By Jennifer Poindexter
Are you searching for a way to light up your landscape without adding more maintenance? Flowers are a wonderful way to beautify your yard, but they only last for a season.
Plus, they require a good bit of maintenance due to weeding and fertilizing needs. However, trees are a completely different story.
You can plant flowering trees, receive color for your landscape, and provide little extra care. Trees are also hardy in a variety of zones where many flowers aren’t.
Intrigued? Great! Let’s discuss your options for planting flowering trees in your yard or garden to beautify your landscape.
1. Higan Cherry
In my mind’s eye, I envision beauty when I think of cherry trees. They’re fragrant, produce blooms, and are a visual representation of spring.
The Higan Cherry is no different. This tree produces pink blossoms during the spring and fall. It’s also a petite option for a flowering tree and would make a great addition along walkways or around a patio. If you live in zones five through eight, this could be the flowering tree for you.
2. American Fringe Tree
The American Fringe tree is a fun option. This tree produces white blooms during the spring. This creates the look of fringe around the tree.
Another bonus is this tree can produce a fruit if you have both a male and female. You can have a unique, fruit producing, flowering tree in planting zones three through nine with the American Fringe tree.
3. Red Horse Chestnut
This flowering tree choice is great if you’re a bird watcher. The Red Horse chestnut is known for attracting hummingbirds. It’s a rounded tree with groups of bright-colored flowers. This, naturally, catches a hummingbird’s eye.
In the fall, the foliage will turn a golden yellow. The tree will grow to be approximately 35 feet tall, is disease-resistant, and will thrive in zones four through nine. If you’d like a bright, flowering tree in your yard, give this tree a closer look.
4. Flowering Almond
You want color in your yard, but you aren’t sure if you want bright blooms or pale blooms. How about a mix? With the Flowering Almond tree, you can have both.
This tree produces pink blossoms in both a dark and light shade. However, once the tree finishes blooming, it can become scruffy in appearance. It doesn’t produce fruit, requires full sun, and can grow to be 15 feet in height. If you’d like a splash of color in your yard, and live in zones five through nine, this almond tree variety could be for you.
5. Newport Cherry Plum
This tree is recognizable by its deep purple foliage. During the spring, it produces light pink blooms. When they die off, they produce an edible, light purple fruit.
In the fall, the foliage will turn red for an extra splash of color. The Newport Cherry Plum tree will grow in planting zones four through nine and can grow to be 20 feet tall.
6. Pee Gee Hydrangea
A hydrangea can be considered either a big bush or petite tree. In this case, we’re going to consider it as a small tree. The Pee Gee Hydrangea produces fluffy clusters of white flowers.
This tree can grow to be 20 feet tall, but it isn’t fussy about its soil. It can grow in any variety of soil including clay. It will require full to partial sunlight and should grow well in planting zones three through eight.
7. Everest Crabapple
Do you need a smaller, flowering tree for either a walkway, patio, or a drab corner of your garden? The Everest crabapple could be what you need.
It’s hardy in planting zones four through eight. Even better, it produces vibrant pink buds in the spring which give way to beautiful white flowers for an extra pop of color.
8. Thunderchild Flowering Crabapple
You like the idea of a flowering crabapple, but when you say you want color, you mean eye-popping color! Then you need to check out the Thunderchild Flowering Crabapple tree.
This crabapple variety has bright pink blooms and is fragrant. Once the blooming is done, you are taken in by the dark purple leaves. Outside of the obvious beauty, this tree can grow to be 20 feet tall. It’s also known for being hardy in planting zones three to seven and is disease-resistant too.
9. Japanese Horse Chestnut
This chestnut variety appears odd at first glance. It has tall, spikey flowers which produce in the early summer months.
However, these odd flowers are great attractors for hummingbirds and bees. If you want something colorful, different, and that attracts pollinators, this tree could be a great choice. It’s ideal for planting zones five through nine.
10. Hawthorne
The Hawthorne tree is a 10 to 25-foot-tall tree which produces a multitude of bloom colors depending upon the variety of the tree you choose. You can choose between white, red, or pink blooms which form during the spring.
Once the blooms are done, the tree produces bright colored berries in the fall. These berries stay all winter long for year-round color. This tree needs full to partial sunlight and can grow in zones three through seven. This will vary by variety. You may also choose whether you want a thornless variety.
11. Goldenrain Tree
If you’re in the market for a flowering shade tree, the Goldenrain tree could be what you’ve been searching for. This tree can grow to be as tall as 30 feet. It grows well in planting zones five through eight.
The tree will produce low hanging clusters of yellow flowers during the early part of summer. During the fall, the tree’s foliage will turn yellow for an added dollop of color.
12. Beauty Japanese Plum
Plum trees of most varieties are a gorgeous addition to many landscapes. The Beauty Japanese Plum tree is no different. From winter to spring, it produces white blooms.
The blooms begin to die off towards summer, and the tree forms plums. However, it must be surrounded by other varieties of plums to produce the fruit. It requires cross-pollination. This tree can grow to be 15 feet tall and is hardy from planting zones four to ten.
13. Forsythia
Forsythia is known for delicate, curved branches. During the spring months, yellow flowers produced on the unique branches for an added bit of glamour.
Though Forsythia is technically a bush, it can grow to be as tall as 10 feet. It needs full to partial sunlight and does best in planting zones five through eight.
14. Southern Magnolia
I was raised in the southern United States. If you’re from this area, the Southern Magnolia tree is a staple in your daily life. This gorgeous flowering tree has waxy green leaves and large white flowers that bloom all summer long.
This is a large flowering tree option which can grow to be anywhere from 20 to 80 feet tall. Be sure to plant it in an area where the mess it produces won’t be a problem. When the leaves and flowers drop, it can look like mulch if planted in the right place. This tree is hardy in planting zones six through nine.
15. Japanese Tree Lilac
If you’ve ever seen a lilac bush, this tree looks like the same plant only a little larger. The Japanese Tree Lilac can grow to be as large as 24 feet tall.
It will produce off-white blooms during the spring. This will give your yard a welcome breath of fresh air after a long, dark winter. The tree is hardy in planting zones four through seven.
16. Saucer Magnolia
Do you like magnolia trees but need something a little more manageable than 80 feet tall? The Saucer Magnolia could be a good fit. It grows to be approximately 30 feet in height and thrives in planting zones four through nine.
This tree desires full to partial sunlight and well-draining soil. It produces blooms that look like they’re a cup sitting in a saucer. Once the flowers form, they’ll be either white, purple, or pink. This tree can provide a unique look and the vibrant colors you desire for your yard.
17. Pear Tree
Fruit trees are many times a great option for a flowering landscape. They produce gorgeous flowers and an edible produce each season. You get a lot of bang for your buck with this option.
The pear tree is one of these great options. It produces brightly colored white blooms during the spring. From there, the tree produces fruit. It also draws in pollinators. Be advised, this tree can grow to be 30 feet tall, requires full sun, and does best in planting zones four through eight.
18. Serviceberry
Serviceberry is another fruiting, flowering tree option. This tree produces white blooms in the spring. From there, it produces berries by early summer that change from green to red and finally a deep purple. The berries are edible.
It also has a textured, colored bark that contains stripes. In fall the leaves will change to yellow, orange, or red. You can have all this color, all year long in planting zones four through nine.
19. Leonard Messel Magnolia
This magnolia variety is another colorful flowering tree option that thrives in planting zones five through nine.
If you’re partial to pink blooms, you’ll want this tree. It produces delicate pink blossoms that have a floppy, star-like shape.
20. Dream Catcher Flowering Cherry
Like with other cherry tree varieties, the Dream Catcher cherry tree produces gorgeous blooms during the spring. This variety creates light pink blossoms.
During the summer, it has green foliage which gives way to golden foliage in the fall. This tree can grow to be 25 feet tall and is hardy in planting zones six through eight. It is also disease and pest resistant.
21. Dogwood
The dogwood tree is one of my favorite options for flowering trees. They come in many varieties which will determine what size bloom you get.
In general, they produce white blooms and are a petite option for a flowering tree. Dogwoods are also hardy in planting zones five through nine.
22. Redbud
The redbud is another option for flowering trees that comes in multiple varieties. The most common varieties are the Pink Pom Pom and Ace of Hearts. These produce vibrant pink blooms, and the Ace of Hearts is a dwarf variety that only grows to be 12 feet tall.
Redbud trees are so awesome because they go from bare branches to breath-taking pink blooms during the spring months. They are also hardy in planting zones six through nine.
23. Smoke Tree
This is a unique flowering tree option. It produces flowers which produce a filament, or a thread-like attachment, that appears with a pink tint.
When looking at the tree from a distance, it makes the tree appear to have a smoky texture around it. As if this isn’t enough, the tree also produces purple leaves. If you live in planting zones five through eight, this could be a great choice for you.
24. Chaste Tree
Are you looking for a fragrant flowering tree? The chaste tree could be your pick. It not only smells nice, but it also produces elongated, blue flowers for a unique look.
The tree can grow to be 20 feet tall and is hardy in planting zones six through nine. If you live in these zones, need a flowering tree for your landscape, and want a tree with scent, this could be it.
25. Seven-Son Flower Tree
Some people desire a flowering tree, but they want white blooms over bright colors. If this describes you, the Seven-Son Flower tree could be for you.
It produces white blooms during the spring and summer months. Afterward, the tree produces a pink tint. If you live in planting zones five through eight and have room for a tree that could grow to be 20 feet tall, this tree could be a great fit.
26. Crepe Myrtle
Crepe myrtle is another popular tree variety in warmer climates. This flowering tree is hardy in planting zones six through ten, though it may die back to soil level in the cooler climates.
This tree has many varieties which supplies many color options. It will bloom in summer and fall. What all varieties of this plant have in common is they produce tremendous groups of flowers at the end of each branch on the plants. They also have gorgeous textured bark. If you need a flowering tree, don’t forget to investigate crepe myrtle.
Flowering trees can be a low-maintenance way to have a beautiful yard. Plant them once, and with minimal care, they should return year after year with gorgeous blooms, scents, and colors. Find the tree from this list that works best for your set-up and start adding color to your yard or garden today.
More About Flowering Tree Varieties
https://extension.unh.edu/blog/what-are-best-flowering-trees-small-yard
https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/426/426-611/426-611.html
Leave a Reply