A long-lived plant is the opposite trade from a fast grower. It takes its time, it makes dense strong wood, and it outlasts the person who planted it.
Which changes how carefully it should be placed. A short-lived plant in a slightly wrong spot is a twelve-year inconvenience. A long-lived tree in the wrong spot is a problem that outlives the mistake — it is still too close to the foundation in 2070, and by then removing it is a crane and a crew rather than a decision.
So the measurements matter more here than anywhere: mature width against the house, against the drive, against the property line. What is overhead. Where the sewer lateral runs. These are the same checks as for any tree and the consequences simply last longer.
The payoff is real. A long-lived tree is the single highest-value plant on a property — for shade, for the look of the place, and for what it does to the value of the lot. It is also the one thing in a landscape that gets better every decade without anybody doing anything, which almost nothing else does.
Worth planting one even late. The common objection is that somebody will not see it mature, and the answer is that nobody who planted the good trees in this valley saw them mature either.
