die easily in droughts and there limbs don't grow evenly. Like others said they break easily. I would not purposely plant them.

[brokeno]

I planted a 3-4 foot elm I dug out of the pasture 37 years ago it is prolly 45-50 foot tall now. I have lost a few limbs to high winds but over all a good tree.

[Artos]

One of my favorite native tx trees for deep s. tx...it's nice to see this country that is full of prickers have one tree that actually changes & gives some fall colors.

We have two here at the house.

[TxAg]

I have 100s of them. They die easily in droughts and there limbs don't grow evenly. Like others said they break easily. I would not purposely plant them.

They're drought resistant. Are you sure?