My one special tree, I think it has everything, pretty young foliage in spring, huge, huge oak leaves in summer, a nice shape and fiery red leaves in the Autumn.
It is alleged to be fast growing but it has not been so in my garden. It is very alkaline as we live in the Chilterns and what's not chalk is flint but the Oak is nowhere near as fast growing as the Mulberry which has shot up since being planted as a seed in the early '80s. The earliest picture was just after we planted it, a small sapling at the end of the pond area. You might need to get your magnifying glass!
I've combined these pictures to save you having to scroll endlessly down the page.
It doesn't need pruning and the leaves are so much more attractive than the Common Oaks, being larger they have more movement in the breeze.

Such a broad range of plants this covers, from tiny little leaved rockery specimens to immense shrubs like this one, about five foot high last year, originally taken from my sister's garden,so unfortunately not named. Useful at the back of borders.
I did once try to grow Armstongii which looks like heather with its stringy leaves. It's an alternative if you live on alkaline soil but like other hebe if they aren't pruned quite regularly, it got leggy.. to very hard pruning, they will root easily from cuttings in fact they are so versatile I think they are often overlooked.
I must take pictures of the various other hebes I have to show the varieties. What a pity they have no scent or else they'd be perfect!

This is covered in flowers from December right through the year to the following Autumn
I took this cutting years ago (this photo was taken about 1990 and have rigorously pruned it do that the spurs have been kept short. As in a fruit tree this encourages flower buds to develop and discourages the long leggy growth. New growth gets pruned back to one bud from the main stem, all the time.
The pots holding my cuttings had started to encroach on the area outside the back of the house at this stage but now as the pots have had to get bigger and the cuttings more numerous I had had to find other areas to put them!
The good part is that so much of the paving is covered that when i move the pots the slabs are lovely and clean!!