What to Look For When Choosing a Tree for Your Garden

The towering stature and, at times, the far-reaching branches of trees make them ideal focal points in established landscapes. Plus, they do a lot of other things, like define places, create obstacles, add texture and color, and so on.

Knowing what you want out of trees before incorporating them into your landscape is crucial hence perfect gardening equipment is required.

Shade Trees

Most people probably picture shade trees when they think of big trees. Yards, streets, and residences below are shaded by their elegant, arching canopies. In the summer, the canopy of a shade tree blocks out the sun, but in the winter, when the leaves fall, more of the sun’s beneficial rays reach the house.

Flowering Trees

Flowers on trees can be as small as a shrub, like a serviceberry, or as big and showy as a weeping cherry tree. Having only one flowering tree may make a statement when it’s in blossom. If you put multiple flowering trees in clusters or line a driveway or pathway, they will look much better.

Before planting a blooming tree, it’s important to think about its size and whether it will have full sun or partial shade. Because most blooming trees only produce blossoms for a short period each year, the tree selection must be suitable for your location throughout the year.

Think of planting some flowering dogwoods, magnolias, crape myrtles, forsythias, or Eastern redbuds. Different from more conventional shade trees, which cast a wide shadow over a whole yard or home, many blooming trees cast a more targeted shadow over a smaller area.

These trees provide the ideal shade for a backyard picnic or a quiet afternoon spent reading a good book.

Ornamental Trees

Beautiful trees aren’t the only reason people plant and enjoy specimen trees. This category encompasses a wide range of trees, from Japanese maples and other conifers to Sago palms and pygmy date palms.

 Although these trees are more costly and take longer to mature, they steal the show wherever they go thanks to their stunning appearance.

Evergreen Trees

Because evergreen trees come in many sizes and types, they can be used in many ways in the landscape. Evergreen trees that are big and dense, like many pines and spruces, block wind well and can also be used to screen bigger properties.

Arborvitae, some cedars, and cypresses, as well as other small, narrow evergreens, can make great privacy fence that don’t take up too much space. There are also many colors of evergreen trees, from light to dark green to blue and even gold, so most people can find one that they like.

Quaking Aspen

The leaves of the quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) sway in the smallest breeze, which is another name for it. Like most trees in the poplar family, it grows quickly and looks especially nice when grown in groups. It grows well in a variety of soils and has golden yellow leaves in the fall and whitish bark all year.