Great Specimen Trees and How to Use Them

Ornamental trees add color and interest to any landscape but their use and placement are often misunderstood. A typical suburban garden should have only a few of them strategically placed to attract the eye with their beauty and form.

From a design point of view, they should be used in three ways:

1. as a focal point, serving as punctuation to an architectural form
2. to draw your attention to a linear space
3. to direct your eyes to a special vista within the landscape.

There are too many wonderful specimen trees to describe here, so these are just a few of my favorites, chosen for their beauty and for their ease of planting/maintenance.

My favorite specimen tree, probably the closest thing to the "perfect specimen tree," is the flowering cherry tree. Among the current varieties available locally I like the autumn and weeping ones. They have showy, white flowers that last a long time, are very cold-hardy, and are good for small areas and garden spaces in the foreground. They grow 20-40 feet tall and 15-25 feet wide and have an average growth rate of about 1-2 feet per year. 

The weeping form is the hottest landscape tree since the late 1990s, and has graceful, long branches that sway in the wind.

A close second is the flowering dogwood tree. Current varieties available locally are white, red or pink. These beautiful trees have white, red or pink flowers, turn a bright red color in the fall, and their gray stems with bright red fruit provide winter interest with the added benefit of attracting colorful songbirds to your yard in the snow.

They grow 15-25 feet tall and 15-25 feet wide and have an average growth rate of about 1-2 feet per year and are perfectly suited to small gardens. I find that the white dogwoods look better in rows or in a clump of three (one white, one red, one pink).

If you have a larger yard, a great tree is the flowering callery pear tree. Current varieties available locally are the Cleveland, Bradford and Aristocrat. Their form is naturally, perfectly uniform ... a tight, symmetrical oval shape that requires no shaping. White flowers cover the trees in late spring and they have dusky, red leaves in the fall.

They grow 30-40 feet tall and 15-20 feet wide and have an rapid growth rate of about 3-5 feet per year. I find that they are great to use "en masse" and are especially beautiful when used on larger properties to line a driveway, boundary or roadway. And just in case you thought they might have pears growing on them, they don't.

No discussion of specimen trees would be complete without the flowering crabapple tree. Current varieties available locally are the Profusion = red, Siberian = white, and Robinson = pink. These trees have intense red/white/pink flowers with interesting flower buds that swell and burst into flowers. They have coppery-red leaves in the fall and their decorative fruit and textured bark provide winter interest. Their's is a symmetrical shape, usually wider than tall.

They grow 15-20 feet tall and 15-25 feet wide and have an average growth rate of about 1-2 feet per year. These beauties are great for small yards where you want the benefit of their broad canopy form. As with most flowering plants, the white looks best "en masse" or in rows.

Often you'll see the redbud tree and wonder what they are. Current varieties available locally are Eastern and Oklahoma. These are one of the first trees to flower in the spring, and their tiny purple-red flowers cover all their upright branches giving a great contrast to the lighter greens of spring. Their dark green, glossy leaves and dense, round shape make them ideal for very tight spaces and small lots.

They grow 20-30 feet tall and 15-20 feet wide and have an average growth rate of about 1-2 feet per year. They don't transplant well as they have deep roots, so be sure of their placement when you first plant them.

Also a special note, they are very resistant to storms, ice and wind, making them ideal for our recent winters.

And last, if you're looking for an unusual specimen you'll love the smoke tree. Current varieties available locally are white and purple. They are very tough plants, tolerate drought conditions and are great for small spaces. These interesting plants have a casual appearance and when in bloom their fluffy flowering heads with clusters of tiny flowers make them look like a cloud of smoke.

They grow 10-15 feet tall and 12-15 feet wide and have an average growth rate of about 1-2 feet per year. After blooming their very dark, round leaves create a nice texture and backdrop for other flowers, so I recommend their use more as background plants in combination with other more delicate foreground specimens.

Some garden trivia for today

• What are the 10 most popular home-grown vegetables in the US and Canada? According to a 2010 survey by USDA, the top 10 are (in order of popularity): tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, beans, lettuce, carrots, sweet corn, radishes and cabbage. Tomatoes were grown in a little over 85 percent of all gardens with cabbage being grown in only 30 percent.
• How long have people enjoyed the flavor of sauerkraut? When the Chinese were building the 1,500-mile-long Great Wall Of China, they sustained themselves on cabbage pickled in wine.
• In the 17th century it was said that cows fed Dutch carrots yielded the richest milk and the yellowest butter. While butter makers in other parts of Europe, using less well fed cows, colored their butter by adding carrot juice to the churn.
• Did you know that the Pimiento is an attractive and tasty pepper that, regrettably, is known to most of us solely as a stuffing for green olives.