How to Select a Tree

Unlike annual or perennial flowers, trees aren’t easy to move. Once you select and plant a tree, where it’s planted is where it stays. In other words, it’s important to choose trees carefully for your yard and garden. To pick out the right trees for your yard and garden, you should examine certain characteristics of the trees you’re considering, including leaf color, flower color, and mature size. Here’s what you need to know when you go shopping for trees.

What You’ll Need

Measuring tape

Notebook and pen

Notes about the area you want to plant the tree

Instant Green Thumb

Something to note when shopping for trees: the term “dwarf” on a plant tag doesn’t mean that a tree will stay small. It means that the tree is a smaller, slower-growing version of the native species. “Dwarf” evergreens can still grow to heights of 20 or 30 feet over time, so make sure there’s room for these trees to grow where you plant them.

Tree Characteristics to Consider

Maintenance

If you don’t enjoy yard work, you’ll want to select trees that are easy to care for. Here are some choices.

Less (little pruning, few pest problems)

• Redbud

• Red maple

• Blackgum

• Hornbeam

• Katsura

• Alaska falsecypress

• Meserve holly

• Tree lilac

• ‘Little Gem’ magnolia

Redbud

More (more pruning, messy, or disease-prone)

• Mimosa (messy)

• Southern magnolia (messy)

• Sweetgum (messy)

• Sycamore (messy)

• River birch (disease-prone)

• Hawthorn (disease-prone)

Mimosa

Mature Size

The mature size of the tree is the size (height and width) the tree will be after it grows to maturity, sometimes in 20 to 40 years.

Small

Small trees grow no taller than 20 feet. These trees are good to plant in foundation beds (landscape beds next to the house), or to provide height in an island bed (larger landscape bed in the lawn).

• Serviceberry

• Japanese maple

• Star magnolia

• Kousa dogwood

• Crape myrtle

Crape myrtle

Medium

Medium-sized trees reach a mature height of 20 to 40 feet. They are great for landscape beds that extend away from the house at least 20 feet into the yard.

• Redbud

• Flowering plum

• Crabapple

• Carolina silverbell

• ‘Little Gem’ magnolia

• Golden raintree

• Zelkova

• Weeping cherry

Redbud

Large

Large trees grow to heights of 50 feet or more, and make great shade trees. Give these trees lots of room to grow.

• Tulip poplar

• Beech

• Princess tree

• Sugar maple

• Sweetgum

• ‘Autumn Purple’ ash

• Red oak

• Honey locust

Princess tree

Interesting Features

Trees have interesting features, including colorful berries, different leaf shapes, cool colors (even during the summer), and unique bark. Consider these attributes when tree shopping.

Flowers

Plant these flowering trees for extra pizzazz in your yard:

• Carolina silverbell

• Crape myrtle

• Star magnolia

• Flowering dogwood

• Cherry

• Smoketree

Carolina silverbell

Fruits

Plant trees with interesting fruits only if you like to spend a lot of time in your yard or garden because fruits can be messy, meaning you’ll have to spend some time cleaning them up, and you usually need to be close to the tree to observe and enjoy the fruits. Plant these for their pretty or unusual fruits:

• Magnolia

• Hornbeam

• Pawpaw

• Kousa dogwood

• Chinese fringe tree

• Golden raintree

• Osage orange

• Smooth sumac

• Burr oak

• Yellow birch

Magnolia

Leaves

Many deciduous trees (trees that lose their leaves in the fall) have interesting leaf shapes during the summer and pretty color in the fall, two good attributes for landscape trees.

• Blackgum

• Sweetgum

• Autumn purple ash

• Bald cypress

• Flowering dogwood

• Japanese maple

• Native American plum

• Sugar maple

• Aspen

• River birch

Dogwood

Bark

During the winter when there are no leaves on the trees, interesting bark is a gardener’s best friend. These trees are beautiful, even in the winter.

• River birch

• Crape myrtle

• Paper birch

• Hornbeam

• Beech

• Paperbark maple

• Dawn redwood

• Scotch pine

• Sycamore

• Gumbo limbo

River birch

Evergreens

Evergreen trees (trees that keep their leaves all year) make excellent screening trees (for privacy or to block ugly views) and good backdrops for showing off other trees and flowers. When you go shopping for trees with evergreen leaves, you’ll notice that not all evergreen leaves are “green.” They are yellow, chartreuse, and even blue. Here are the best evergreen trees.

• Arborvitae

• Cryptomeria

• Douglas fir

• Western red cedar

• Atlas cedar

• White fir

• Colorado spruce

• Southern magnolia

• Falsecypress

• Camellia

Falsecypress

Carolina sapphire juniper

Atlas cedar

Serviceberry Tree

Serviceberry flowers

Serviceberry fruit

Just Grow With It!

Four-Season Trees

The absolute best trees for your yard are trees that have interesting characteristics all year long. Beautiful flowers, interesting fruits or berries, healthy green leaves in the summer, bright fall color, and bark that stands out in the winter all contribute to four-season function in the landscape.

The Tree That Beats Them All

If you have room for only one tree, or one more tree, plant a serviceberry. The species you should plant depends on where you live, but there’s a serviceberry for almost every growing zone in the United States.

Why Are They So Great?

Flowers

Serviceberry trees bloom in late spring to early summer.

Leaves and Fruits

In the summer, serviceberry trees have lovely, kelly green leaves that show off their red or blue fruits.

Fall Color and Winter Twigs

Serviceberries have some of the most beautiful fall color of any tree. Their leaves turn bright shades of orange, red, and yellow. The leaves fall to reveal sculptural branches covered with smooth, gray bark.

Best Four-Season Trees

Not everyone wants a serviceberry tree in his yard. There are some other excellent choices. Some are large, others are small. Some bloom in the spring, others in the summer. All look spectacular all year long.

• Crape myrtle

• Japanese maple

• Paperbark maple

• Bald cypress

• Southern magnolia

• Weeping beech

• Kousa dogwood

• Weeping cherry