Adding trees to your lot (or to your neighborhood park) is a task you want to succeed the first time. If you're off by a few feet, trees are quite difficult to move. If the tree fails to thrive, it can be inconvenient to diagnose, treat or replace it. Choosing the right tree for the right place for the right reasons is not nearly as difficult.

The first item to check is the new location for what you will consider important: will you really want the tree there as grows bigger? Are there power lines nearby? Where are the other utilities? Will the tree block your view? Will it not block the view you want blocked? What will happen in each season? And for heaven’s sake, keep the tree off of any septic tanks.

The next step is to consider what the tree will consider important: will the tree want to grow under the conditions you give it? What is your soil composition? How wet or dry does that spot get? How much human traffic passes by? Is it blocked by roads, driveways, foundations or walkways? Is it warmer or cooler than other places? Think about trees that will be not just hardy in winter, but will manage the stresses of that individual site.

For example, you may want to grow a tree for shade in a reasonably healthy location. The spot is in the center of the yard, away from obstructions or traffic or overhead wires. You're willing to mulch the base and keep string trimmers out of range, pampering it through difficulties. The soil is just great, moist but well drained. With this location you could grow almost anything!

If you truly have a wonderful spot with no downside, treasure it by installing the tree you most dream of. In my case, I have a dear fondness for our native sugar maples (Acer saccharum). They're tall (60'-70'), smooth and elegant. I enjoy their yellows and oranges in the fall and think one might make a decent climbing tree for children one day. The cultivars 'Green Mountain' and 'Legacy' are good growers, but intolerant of urban conditions. You might need a very large yard to have these.

More realistically, you may need a tree that tolerates the foibles of urban life. If you have or walkways and sidewalks nearby, choose a tree that can tolerate the traffic, compacted soils and the winter salt. Most large trees expect a good dose of sun as well: if your planting site is surrounded by tall buildings, ask about shade tolerant species.

In Wisconsin, several groups of shade trees are typically recommended for urban settings. Among the maples, Norway maples, red maples and the hybrid Freeman maples do well in yards, but each likes different soils. Ashes and linden trees do well and bur oak, red oak and white oak can be stately, attractive trees. Most all of these have several cultivars on the market that could be suitable. Ask your grower or garden center what they have that will suit your soil and location.

One tree I want to single out is the Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). This relative of the elm is not nearly as well known, but perhaps it ought to be. A large to medium sized tree, it's both native and very adaptable. Some butterflies feed on its leaves as caterpillars: I had a 'Hackberry Emperor' butterfly land on my lapel once. Consider this tree in your yard in for a range of conditions.

The most urban-hardy tree I can name is probably the gingko (Gingko biloba). These trees seem somewhat ungainly in their youth but they may have earned it—it's a living fossil, a remnant that survived when dinosaurs did not. It can take crowded conditions, air pollution and lots of the other ills of growing in cities. You can easily recognize its fan-like leaves any time of year. There is an unusual downside: you can't tell whether a gingko tree is male or female until it reaches sexual maturity. And that is important because the female gingko's fruit smells terrible. The only solution is to replant with another young gingko and wait 10 to 15 years to see if that one is male or female. The good news is you can get a good decade or more out of the tree before you may come to that point.

For wet areas, be realistic and choose a tree that can tolerate those conditions. In some cases a tree may simply die but in others its roots rot and the tree falls without much warning. Ashes, red maples, white spruce, river birch and sycamore can do well in wet conditions if their other needs are met. The Kentucky coffee tree (Gymnocladus dioica) tolerates wet conditions as well as drier ones. Mostly planted as a shade tree, it does flower in early summer. During the winter months, its ridged bark stands out.

If you have the reverse situation, choose a tree that will stand dry conditions. The honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) makes a wonderful shade tree for poor dry soils. Among other benefits, its small leaflets let light filter through so it may be possible to have a healthier lawn underneath. With many cultivars, its leaves turn a brilliant yellow in the fall. Look for the thornless cultivars 'Imperial,' 'Skyline' and 'Sunburst' or accept its dramatic barbs as ornamentation.

In some cases, you may want to use trees as tall hedges, to divide your yard or border it without building a fence. The Norway spruce (Picea abies) has a drooping, pendulous shape that many people find elegant. It's also fast-growing for a conifer but will be too large for many home landscapes.

Among pines, the Austrian black pine (Pinus nigra) is often advocated for an urban setting. However, it's so popular that its pests have been widely spread too. Prepare for some insect and disease problems.

Small trees have an important role to play to. Crabapples, cherries, dogwoods, hawthorns are known for their blooms. They also add needed structure to many gardens, especially during winter months

Not all attractive small trees need to be a riot of color to be worthwhile. The white fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) has narrow plumes of fragrant white flowers that emerge in very late spring. The effect is snowy and weeping.

Magnolias are sometimes overlooked by northern gardeners. The varieties that grow up here are deciduous and grey-barked, very unlike the tall evergreen magnolias of the south. Their fuzzy buds cause some to mistake them for pussywillows until they bloom white or pink in the spring. All of them should be sheltered as much as possible: place them where they'll be shielded from harsh winds. Finally, they may not appreciate our basic soils take a soil test and amend as necessary

Star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) grows to a maximum of 15 feet but can take part shade. Saucer magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana) grows larger, 25', but requires full sun as well as neutral to acid soil. Here at Green Bay Botanical Garden we also grow a hybrid Magnolia x loebneri 'Leonard Messel' that is weathering our unusual winter. Some gardeners may be able to coax along an umbrella magnolia (Magnolia tripetala) but it is at the edge of is range in zone 5.