A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum Shrubs and Trees trees/evergreens for wet area?

lost 6 aboravite - clay soil not draining. along north property line. we used good garden soil, amended, but apparantly was not enough. when Dh dug them up, holes are filled with water. everything is right now, as its raining again today, and will be for next week they say. we need to replace with something. to fix the area would mean a 20 ft x 4 trech with gravel, or put in french drains. we already have too many projects going on. anyone know of a tree or evergreen(my preferance) that if we used gravel in larger holes, that might survive? tall and wide is fine- wanting to make privacy barrier. zone 6b in OK/fullsun .
we have poplars along back that previous owner put in, but that area is not as wet as north property line .?? I couldnt find much doing search for wetland trees....???

A couple of tree ideas maybe you have already considered

1. Weeping willow grows pretty fast and loves wet soils
2. Birch - not sure how far north you are in OK - when I lived in Illinois I knew birches liked wet soils.
3. There are a few oaks that like wet areas too.

A shrub I had in my yard that grew like a weed no matter the conditions - Elengnus - zone 6 - aka elaeagnus pungens.

All good advice, I would only lightly amend the soil if it's pure clay....I'm in Oklahoma, near Shawnee and Norman, where are you, and is the soil pure, red clay? Our soil can be clay in one spot and sand 6 feet away. If you want to try arbor vitae again, use a post hole digger and dig a "post hole" down as far as is reasonable in the bottom of the planting hole. Mound the soil somewhat so that the soil level currently at the stem of the plant is 2 to 3 inches higher than surrounding soil.
Arbor Vitae tolerate a range of soils, but I won't swear they'll thrive in pure clay. I'm rusty on soils for shrubs, but I seem to recall that some of the hollies will take clay soil with some care during establishment.
Pears, the fruiting kinds and ornamentals like Bradfords, are quite tolerant. Bald Cypress is tolerant of clay. Nandina will grow most anywhere. Even the Southern Red or Swamp Maple tolerates clay. It's too early in the morning for me to recall much more, but you do have choices both deciduous and evergreen.
Oh yeah, look into Red Tip Photinia, I've seen them thrive in pure clay.
Oh yeah...Tex above mentioned oaks, the willow Oak and better yet the Water Oak are semi-evergreen, basically holding many green leaves all winter, and are clay tolerant.