Arlington, Texas · Native Plant Society of Texas Certified
Tree Planting & Care in Arlington, TX
The right tree, in the right place, planted at the right depth — so it’s still standing and still healthy in forty years instead of splitting in a storm at fifteen.
Native & Adapted Species
Oak Wilt Aware
Fully Insured
Free Estimates
Clear Tarrant provides tree selection, planting, and ongoing tree care in Arlington, Texas and the surrounding Tarrant County communities. Services include species selection for North Texas clay soil and climate, placement planning around structures and utilities, correct-depth planting with the root flare left visible at grade, mulching, first-season watering guidance, structural pruning of young trees, and corrective care for established trees. Clear Tarrant is certified by the Native Plant Society of Texas and follows Texas oak wilt prevention practices. Estimates are free.
The Thing That Kills Most New Trees
Planted three inches too deep is a slow death sentence
Ask an arborist what kills more landscape trees than anything else and you won’t hear drought, disease, or insects. You’ll hear planting depth.
Every tree has a root flare — the point where the trunk widens out into the first structural roots. On a healthy tree, that flare is visible at ground level. It’s supposed to be. It’s the boundary between the part built to be buried and the part built to be dry and exposed.
Bury it and the tree doesn’t die this year. It declines slowly over five to fifteen years — thinning canopy, poor growth, dieback at the top — and by the time anyone notices, the cause is invisible under a foot of soil. Meanwhile roots circle the buried trunk and eventually girdle it.
Here’s the part most people don’t know: trees frequently arrive from the nursery with the flare already buried in the container or root ball. Plant it as it came and you’ve planted it too deep before you started. Finding the flare and setting the tree so it sits at or slightly above grade is a step that gets skipped constantly, including by professionals.
If you’ve got a tree that’s been struggling for years with no obvious explanation, this is the first thing worth checking. Sometimes it can be corrected. Sometimes it’s too late, and it’s worth knowing that before you plant the replacement the same way.
Placement
A tree in the wrong spot is a thirty-year problem
Everything in a nursery pot is small. The question that matters is what it becomes, and where that leaves you.
Power Lines
A shade tree under a service line gets butchered by utility crews every few years into a shape nobody would choose. Small understory trees belong there instead.
Lines & Sewer
Call 811 before anything gets dug — always, and it’s free. Certain species will also find their way into older sewer lines, which is a placement decision, not bad luck.
Distance From The House
In expansive clay, a large tree close to a foundation draws real moisture out of the soil within its root zone. Worth planning around before planting, not after.
Shade On The West Wall
A well-placed shade tree on the west side of an Arlington house is doing genuine work against afternoon sun for the next several decades. Best return on any tree you plant.
Property Lines
Limbs and roots don’t respect fences. A tree planted two feet from the line becomes a shared conversation you’ll be having for decades.
Drives & Walkways
Surface-rooting species too close to concrete will eventually lift it. Species choice and setback decide whether that happens.
North Texas Specific
What we plant here — and what we’d talk you out of
North Texas planted an enormous number of fast, cheap, short-lived trees over the past few decades, and a lot of homeowners are living with the consequences now.
Native Shade Trees
Cedar elm, chinquapin oak, bur oak, Texas red oak, live oak. Slower than the fast growers, and still standing in fifty years. These are what actually belonged here.
Native Understory Trees
Texas redbud, Mexican plum, possumhaw holly, Eve’s necklace. Right-sized for a suburban lot or under a power line, and each has a genuinely good season.
Proven Non-Natives
Not everything has to be native to be a good choice. Chinese pistache and lacebark elm have earned their place here — tough, well-behaved, and reliable in this soil.
Bradford Pear
Planted everywhere in the 80s and 90s for fast growth and spring flowers. The branch structure is inherently weak and they split apart in storms, usually right around year fifteen to twenty. They’ve also escaped into wild land across the region.
Arizona Ash & Silver Maple
Fast, brittle, and short-lived. You get twenty years of quick shade and then a declining, hazardous tree over your roof. A great deal of North Texas removal work is these two.
Mimosa & Cottonwood
Mimosa seeds itself everywhere and is short-lived. Cottonwood gets enormous, drops limbs, and has aggressive roots — fine on acreage, wrong on a quarter-acre lot.
The pattern is the same every time: the fast-growing tree is fast because the wood is weak. Anything that reaches full size in fifteen years is telling you how long it will last. Waiting a few extra seasons for a cedar elm or a bur oak buys you a tree your grandchildren sit under.
A Texas Tradition Worth Ending
Please stop topping your crape myrtles
Every February, across every neighborhood in North Texas, crape myrtles get sawn off at the same height into rows of knuckled stumps. It’s so widespread that people assume it’s correct maintenance. Texas horticulturists call it crape murder, and they’ve been trying to stop it for thirty years.
It isn’t pruning. Pruning removes specific branches for a reason. Topping cuts through the trunk wherever the saw lands, which forces a burst of weak, whippy shoots from below the cut — growth that’s poorly attached and bends to the ground under wet blooms.
It doesn’t produce more flowers. It produces fewer, larger clusters on weak stems, later in the season, instead of the natural profusion across a well-shaped canopy.
And it permanently ruins the best feature of the tree. A mature crape myrtle has beautiful smooth exfoliating bark and a graceful multi-trunk structure. Once you’ve created knuckles, they’re there for the life of the plant.
Proper crape myrtle pruning is mostly removing suckers at the base, thinning crossing interior branches, and taking out seed heads if you like — then leaving it alone. If you’ve inherited a topped tree, it can often be gradually restored over several seasons. And if the tree is simply too big for where it was planted, the honest answer is replacing it with a smaller variety rather than sawing it in half annually forever.
Establishment
The first two years decide everything
Water deeply and infrequently. A slow soak that wets the whole root ball, then a gap before the next one. Frequent shallow watering keeps roots near the surface, which is exactly where you don’t want them come August. Newly planted trees need this attention for at least two growing seasons — longer for larger stock.
Mulch wide, never against the trunk. A broad ring out toward the drip line, two to three inches deep, pulled back several inches from the trunk so the root flare stays visible. A doughnut, not a volcano.
Don’t fertilize at planting. A new tree is growing roots, not top growth. Pushing foliage before the root system can support it works against establishment. Feeding, if it’s needed at all, comes later.
Skip the stakes unless the site demands it. Trunks strengthen in response to movement. A tree tied rigidly for years develops a weaker trunk than one allowed to flex. Where wind or a top-heavy tree genuinely requires support, staking should be loose and removed after the first season.
Structural pruning early beats corrective pruning later. A few well-chosen cuts in the first years shape the branch architecture for the tree’s whole life — and prevent the codominant trunks and narrow crotches that split a mature tree in half during a storm.
And a note on oaks: pruning cuts on oaks should be painted immediately in every season, and oak pruning is best avoided between February and the end of June because of oak wilt. That applies to a two-year-old oak the same as a two-hundred-year-old one.
★★★★★ 5.0 on Google
What Arlington homeowners say
Sean was amazing from the very beginning of my project. His communication and how polite he was is the reason I had him come to my house. He will be my go-to for all my landscaping projects.
— Lynda G.
Sean was amazing to work with and communication throughout was excellent. He enjoys what he does and takes pride in his work down to the smallest detail. The finished product surpassed my expectation.
— Michelle F.
Clear Tarrant is our go-to for landscaping services, whether we need our lawn mowed or a project done we do not have time to complete. Sean listened, made suggestions and in the end we were very happy with the end result.
— Jerry W.
Questions We Get
Tree planting FAQs
What are the best shade trees for North Texas?
Native species handle our clay and heat best: cedar elm, chinquapin oak, bur oak, Texas red oak, and live oak. For smaller lots or under power lines, Texas redbud, Mexican plum, possumhaw holly, and Eve’s necklace are right-sized. Among non-natives, Chinese pistache and lacebark elm have proven themselves here. All of these are slower than the fast-growing alternatives, which is precisely why they last.
When is the best time to plant a tree in North Texas?
Fall, with early spring a reasonable second choice. Fall planting gives roots a long cool season to establish before summer arrives. Planting in midsummer means fighting to keep a new tree alive through the hardest part of the year, so if you’re calling in July we’ll usually recommend planning now and planting in October.
Why is my newly planted tree struggling?
The most common cause by far is planting depth. Every tree has a root flare where the trunk widens into the first structural roots, and that flare should be visible at ground level. Buried, the tree declines slowly over years with thinning canopy and dieback while the cause stays hidden underground. Trees often arrive from the nursery with the flare already buried in the container, so planting the root ball as it came is planting too deep. Under-watering during the first two seasons is the second most common cause.
How often should I water a newly planted tree?
Deeply and infrequently — a slow soak that wets the entire root ball, then a gap before the next watering. Frequent shallow watering encourages roots to stay near the surface, which is the worst place for them in an Arlington August. New trees need this attention for at least two full growing seasons, and longer for larger stock.
Should I stake a new tree?
Usually not. Trunks develop strength in response to movement, so a tree held rigid for years ends up weaker than one allowed to flex. Staking is worth it only where wind exposure or a top-heavy tree genuinely requires it, and then it should be loose and removed after the first season.
Should I top my crape myrtles?
No. Topping — cutting the trunks off at a set height, which happens across North Texas every February — forces weak whippy regrowth that bends under wet blooms, produces fewer flowers later in the season, and permanently destroys the smooth bark and graceful structure that make a mature crape myrtle worth having. Proper pruning means removing base suckers, thinning crossing interior branches, and otherwise leaving it alone. Topped trees can often be gradually restored over several seasons.
Why shouldn’t I plant a Bradford pear?
Their branch structure is inherently weak, with narrow attachment angles that split apart in storms, typically around year fifteen to twenty — often right over a roof or a car. They’ve also escaped cultivation and spread into wild land across the region. They were planted heavily in North Texas for fast growth and spring flowers, and a great deal of removal work now is dealing with the results.
How far from my house should a tree be planted?
It depends on the mature size of the species, but distance matters more here than in most places. North Texas expansive clay moves with soil moisture, and a large tree close to a foundation draws real moisture out of the ground within its root zone. Overhead and underground utilities, walkway and driveway setbacks, and property lines all factor in too. We plan placement around all of it before anything gets dug — and always call 811 first.
What areas do you serve?
Clear Tarrant is based in Arlington, Texas, and serves Tarrant County — including Mansfield, Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Pantego, Dalworthington Gardens, and southeast Fort Worth. If you’re not sure whether you’re in range, call and we’ll tell you straight.
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Plant it once, plant it right
Call or text Sean. We’ll walk the property, work out what belongs where, and plant it so it’s still healthy in forty years.
Native Plant Society of Texas certified · Fully insured · Free estimates · Serving Arlington & Tarrant County