Ornamental trees that are 15' or less, recommendations?

Spring has sprung! One of my projects for this year is to finally rip out two burning bushes and replace them with small ornamental trees. I did a Cornus Kousa Satami (thanks Victor!) in 08 and an Royal Raindrops Malus in 09...so looking for some other options for these new additons, any suggestions? I'm in zone 5b.

Thanks!

Miles

Hi Miles,

Dogwoods and redbuds spring to mind immediately. Japanese maple is another possibility. What is the sun/shade condition? Is it 15 feet or less in both height and width?

forest pansy redbud would be good - might get a bit bigger than 15 ft though if left untrimmed.

Full sun. I'd say 15' high and the same or less wide. So redbuds are that small? I've heard they are great.

they are great - i think forest pansy is the best one all have purple flowers (except one chinese variety that has white flowers) and heart shaped leaves - FP has purple leaves that shade to green with all new growth starting purple so you have two colors going after spring - it use to be sold everywhere - at least here i have not seen it for a couple years - i know a couple folks bought them at HD down on Long Island last fall - if you can find one at a nursery it would be better.

I love my Magnolia stellata - it's tough here and can be either a shrub or a tree. Pests don't bother it. The white flowers have a nice fragrant and it's blooming now.

More good suggestions, do you know what variety of Magnolia stellata you have?

Thanks!

Miles

sounds nice Bill

Mine stay purple - don't turn green.

Actually, I don't. It came with the house, so it's probably 12 or 15 years old. I'm pretty sure it's probably 'Royal Star'. Every years I enjoy it so much that I finally bought another last weekend.

This is at the base of a fir tree and I don't *ever* water or feed it. We had two feet of snow last year (unusual for us) for two weeks and it didn't blink (this is from last year in April). Then we had a hot, dry, summer (90's frequently, less than usual rainfall) and, again, it didn't blink. It might be bigger if it had any help from me; I don't know.

In my opinion, a really great plant.

Great...I'll look that up...I always think of Magnolia as a more southern plant, but that's not true, they have them all over Boston.

My local nursrey is great. When I wanted the Royal Raindrops Malus in 08 and everyone was sold out (even forest farms) they made me one for the fall. Thinking of doing the same with 'city slicker' river birch....just read about that in Garden Gate....it has very white bark but the disease resistance of a river. Probably not available for 2010, so I might order one for next year for the edge of my property...good thing I'm into delayed gratification!

All pretty trees - it's going to look nice at your place!

I also have a 3rd spot I definitely want a weeping cherry in...I see them around my neighborhood a lot...anyone have cultivator recommendations for that? The species is probably too large. Would want that more like 8-10' tall. I'm on a bit of a tree kick right now! Also thinking of planting a weeping willow in the back of my yard. I have visions of making all kinds of projects out of it like fences and trellises. Right now we use apple wood for that, but not flexible and only last a couple years.

the only ones i can think of are those ones that come up to 6' high and immediately weep - not a fan of them although i see so many there are those that are.

do not buy a weeping willow - go grab a branch and stick it in wet ground it will grow - have one across pond - a wild one - storms do a number on them - this one got hit bad by the ice storm last year - plan to trim it up next winter when i can set the ladder on the ice to get up there.

Not a fan either. Miles, if you have limited space, consider trying to get the most bang for the buck and look for trees/shrubs that provide multi-season interest. Interesting season-long foliage, good fall color, berries, interesting bark, interesting winter shape, etc. Avoid the bloom temptation alone.

good point...I think they had a weeping paperbark birch at the nursery last year, it is more the weeping I want than the blooms on that tree.

Miles

Paperbark birches are great - we had a lot of them in Fairbanks, Alaska. But in Seattle, I've noticed that they really suffer with wet snow (Fairbanks is very arid) - well, maybe they aren't suffering, but they really bend and break when the snow hangs on the limbs. That's the only reason I don't have any in my yard.

Spent an hour shopping at the nursery on Saturday....ended up with a Kwanzan Cherry tree (big...nice)...then for the weeping tree I got a Cascading Hearts Redbud. Tags all had different size info, and Dave's Garden had no entry for it, we think it grows 8-10'. I found patent info online looks like it is from 2008, so pretty new. Then I got a paperbark Maple for the back...kinda clay back there, so I hope it is ok. One of my Tracy DiSabato Aust books has that listed as one of her picks and she says it is clay tolerant....anyway, thanks all for advice as usual!

MAF

This message was edited Apr 13, 2010 4:40 PM

nice choices miles!

I like the sound of that redbud!

Me, too! They all sound great.

We have clay here and we have tons of maples. Maple seedlings are literally one of my most frequently-occurring weeds this time of year.

Your tree choices sound terrific.

Happy Kwanza, Miles! Nice choices.

Just corrected that to Kwanzan ;-) But you beat me to the punch(line).

M.

Ohhhhh. I didn't get it . . . Must slow down when I read. :-)