Recommend a fast growing shade tree

Drake elm
Vitex

Crape myrtles grow damn fast.

My swamp red maple is 8 ft tall after 2 years in relatively soggy ground

Red Maple or Red Oak. The link posted is a good one. Riverbirch grow fast but are very trashy. They drop tons of tiny little twigs all of the time. They are better off in larger plant beds or at a tree line away from where you have to maintain lawn, etc.

Drake Elm
Tulip Poplar
Sycamore
Red Maple
Mimosa
Catalpa
Thornless Honey Locust

For similar application, went with red maple recently, replacing a lost drake elm from Ida. Frick a drake elm and it's 19 seasons a year of dropping some shite, its always something, so wouldn't recommend around a patio area or similar.

Crapemyrtles tend to be really annoying too with their droppings. Not an issue if just out in the yard. I'll take the maple simply losing its leaves once a year, all day long.

Drake Elms grow fast, and develop a big canopy, but have a tiny root ball, which is good for not busting up your patio, but bad for holding up in high winds.
Lost two 10+yr old trees, one in a June thunderstorm, one in Ida

In Ida my drake elm mentioned above laid over on to my house, thankfully with just minimal damage, but it also uprooted patio concrete around it......so that was nice.

It definitely made a nice canopy and we're missing the shade for now, but the maple has been off and running since it got planted early this year.

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Frick a drake elm

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I have two and I hate them. They have windblown seeds that are a nightmare. Will sprout up in all of your flowerbeds. Even in thick bushes.

quote:

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Crape myrtles grow damn fast.

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we planted some last summer for shade and they were about 6 feet last june. we had a really dry fall and spring and i have had to water the fire out of them just to get the leaves green. it's up to about 7.5 now, but still no blooms.

i know they'll get there but i was hoping to have them up to the roofline this year.