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Top 4 Fast-Growing Shade Trees

By , About.com Guide

In a hurry to provide shading for your home or an area of your yard? Then you need to plant one of the fast-growing shade trees. The resources listed below offer information on some of the best examples of fast-growing shade trees.

1. Sawtooth Oaks

You'll like the spreading canopy of sawtooth oaks, and you won't have to wait forever to enjoy it. These fast-growing shade trees also offer good fall foliage late in the season.

2. Red Maples

Red maples are best known for their outstanding fall foliage. But they are also fast-growing shade trees, which is why they rank as one of the most prized landscaping specimens.

3. River Birches

These fast-growing trees bear yellow foliage in autumn and also have an attractive bark. River birches can be grown across a wider swath of zones in temperate regions than can paper birches, the latter being less heat-tolerant.

4. Leyland Cypress Trees

When leyland cypresses are used to cast shade, they are normally planted in rows to form a "living wall," since each individual tree is slender. Such a planting would double as a privacy screen.

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