10 Fast-Growing Trees Worth Planting (and 4 You Should Never Touch)

Every new homeowner wants the same thing: shade by next summer. I get it. You move into a house with a treeless yard, the August sun turns your patio into a frying pan, and you want something that grows now.

The problem is that the fastest trees are usually the worst trees. A University of Leeds study analyzing 200,000 tree-ring records confirmed what arborists have known for centuries: trees that grow fast die young, produce weak wood, and cost more in storm cleanup than they ever save in shade. The research, published in Nature Communications, found this trade-off was “near universal” across 82 species.

That doesn’t mean you should wait 30 years for an oak to mature. It means you should pick the right fast grower. Here are the 10 trees that grow quickly without falling apart, plus 4 popular ones that belong on nobody’s property.

Growth rate: what the numbers actually mean

Tree growth rates generally fall into three buckets:

• Slow: Less than 12 inches per year
• Medium: 13-24 inches per year
• Fast: 25+ inches per year

Trees in the “fast” category put on 2-5 feet of new growth annually when young. Growth rates slow as trees mature. A tree that adds 4 feet per year at age 5 might add 1 foot per year at age 20.

The 10 best fast-growing trees

1. Autumn Blaze Maple

The best all-around fast shade tree for residential yards. Autumn Blaze is a hybrid of Red Maple and Silver Maple that combines Silver Maple’s speed with Red Maple’s structural strength and blazing red fall color. It grows 3-5 feet per year and tops out at 40-50 feet.

• Growth rate: 3-5 ft/year
• Mature size: 40-50 ft tall, 30-40 ft wide
• Zones: 3-8
• Best for: Residential shade, fall color

The Silver Maple parent gives it speed. The Red Maple parent gives it better branch structure and denser wood than pure Silver Maple. It can develop codominant leaders without corrective pruning, so have an arborist train it in the first 5 years. See our maple tree guide for more on the different maple species.

2. Tulip Poplar

Tulip Poplar grows 2-5 feet per year. In rich, moist soil, young trees regularly hit 4-5 feet of annual growth. It’s native to eastern North America, lives 200-300 years, and reaches 70-100 feet tall with a straight, clean trunk.

• Growth rate: 2-5 ft/year
• Mature size: 70-100 ft tall, 30-50 ft wide
• Zones: 4-9
• Best for: Large properties, long-term shade

Tulip Poplar is one of the few fast growers that also qualifies as a legacy tree. Plant one today and your grandchildren’s grandchildren will still be sitting under it. It does need room though. Don’t plant it within 30 feet of a house.

3. Willow Oak

The fastest-growing oak you can buy. Willow Oak puts on 2-3 feet per year, which is remarkable for an oak. It’s one of the best urban shade trees thanks to its tolerance of pollution and compacted soil.

• Growth rate: 2-3 ft/year
• Mature size: 40-60 ft tall, 25-50 ft wide
• Zones: 5-9
• Best for: Street trees, large residential yards

Fine-textured willow-like leaves give it a graceful look. Strong wood resists storm damage. It gets big, so give it space. But if you want the strength and longevity of an oak with reasonable speed, Willow Oak delivers.

4. Green Giant Arborvitae

The fastest reliable evergreen screen. Green Giant Arborvitae grows 3-5 feet per year and resists the canker diseases that destroyed Leyland Cypress across the Southeast. It stays green year-round and requires almost no pruning.

• Growth rate: 3-5 ft/year
• Mature size: 40-60 ft tall, 12-20 ft wide
• Zones: 5-8
• Best for: Privacy screens, windbreaks

See our complete Green Giant Arborvitae guide for spacing, planting, and care details. For narrower evergreen options, check our columnar evergreen trees guide, and for the full range of evergreen species, see our evergreen trees guide.

5. River Birch ‘Heritage’

Heritage River Birch grows 1.5-2.5 feet per year (faster in Zone 7 and warmer). The peeling cinnamon-to-cream bark gives it four-season interest that few fast growers match.

• Growth rate: 1.5-2.5 ft/year
• Mature size: 40-70 ft tall, 30-40 ft wide
• Zones: 4-9
• Best for: Wet sites, ornamental interest

Heritage tolerates wet soils, acidic conditions, and clay. It resists bronze birch borer, the pest that kills European and paper birch in warm climates. If you have a low spot in the yard where other trees struggle, River Birch thrives there.

6. Dawn Redwood

A living fossil that was thought extinct until 1944. Dawn Redwood grows 2-5 feet per year when young and reaches 70-100 feet at maturity. It’s an exceptional specimen tree.

• Growth rate: 2-5 ft/year
• Mature size: 70-100 ft tall, 15-25 ft wide
• Zones: 4-8
• Best for: Specimen tree, large properties

It’s a deciduous conifer. The needles turn coppery-bronze in fall and drop for winter, giving you seasonal change you don’t get from most evergreens. Needs deep, moist soil. Plant this one if you want a conversation starter.

7. Red Maple

The most adaptable native maple. Red Maple grows 1-3 feet per year and handles everything from wet swamps to dry ridges. Zones 3-9 means it grows from Minnesota to Florida.

• Growth rate: 1-3 ft/year
• Mature size: 40-60 ft tall, 30-50 ft wide
• Zones: 3-9
• Best for: Widest range of conditions

Brilliant red-orange fall color. Tolerates flooding, poor drainage, and a range of soil types. Named cultivars like ‘October Glory’ and ‘Red Sunset’ offer more consistent fall color than seed-grown trees. For the full fall color comparison, we rank the top performers.

8. Crape Myrtle

The fastest-growing flowering tree for summer color. Vigorous cultivars like ‘Natchez’ grow 3-4 feet per year and deliver months of white, pink, red, or lavender blooms from June through September. Exfoliating bark adds winter interest.

• Growth rate: 1-4 ft/year (varies by cultivar)
• Mature size: 6-30 ft tall (varies by cultivar)
• Zones: 6-9
• Best for: Summer flowers, small to medium yards

Choose the right cultivar for your target size. Dwarf varieties stay under 6 feet. Standard types reach 25-30 feet. Don’t top them (“crape murder”). Proper pruning produces better bloom. See our crape myrtle pruning guide for the right technique.

9. Eastern White Pine

Grows 2-3 feet per year when young, reaching 50-80 feet. It’s a premier evergreen for windbreaks and privacy in northern climates.

• Growth rate: 2-3 ft/year
• Mature size: 50-80 ft tall, 20-40 ft wide
• Zones: 3-8
• Best for: Northern windbreaks, large evergreen screen

Soft, blue-green needles give it a graceful look. It’s sensitive to road salt, air pollution, and soil compaction, so keep it away from heavily trafficked roads. White pine weevil can damage the central leader on young trees, but properly sited specimens grow into magnificent trees.

10. Deodar Cedar

Deodar Cedar is one of the best large evergreens for the Sacramento region, and it performs beautifully across zones 7-9. Graceful weeping branches with silvery-green needles create year-round ornamental interest.

• Growth rate: 1-3 ft/year
• Mature size: 40-70 ft tall, 20-40 ft wide
• Zones: 7-9
• Best for: Warm-climate specimen, windscreen

It’s pyramidal, elegant, and drought-tolerant once established. If you’re in a warm climate and want something more interesting than another Leyland Cypress, Deodar Cedar delivers. Great companion to trees native to Sacramento in a mixed landscape.

Growth rate comparison chart

Tree	Growth (ft/yr)	Height (ft)	Lifespan (yrs)	Zones
Autumn Blaze Maple	3-5	40-50	50-70	3-8
Tulip Poplar	2-5	70-100	200-300	4-9
Dawn Redwood	2-5	70-100	200+	4-8
Green Giant Arborvitae	3-5	40-60	40-60	5-8
Willow Oak	2-3	40-60	100+	5-9
River Birch	1.5-2.5	40-70	50-75	4-9
Eastern White Pine	2-3	50-80	200+	3-8
Red Maple	1-3	40-60	80-150	3-9
Crape Myrtle	1-4	6-30	50+	6-9
Deodar Cedar	1-3	40-70	150+	7-9

Notice the pattern: the trees with the longest lifespans (Tulip Poplar, Dawn Redwood, Eastern White Pine) still grow fast when young. You don’t have to sacrifice longevity for speed. You just have to pick the right species.

4 fast trees you should never plant

Bradford Pear

The poster child for bad fast-growing trees. Branches attach at narrow angles and split from the trunk in every ice storm. Seeds spread by birds and form invasive thickets that choke out native plants. Several states now run bounty programs offering free native trees in exchange for removed Bradford Pears. We covered this in detail in our guide to trees you should never plant.

Silver Maple

Grows 3-4 feet per year but produces some of the weakest wood of any shade tree. Weak branch structure makes it susceptible to breaking in every storm. Shallow, aggressive roots reach 90+ feet from the trunk and crack sidewalks, heave driveways, and infiltrate sewer lines. Plant Autumn Blaze Maple or Red Maple instead.

Royal Empress (Princess Tree)

Grows 10-15 feet per year, which sounds incredible until you learn it’s one of the most invasive trees in North America. Each tree produces up to 20 million seeds. It’s banned in Connecticut and classified as a dangerous invasive in multiple states. The internet is full of ads selling this tree. Ignore them all.

Tree of Heaven

Grows 3-6 feet per year, spreads aggressively through root suckers and wind-blown seeds, and produces chemicals that kill surrounding plants. It’s also the primary host for spotted lanternfly. If you didn’t plant it and it showed up anyway, that’s how invasive it is.

The tradeoff you need to understand

That University of Leeds study analyzed the fundamental biology behind fast growth. The findings:

• Fast-growing trees invest energy in height gain instead of dense wood, making them more vulnerable to storms and drought
• Lower wood density means shorter lifespans (Hybrid Poplar: 15-35 years vs. White Oak: 200-600 years)
• Fast growers spend less energy on chemical defenses against disease and insects
• The trade-off is near-universal across species and climates

This doesn’t mean “never plant fast trees.” It means understand what you’re getting. A Hybrid Poplar gives you 20 years of shade then dies. A Willow Oak gives you shade in 10 years and lasts a century. The oak is the better investment every time.

The smart strategy: Plant a fast grower (River Birch, Autumn Blaze Maple) for near-term shade alongside a slow grower (White Oak, Bur Oak) for permanent shade. Remove the fast grower when the slow grower matures. You get shade now and a legacy tree forever.

How to maximize growth rate

Even good trees grow slowly if planted wrong. Here’s how to maximize your tree’s growth potential:

Planting: Dig the hole 2-3x wider than the root ball but no deeper. Set the root flare at soil level. Don’t amend the backfill. Remove all burlap, wire, and container material. See our tree planting guide for the full technique.

Watering (the biggest factor): First 12 weeks: water 2-3 times per week. After 12 weeks: water weekly until established (1-3 years). Apply 1-1.5 gallons per inch of trunk caliper at each watering. Deep, infrequent watering beats shallow daily sprinkling.

Mulch: 3-inch layer in a wide circle around the base. Keep it away from the trunk (no mulch volcanoes). Mulch conserves moisture, suppresses weeds, and moderates soil temperature. It’s the single cheapest thing you can do to boost growth.

Don’t over-fertilize: Excessive nitrogen produces weak, storm-susceptible growth. Don’t fertilize newly planted trees at all. Start fertilizing in the second growing season at the earliest, and only after a soil test tells you what’s actually needed.

Best fast-growing trees by zone

Zones 3-4 (cold northern climates): Autumn Blaze Maple, Red Maple, Eastern White Pine

Zones 5-6 (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest): All of the above plus Green Giant Arborvitae, River Birch, Dawn Redwood, Tulip Poplar

Zones 7-8 (Southeast, southern Midwest): All of the above plus Crape Myrtle, Willow Oak, Deodar Cedar

Zones 9-10 (Deep South, California, Southwest): Crape Myrtle, Willow Oak, Deodar Cedar. For Sacramento and NorCal specifically, the Sacramento Tree Foundation’s Shady 80 list is the definitive resource. Sacramento residents can get up to 10 free trees through the SMUD shade tree program.

Frequently asked questions

What is the fastest growing tree I can plant? Green Giant Arborvitae and Autumn Blaze Maple both grow 3-5 feet per year. Hybrid Poplar grows 5-8 feet per year but has weak wood, invasive roots, and a 15-35 year lifespan. Stick with the first two.

What fast-growing tree has the strongest wood? Willow Oak. It grows 2-3 feet per year but produces oak-quality hardwood that resists storms and lasts 100+ years. That combination of speed and strength is rare.

Are fast-growing trees bad for foundations? Some are. Silver Maple and Hybrid Poplar have aggressive, shallow root systems that crack foundations and sidewalks. Most others (Red Maple, Willow Oak, Green Giant) have well-behaved root systems when planted at appropriate distances. Keep large trees 15-20 feet from structures.

How long until a fast-growing tree provides shade? A tree growing 3-5 feet per year typically provides meaningful shade within 5-7 years from planting. For immediate impact, buy a larger specimen (2-3 inch caliper) from the nursery. It costs more but saves 2-3 years of waiting.

Should I plant a fast tree or a slow tree? Plant both. Put a fast grower (River Birch, Autumn Blaze) on the sunny side of the yard for near-term shade. Plant a slow grower (White Oak, Bur Oak) nearby for permanent shade. Remove the fast grower when the slow grower catches up. You get the best of both worlds.

What’s the best fast-growing tree for small yards? Crape Myrtle. Dwarf varieties stay under 10 feet and grow 1-3 feet per year. Standard varieties reach 25-30 feet. It’s one of the few fast growers that works in tight spaces, and the summer flowers are a bonus. For even more compact options, see our dwarf trees for landscaping guide.