Fast Growing Trees: 7 Worth Planting and 5 to Avoid

You want shade, privacy, or a windbreak, and you want it before your kids graduate. That’s the appeal of fast growing trees — they fill space and provide benefits within years instead of decades. But speed comes with trade-offs, and the fastest-growing trees are often the ones with the worst problems. Weak wood, invasive roots, short lifespans, and constant maintenance eat up whatever time you saved by planting fast.

The best fast growing trees balance speed with structure. They grow 2 to 3 feet per year and live long enough to be worth planting. The worst grow 5+ feet per year but fall apart in the first ice storm. This guide covers both groups so you know what to plant and what to avoid.

What Counts as Fast Growing?

Growth rates for trees fall into rough categories:

Slow: Under 1 foot per year (white oak, American beech, bristlecone pine)
Moderate: 1 to 2 feet per year (red maple, Douglas fir, sugar maple)
Fast: 2 to 3 feet per year (red oak, tulip tree, bald cypress)
Very fast: 3+ feet per year (hybrid poplar, silver maple, willow, paulownia)

The sweet spot for most yards is 2 to 3 feet per year. Trees in this range grow noticeably every season but produce wood strong enough to handle storms. Trees growing faster than 3 feet per year almost always have weaker wood and shorter lives.

Best Fast Growing Trees (Worth Planting)

These trees grow quickly without the structural problems that plague the fastest growers.

Tulip Tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)

Tulip tree is one of the fastest-growing quality hardwoods in North America. Young trees routinely add 3 feet per year in good soil, and the wood is strong enough to support the rapid growth without splitting.

Growth rate: 2 to 3 feet per year
Mature size: 70 to 90 feet tall, 40 to 50 feet wide
Best feature: Straight trunk, distinctive tulip-shaped flowers, bright yellow fall color
Trade-off: Gets very large. Only for bigger properties. Aphids sometimes drip honeydew

Tulip tree delivers shade faster than almost any other tree you won’t regret planting.

Red Oak (Quercus rubra)

Red oak surprises people with its speed. Most people think oaks are slow, but red oak grows 2 feet per year when young — faster than many trees marketed as “fast growing.” Unlike those trees, red oak lives 200+ years and has strong wood that handles storms.

Growth rate: 2 feet per year
Mature size: 60 to 75 feet tall, 45 to 55 feet wide
Best feature: Dense shade, deep red fall color, long-lived
Trade-off: Acorns in fall. Susceptible to oak wilt in some regions

Red oak is the best choice if you want both speed and permanence. For help identifying oak species already in your yard, check the leaf shape and bark.

Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum)

Bald cypress grows 1.5 to 2 feet per year once established, which is fast for a tree that can live 600+ years. It handles wet soil, dry soil, clay, and flooding — conditions where most fast-growing trees would struggle.

Growth rate: 1.5 to 2 feet per year
Mature size: 50 to 70 feet tall, 20 to 30 feet wide
Best feature: Tolerates almost any soil. Copper-orange fall color. Nearly pest-free
Trade-off: Deciduous conifer (drops needles in fall). Narrower shade than broadleaf trees

If your yard has wet spots or heavy clay where other trees fail, bald cypress is one of the few fast growers that will actually survive.

Green Giant Arborvitae (Thuja ‘Green Giant’)

For privacy screening, Green Giant arborvitae is hard to beat. It’s a hybrid that grows 3 to 5 feet per year when young, forming a dense evergreen column. Unlike many fast-growing evergreens, it keeps its lower branches, so it works as a screen from the ground up.

Growth rate: 3 to 5 feet per year when young, slowing to 1 to 2 feet at maturity
Mature size: 40 to 60 feet tall, 12 to 18 feet wide
Best feature: Dense evergreen screen. Deer-resistant. Few pest problems
Trade-off: Gets taller than most people expect. Not ideal for small yards. Needs some moisture

Plant Green Giant 5 to 6 feet apart for a solid privacy screen within 3 to 4 years.

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

Dawn redwood is a living fossil — it was known only from the fossil record until live trees were discovered in China in 1944. It grows fast (2 to 3 feet per year), has a beautiful pyramidal form, and turns orange-brown in fall before dropping its needles (like bald cypress, it’s a deciduous conifer).

Growth rate: 2 to 3 feet per year
Mature size: 70 to 100 feet tall, 25 to 35 feet wide
Best feature: Distinctive fluted trunk. Feathery foliage. Interesting conversation piece
Trade-off: Gets very tall. Deciduous. Buttressed roots near the trunk

Dawn redwood is best for larger properties where its size won’t be a problem. The trunk develops a dramatic fluted, buttressed base that’s worth seeing.

Loblolly Pine (Pinus taeda)

In the southeastern U.S., loblolly pine is the go-to fast-growing evergreen. It grows 3+ feet per year when young and reaches full height in 25 to 30 years. It’s the dominant timber pine of the Southeast for a reason — it grows fast and straight. Loblolly is the defining pine across the Carolinas, Georgia, and Texas.

Growth rate: 3 feet per year
Mature size: 60 to 90 feet tall, 25 to 35 feet wide
Best feature: Evergreen. Fast. Straight growth. Provides year-round screening
Trade-off: Drops needles year-round (messy). Not cold-hardy north of USDA Zone 6

Loblolly is the fastest quality pine for southern yards. For northern climates, eastern white pine grows about 2 feet per year and serves a similar role.

River Birch (Betula nigra)

River birch is a fast-growing native that thrives in wet to moist soil. It grows 2 to 3 feet per year and develops attractive peeling bark that reveals cream, salmon, and cinnamon-brown layers. Most birch species are susceptible to bronze birch borer, but river birch is resistant.

Growth rate: 2 to 3 feet per year
Mature size: 40 to 70 feet tall, 25 to 40 feet wide
Best feature: Peeling, multi-colored bark. Tolerates wet soil. Borer-resistant
Trade-off: Drops catkins, seeds, and twigs constantly. Surface roots. Yellow fall color is brief

River birch works well in wet areas and along streams where you need fast coverage. Multi-trunk specimens are especially attractive.

Fast Growing Trees to Avoid

These trees grow fast but cause enough problems that most arborists advise against planting them in yards.

Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum)

Silver maple grows 3 to 5 feet per year, which makes it tempting. But the wood is brittle. Large limbs break in wind, ice, and thunderstorms. Surface roots crack sidewalks and invade sewer lines. The tree seeds aggressively — you’ll pull hundreds of seedlings from your garden every spring.

Silver maple was the most-planted yard tree in the mid-20th century. Most of those trees are now problem trees. Plant a red oak instead — it’s nearly as fast and infinitely more durable.

Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana)

Bradford pear grows fast, blooms white in spring, and turns red in fall. It also splits in half at 15 to 20 years because its branch structure is fundamentally weak — all major limbs originate from the same point on the trunk. It’s also invasive in the eastern U.S. Many states have banned new sales.

Hybrid Poplar

Hybrid poplars (crosses between cottonwood and other poplar species) are marketed as the fastest shade trees available, growing 5 to 8 feet per year. That speed comes at a cost: they live only 15 to 30 years, drop branches constantly, send root suckers across the yard, and clog drains with aggressive roots.

If you need fast screening for a temporary purpose (construction site, event privacy), hybrid poplar works. For permanent landscaping, look elsewhere.

Leyland Cypress (× Cuprocyparis leylandii)

Leyland cypress grows 3 to 4 feet per year and was wildly popular as a privacy screen in the 1990s and 2000s. The problem: it’s susceptible to several canker diseases and bagworms. When one tree in a row dies, it leaves a gap in the screen. They also need regular pruning — if you let them grow naturally, they get too wide for most property lines.

Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)

Tree of heaven grows faster than almost anything else — 6+ feet per year. It’s also one of the worst invasive trees in North America. It produces thousands of seeds, sends up root suckers throughout the yard, and the male trees produce flowers that smell terrible. Never plant this tree deliberately. If you have one, consider removing it.

How Fast Growth Affects Wood Quality

There’s a direct relationship between growth speed and wood strength. Trees growing 2 feet per year produce wood with tighter grain and higher density than trees growing 5 feet per year. This matters because:

Storm resistance: Dense wood bends. Soft wood snaps. After an ice storm, the fastest growers are the ones on the ground.
Lifespan: Slower-growing trees generally live longer. Red oak (2 ft/year, 200+ years) vs. silver maple (3-5 ft/year, 50-80 years) vs. hybrid poplar (5-8 ft/year, 15-30 years).
Root structure: Fast growers often develop shallow, aggressive root systems that cause foundation and plumbing problems.

The 2 to 3 feet per year range is where speed and quality overlap. Below that, you’re waiting a long time. Above that, you’re likely getting weaker wood.

Identifying Fast Growing Trees With Tree Identifier

Before planting a fast-growing tree, it helps to identify what’s already in your yard. A mature silver maple nearby means its roots are already claiming territory. An existing oak means the soil can support quality hardwoods. The Tree Identifier app identifies trees from photos of leaves, bark, flowers, or fruit. Snap a photo and the AI tells you the species. It works offline too, which is useful at nurseries or garden centers where you want to verify a tree’s label before buying. You get 2 free identifications per day.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fastest growing tree for privacy?

Green Giant arborvitae is the fastest quality evergreen for privacy screening, growing 3 to 5 feet per year. For deciduous screening, hybrid poplars grow fastest (5-8 ft/year) but only last 15 to 30 years. For a permanent evergreen screen, Green Giant is the better choice despite being slightly slower.

How long does it take for a fast growing tree to provide shade?

Most fast-growing shade trees provide noticeable shade within 5 to 8 years and full shade within 10 to 15 years. Tulip tree and red oak can shade a patio within 8 to 10 years of planting. Buying a larger nursery tree (2 to 3 inch caliper instead of a whip) saves 3 to 5 years of waiting.

Are fast growing trees bad?

Not all of them. Trees growing 2 to 3 feet per year (red oak, tulip tree, river birch, bald cypress) are fast enough to make a difference and strong enough to last. Trees growing 5+ feet per year (hybrid poplar, silver maple, tree of heaven) usually have weak wood, short lives, and aggressive roots. The speed itself isn’t the problem — it’s what comes with it.

What is the fastest growing shade tree that won’t cause problems?

Tulip tree is the best answer for most situations. It grows 2 to 3 feet per year, reaches 70 to 90 feet tall with a broad canopy, has strong wood, and lives over 100 years. Red oak is a close second, especially if you want something that will outlast the house.

When should I plant fast growing trees?

Early spring (after the last frost) or fall (6 weeks before the first frost) are the best planting windows. Fall planting gives roots time to establish before the tree puts energy into leaf growth. Spring planting works well if you water consistently through the first summer. Avoid planting in the heat of summer.

Planning to plant a fast-growing tree this spring? Try Tree Identifier — snap a photo of any tree at the nursery to verify the species before you buy.