It depends pretty heavily on your local climate. We have a camellia bush that thrives and blooms all winter, so it’s nice for screening when all the deciduous trees are bare. It also provides a consistent food source for hummingbirds all winter, so they claim it and defend it as their turf from November through March.
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Camelias do grow here (below the 30th parallel) and are indeed gorgeous in January bloom. That is a great idea. I bet I could fertilize the hell out of it and get one to grow up fast.
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The ongoing and immediate story of Austin [and so many other places, yes, but where I am and what I see here now]. Do these profiteers not breathe air? Require flood-free areas? Drink water? Require their aquifers to be recharged? Seek a shaded parking space in August? Need wood products? (all services that trees provide btw) Have children? WTAF. I strain to fathom the thinking behind it all.
Scalp the land to billiard table baldness. Silt the creeks and recharge features. Build crappy fast houses. Coat the wounded land with red death fast so no one sees it, slap in a nonnative tree, take the money and run.
The increasingly rare developers who either (a) must and do adhere to strict city tree ordinances, or (b) aren’t heartless, short-sighted, late stage capitalists, will usually at minimum get it about “heritage” trees of a certain diameter or larger adding resale value. Often, only very specific trees are favored (e.g., oaks yes, junipers no, both native in CenTex).
This artificial developer-centric favoritism, unfortunately, complete screws up succession…
… resulting not merely in crashed biomes, homeless biota, etc. but this weird effect where no replacement trees means once some awful tree-pandemic like pine bark beetles or Dutch Elm Disease or oak wilt blasts through the area, it’s left looking like a bombed out war zone.
There’s an infamous case among tree nerds in ATX where a certain developer in Oak Hill simply cut down everything–much of which was measured, recorded, protected and mapped by the City of Austin–got “caught” (was reported), paid the fines, and built his damn apartment condo moneymaking thingy.
I later learned the term “budget for illegalities” and perhaps y’all have seen it lately mentioned here:
… it’s absolutely The Standard Operating Procedure for developers here, despite the City of Austin’s best efforts.
Chainsaws and the sales of them should be regulated to the nth degree, IMO.
Have been.
Can confirm.
The benediction of shade, shelter from the Texas summer sun, is miraculous.
Yes. But.
Good practices vs bad practices
People over profits
etc.
Hell yeah, I’m with you on this.
I hear you.
I really really do.
Turn up your speakers, I got something for you:
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As Duke mentioned, the climate of your area will be key. But if you live in an area where you can grow some variety of citrus tree my experience has been that they’re great trees to keep. I’m not much of an expert myself (or a homeowner) but whatever solution you land on i hope it’ll work for you 
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I put in an Arctic Frost last week. It’s been productive even in a container outside. So in the ground it went. Strongly recommended.
If the frost zaps it, it will regrow true from roots as it is a nongrafted variety.
Rated to about 10 degrees F.
Plant in a position sheltered from north winds, preferably on the south side of a wall or building for the additional thermal mass protection.
Orange Frost rated to 20 degrees F. In case anyone here feels lucky.
ETA: spelling and added Orange Frost info
ETA2: mispasted link removed
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My work has me interacting with developers/construction and they don’t have a lot of regard for trees. As you mentioned i have absolutely heard of developers razing everything and then paying the fine to not transplant or replant the native trees they took down, then putting in a handful of shitty non-native plants/trees as decoration and it never sits well with me.
I’m hoping to buy a house in the Austin area within a year or two, ideally i’d like to buy something without a HOA so i can finally have a nice garden and make a green area of my own If i end up having to get something with an HOA i’m sure i can still have a garden in the back but i know they tend to be pissy about what you do with the front lawn.
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Oh wisteria! I had one, and a trumpet vine, at my old house. The birds and pollinators loved them, but they were plated 60 years earlier, and the roots started taking over parts of the garage (they were grown on trellises on the side of the garage. If you choose them, as @DukeTrout has noted, remember they spread.
Lilacs become beautiful trees and tomorrow ours* will be blooming. Two weeks of heavenly smells and pretty flowers. Another bushy thing that delights people and pollinators is honeysuckle.
Lately I’ve seen a lot of stuff about multi-graft dwarf fruit trees, and that could be interesting - many different flowers in the spring, and more kinds of fruits in a small space.
*the one behind the building we live in. I claim ownership because I love it the most.
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Our wisteria is beautiful right now, with long, cascading violet streamers of blooms. We put up with the work of keeping it under control for these 2-3 weeks in spring. It’s far away from the house next to a patio. I intentionally laid out the patio in a way that will allow me to easily adjust the pavers as the wisteria expands its domain.
It also helps to have a couple of teenagers in the household who can be assigned the task of trimming the wisteria back. I can even justify it as “good exercise” and a way to encourage them to “step away from electronics for a while” instead of just “laziness” on my part. 
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My favorite plant is the Bougainvillea, the home i grew up in had one that claimed a very sunny corner of the front lawn/house. It had a somewhat leaky tap by it so it survived totally fine with no attention (besides the occasional pruning to tame it). I really miss that plant and the lemon tree we used to have.
Coincidentally just last night i was looking online for Bougainvilleas to buy, i’m in the middle of a move to a new apt so i’m holding off until we’re settled and then i will see if a nursery near me has any
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From an esteemed Boing Boing Gadgets alumnus:
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Didn’t Austin fairly much run out of water for a spell, 6 or 8 years ago? Lake Austin Travis dropped way down, and they were piping in water from Bastrop, (IIRC) Columbus etc. who were all paid very handsomely. (On the other end of the spectrum I can remember Lake Austin overflowing, North Lamar beneath Shoal Creek’s waters etc.)
ETA:
We’ve got these behind us. The blooms were beautiful when we moved in, but most years since then, I never see the flowers except on the ground. It seems like the blooms stay on the trees for about 10 seconds.
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Yes indeed we did.
2010 was the start.
It was An Exceptional Drought of Record.
Fact: you can irrigate citrus with graywater if your water use includes the right (sodium-free) soap.
This was the only way we saved our fruit trees from certain death in 2010-2012.
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