As time goes on, gardens are becoming smaller and smaller. Because of this trend, which is a very marked one throughout the country, it is becoming increasingly important to select only those plants which will give the most beautiful for the longest time.
Among the flowering trees, for instance, the horse chestnuts and double-flowered Oriental cherries have come into common use everywhere, but these are ornamental only for the short two-week period they are in flower.
They have no ornamental fruits and practically no Autumn color.
Such trees need not be given space in a very small garden, since there are much better types of trees of ornamental interest for at least two seasons and sometimes for more.
Flowering Trees
Colorado Dogwood
Everyone will admit that the flowering dogwood, Colorado, and its several varieties, is one of the best species for the small place and even for the accent points in gardens on large estates.
The excellent Spring flowers, good Summer foliage, brilliant fruits, and Autumn coloration, make them splendid specimens wherever they are used.
Sourwood Tree
The southern sourwood, Oxydendrum arboreum, is another excellent native tree.
The glossy, shiny leaves, which are not severely injured by insects or diseases, and the late summer display of nodding clusters of creamy white flowers, followed by fire-red Autumn foliage in the fall, make it one of the best of the two-season plants.
If you are unfamiliar with this tree, by all means, find a place for one in the garden, for it will be noted in almost any planting.
Yellow Wood Tree
Last spring the yellow wood, Cladrastis hi-tea, was unusually well-covered with blossoms. It is a rather wide-spreading tree, often considered weak-wooded, but with beautiful pendulous clusters of white pea-like flowers (similar to those of wisteria) appearing in early June.
It may not bloom heavily every year, but its dense rounded habit, its orange autumn foliage, and the gray bark of its trunk in winter put it in this small group of flowering trees of interest for more than one season.
Mountain Ash Tree
The mountain ash, available in several species, might be included. Normally I do not suggest using these trees too frequently, for they are susceptible to injury from borers in the base of the trunk.
However, if this weakness is recognized and properly checked by spraying the trunk frequently with DDT and eradicating the borers as soon as their presence is noted, the Spring flowers, bright masses of fruits, and yellow to orange autumn color make it a conspicuous tree, especially on the small place where it can be properly tended.
Magnolia Tree
Very few of the magnolias might be mentioned in this connection. Certainly, the star magnolia, Magnolia stellata, is well worth growing, for it is the hardiest of all the magnolias growing in the Arnold Arboretum at this time. Some may think of it as a shrub, and it is frequently grown as such.
It can also be classed as a tree, with starry-white flowers measuring 4″ inches in diameter and having at least 12 petals and excellent dark green foliage.
The foliage boosts this above most other magnolias into the select group of trees of interest for more than one season.
In the fall, this foliage, which is free from serious insect or disease pests, turns a rich golden brown and is most attractive.
A hybrid, M. loebneri, has been grown in several places (one now in the Arboretum is very vigorous), growing up to 12′ feet in six or seven years.
The vigor of this particular don, combined with flowers almost the size of those of the star magnolia, will probably make this one of the better magnolias for height in the not-too-distant future.
Stewartia Tree
The little-used Stewartias might also be mentioned – trees that grow rigidly upright and are rather slow about coming into bloom. Their single white flowers, several inches in diameter, are produced in the early Summer.
There are several species, all having reddish Autumn color, and what is even more important, all of them have an ornamental bark, somewhat similar to that of the sycamore.
Higan Cherry Tree
Two cherries might be mentioned in this connection, the Autumn-flowering Higan cherry, valued because of its semi-double flowers, which frequently appear a second time in the Fall, and the Sargent cherry.
This second species is probably the hardest of all the Oriental cherries and has been recommended for years on these pages. It grows well over 50′ feet high, has deep pink, single flowers in early Spring, and gorgeous red autumn color in the fall.
Like most ornamental cherries, its fruits are blue and not conspicuous, but it is an excellent specimen, nevertheless.
Oriental Crab Apples
Last, but very definitely not least, in this group of “two seasons” ornamental flowering trees come the Oriental crab apples. The native species might well be overlooked in this connection – including the popular Bechtel crab.
It is the Orientals that have such superb displays of white, pink, red, and purplish flowers in the middle of Spring, followed by just as colorful blankets of brightly colored fruits.
Although the fruits are small, as a rule, usually 1/4″ – 1/2″ inches in diameter – some are larger and are borne in great profusion.
Late Summer Fruit Trees
The fruits commence to appear in late Summer and continue to color, depending on the species, until late October.
Some remain on the trees well into the winter; Arnold, Carmine, Aldenham, Katherine, and Dorothea (these last two are among the very few with double flowers but with brightly colored fruits as well) cut-leaf, cherry, and tea crabs – these are only a few.
Each one has a particular type of interest it can give to the garden. Just one of these trees in even the smallest garden might create a longer period of interest than is available now, and so it would be well worth the effort of putting it there.
44659 by Donald Wyman, Arnold Arboretum