I am looking to plant a med size tree in my front yard in Central Texas and I think I have found 2 possible trees but I need some help Identifying them. Also if you guys have any suggestion for medium size trees I would love to hear them. I have a small yard so I dont need a huge tree. Thanks

Seriously? No one can ID these trees or give me any suggestions?

It's only been a day since you posted and most of us have day jobs! They both look like a Bradford pear trees to me.

Howard Garrett has a great book called Texas Trees. Check it out at the library or buy it on Amazon. It has great ideas and info on trees of all sizes that are native to Texas and would do great here.

Ok Ill check that book out thx

Those are Bradford Pears, and I would never in my right mind plant those trees. They die young and are generally a terrible investment. If you want a medium sized tree, try Shantung Maple, Chinese Pistache, Lacey Oak, or even Ginkgo. Stay away from Bradford Pears, else you'll be needing to replant that spot again in 18 years.

Sound information. Plus they break severely in ice storms.

Thank you very much guys I have been looking at the Chinese pistachio. Thanks for all your input

Consider a native Lacey Oak as well.

Where is it? Environment can be, but if I want to housing, I would choose here

Ice, rain, wind, barometric pressure changes... if it happens in nature, it will break that tree!

They also cast very dense shadows. So when they are combined with partial shade from the house they will tend to have big barren spots around them where the grass used to be.

MIL had these trees and they get so leaf dense that they kill the grass. We chopped ours down since we knew that they were not hardy trees and rather do it now than later. So glad that we did!

Drummand Maple, Shurmard Red Oak or Chinese Pistachio are great trees. It depends on the area and size that you want. If you have shade, Dogwoods, Japanese Maples and Redbuds are nice.

I have two Chinese Pistache absolutely love them. They're growing great with minimum care and they have beautiful fall color. Also have some Redbuds. I like those too but they seem to be a little slower grower. There are Bradford Pears around us. A few years ago we had a late freeze, it killed most of them off or seriously damaged them.

Yep. Looks like a Bradford.

We have a huge one in back. Multi-trunked like some kind of Bradford Live Oak. It even has roots crawling over the ground. It's gorgeous when it blooms in brilliant white, makes a great shade tree for the dogs when it's hot out, turns beautiful bronze and red colors in the fall and has that cool skele-tree look in the winter.

The ones that have problems are the ones done like the ones pictured. A ball on a stick. Ours has not broken in our 5 years here and the neighbors say it's been here "forever".

They only live about 30 years,