Trees: unsatisfactory, unproven, and coming into their element

Trees are a long-term commitment and a promise to the next generation - except when you mess up and plant the wrong one. Many years ago now (around 1997, I think), we fell in love with Sophora japonica, the Japanese pagoda tree, found a young specimen at the now-sadly-defunct Carroll Gardens, and planted it by our driveway. This fall I think we'll be cutting it down. It's always hard to make this choice, and I hope we have the guts to go through with it (I decided on fall so that fewer above-ground perennials will be trampled by arborist boots. Lots of lovely shade plants will have to be moved). I suspect we'll be reminded in August, when the tree flowers - but how lovely, you say! Blooms at a season when they're lacking elsewhere! Except when the sticky mess of spent petals and nectar falls on the cars.

If that was the only fault of the tree, I'd get over it - we can cover the cars in season. But the damn thing drops crap most of the year, whether it's flowers or leaves or sap or pollen, or - most importantly - seed pods. Which were nicely innocent until it reached maturity, and then started proving the true invasiveness of this plant. We have seedlings everywhere.

Here's the tree itself:

It has a beautiful form, perfectly-rounded and delicate. Leaf closeup, showing that's it's definitely in the legume family:

And here is one of the damn seedlings, and another shot to show how closely-spaced they are under the tree:

This is the worst year ever - I've already pulled out hundreds of seedlings, and have many more to go. They root well, too, even in the shade, and grow speedily unless removed. I bet we are going to be dealing with suckers for years after we cut the parent tree down, as well. But it really has to be done - I can't handle this every spring, and since the seed pods blow, we're subjecting our neighbors to seedlings as well, though at least not at as great a concentration.

I have a seedling redbud growing under the pagoda tree, which might eventually replace it, but I'll probably end up moving that and planting a somewhat larger tree - which will take years to provide the same degree of shade, alas. Suggestions for pleasant small native trees that don't drop crap are welcome. I have some ideas but can always use more.

Since we lost the cryptomeria and holly planted a couple of years ago (I neglected to put fences around them, and deer rubbing and/or chewing proved fatal), another screening tree was needed for the Way Back (the $12 deodar cedar is doing well, but has a lot of growing to do still). So I've planted a loblolly pine, which in a few years I'll either be very happy or very sad about.

 (I could have and probably should have chosen something like Green Giant arborvitae, but why not take chances? Aside from the lesson cited above.) The conditions should suit it, aside from possibly not quite enough sun, but it does tend to be brittle and we do have ice storms and hurricanes. So we'll see. (It also gets chewed on by deer - note fence.)

Also in the Way Back, the dawn redwood (which is deciduous and therefore doesn't provide screening year-round) is a mature specimen of great magnificence:

(When you can't get the whole tree in a shot without backing up so far your view is blocked, go for the understory region.)

And the two-trunked gingko is also doing beautifully:

There are other trees in the landscape I am not so happy about, but might as well end on a positive note.