I am looking for some ideas and suggestions for a small ornamental tree (one that will stay under 10 ft.). This is uncharted territory for me - I've never had an area where something small was needed. This tree will be planted on the south east corner of our house and will have sun exposure all day, as well as a fair amount of wind exposure from open fields to the east and west.
Does anyone have a favorite or two they can tell me about....I'm mostly interested in great spring blossoms and or/beautiful fall color (both would be perfect-but is there such a thing??) Thanks for any suggestions you might have!
My first idea was a Japanese Maple tree, but it will only deliver on the fall colour requirement. They come in all sizes, but 'Blood God' goes 11 ft. with a rounded, bonsai look. Maybe a dwarf flowering crab. Mock Orange might be nice too, but you'd have to prune it to stay within the height restriction.
Lilac standards or crape myrtle should do well for you. Amur maple might be right for you, too. There are some lovely grafted weeping trees, like weeping mulberries, weeping pussy willows...etc...which will never get above ten feet tall, too...might want to look into those. Or you could try a rose standard. You might look into bushes, rather than trees, and just trim the bush into a tree form.
In this cold zone we have a fair number of japanese crabapples. the shape is more horizontal than upright. A fun tree to underplant with impatiens. There are a few weeping cherry trees around in protected areas here and they are beautiful. Hawthorns stay pretty small here,pretty bloom and red berries.
"Maybe one of the secrets of survival is to learn where to dance." Stanley Kunitz
Posts: 903 | Location: New Hampshire Z4 | Registered: February 11, 2002
I love my little dwarf cherry trees. Their blooms are beautiful in the spring, with the bonus of edible fruit in the summer. Sumac are beautiful as well, but they can get large over time. You can't beat their fall color, though.
OK. That's the last time I give my suggestions. I'm always wrong. Its amazing I've gardened for over twenty years and still know absolutely nothing. I wish I could be the Mother Earth brennewoman is. I guess I'll go back to lurking.
Hon, I didn't mean to offend you...and japanese maples do fine in full sun up north...but down further here, the sun can burn them. You weren't wrong, just rezoned.
Bear Oak (Quercus ilicifolia), one of the amelancher family, japan maple, there are several plums you could choose from. Um Brent Walston has a smaller cultivar of elm.
The old fashioned snow-ball bush can be kept pruned to a tree form & is quite beautiful when kept that way. It can get a fairly substantial diameter to the trunk & has a sort of big bonsai look to it in that form. I think it would do in zone 5, but I haven't looked it up. If you're interested you can probably find out easily enough on the 'net what zones it prospers in.
Why don't you plant a semidwarf fruit tree? They flower in the spring, they can be very ornamental, and at the end of the season you get a nice harvest! I no longer understand people who plant just "plain" trees in their backyard when they can have a lot more with an antique apple or a cherry tree. I love "normal" trees, but I think that they are generally unsafe if planted too close to houses (I have witnessed what happens after a tornado), and that they really belong to forests and city parks. Fruit trees is the homeowner way to go!
