Tips And Techniques

Don’t Miss These Planning Tips: Ornamental Trees

Ornamental trees - featured image - Redbud

When people start talking about landscaping, they often think about hardscape elements like fire pits and patios, or beautiful annuals and perennials. But there’s another element that’s often overlooked, but vitally important to the look and feel of a landscape: ornamental trees! Trees add structure to a garden, create much-needed shade during the dog days of summer, provide habitat for native wildlife, and level up your landscape’s aesthetic value. Below, we outline some important planning tips to help you feel confident picking and placing the perfect ornamental trees for your space.

Choosing Ornamental Trees

Ornamental trees are selected based on the tree’s shape, potential flowers and fruit, leaves, and mature size. Many trees add year-round color, habitat for wildlife, and a source of food for birds, beneficial insects, and other wild animals.

When choosing your tree, it’s important to keep different classifications of trees in mind. For example, do you want a tree that is deciduous (loses its foliage annually), or evergreen (retains its foliage and color year-round)? Do you want something that is coniferous (a plant that bears cones), or do you prefer your tree seeds to be a little less conspicuous? These are all important considerations, as they relate to year-round interest, ongoing maintenance, and winter care. If you’re looking for brilliant fall color, you’ll want to pick something deciduous, like a maple or a larch. If you want lasting winter interest, evergreen selections like pines and spruces are the way to go.

Once you’ve got a firmer idea of what kinds of trees you’re looking for, it’s time to take into consideration environmental factors like climate zone, sun exposure, and moisture levels.

USDA Map - Northern Lower Michigan

Climate and Environmental Preferences

We work mostly in USDA Zone 5, thanks to the buffer created by Lake Michigan. Further towards the center of the state, temperatures can dip as low as Zone 4, while further downstate along the lake temperatures climb up towards Zone 6. Knowing your planting zone is important to picking plants that are hardy enough to survive through the winter and won’t wilt in the summer heat.

It’s also important to pay attention to how much sun a tree wants. Most will appreciate a full sun spot, but some smaller specimens (or shrubs that have been pruned into a tree-like form) are understory plants and may perform well in some shade. Sun and shade requirements can be a bit confusing, so if you’re just starting out, check out this article by Proven Winners to learn more about terms from full sun to full shade.

Moisture levels and soil type are also something to pay attention to. If you’re planting into a very wet area, the trees that will thrive there will be different than those that will do well in a dry, sandy area. Get to know your property and the conditions you’re working in, and find plants that won’t just survive there, but will actually love to live there.

Once you’ve narrowed down your selection based on your yard’s unique conditions, it’s time to get to the really fun part: finding your unique preferences!

Five Popular Ornamental Trees

There are plenty of flowering trees and ornamentals to choose from in Zone 5, but here are just a few or our favorites:

Crabapple: A showpiece of many landscapes, the crabapple is a hearty tree that gives visual interest in all seasons. There are dozens of varieties, each with their own unique size, shape, flower, and fruit. They’re a hub-bub of activity year-round, as pollinators are attracted to the flowers early in the season and birds pick at the fruit throughout the winter. Most crabapple trees do not exceed twenty feet in height, making them beautiful additions to any landscape. These are fruit-bearing, deciduous trees.

Redbud: While the name implies a tree with red flowers, these prolific blooms are dark pink and last for about two weeks in the spring. Redbud trees are not large, reaching a maximum height of 20 – 30 feet. A deciduous tree, the leaves are a delicate heart shape with a long stem, turning a bright yellow in the fall.

Dogwood: With a wide variety of sizes and forms, ranging from moderate trees to sturdy shrubs, dogwoods are popular options in many landscape sizes and styles. Dogwoods typically bloom for two to four weeks in the spring, and flower colors can vary from white to pink and even red. Their foliage is dark green and turns into a regal plum color in the fall. In some cases, dogwoods can produce bright red berries that last through the winter – a favorite for many birds. Like the redbud, dogwoods are not generally large, reaching a max height somewhere between ten to thirty-three feet when mature, depending on the variety.

Weeping larch: Larches are a common sight throughout Northern Michigan, being especially prolific in certain areas of the Upper Peninsula. Larches are deciduous conifers, and during the summer they look like a typical pine tree with their conical growth habit and thin needles. However, come fall, a larches needles turn brilliant shades of yellow and orange before falling to the ground. Weeping larches lack the upright habit and instead have long, trailing branches that hang down towards the ground. This draping look creates an intriguing sight in the landscape, making the weeping larch a perfect statement piece.

Hemlock: Pictured below, the hemlock is a graceful evergreen addition to the landscape. Growing slowly, but often reaching monumental mature sizes, hemlocks work well in damper areas where other trees might struggle. There are four hemlock varieties native to North America, making it a great addition to landscapes that are going for a more natural, yet sophisticated, look. With ample branches for birds to nest in, as well as plenty of space for animals to take shelter, it’s a fun one if you’re looking to attract more wildlife to your yard.

Hemlock branch

Planting Purpose

All right, you’ve considered the kind of tree you want as well as what zone, light, and moisture levels you’re working with–now it’s time to consider why you want to plant a tree in the first place. Planting purpose will help you further narrow your selections, as different trees lend themselves to different planting layouts.

Sound Barriers and Privacy Screens: While none of us like to seem antisocial, there are times when your yard could benefit from a little extra peace, quiet, and privacy. Maybe you’re located near a busy road–or maybe the neighborhood kids are just a little too loud sometimes. Whatever the reason, choosing the right trees can help you create a secluded retreat in your own backyard. Tall, full trees can be planted in a hedge along the edge of your yard to decrease outside noise and increase internal serenity. Evergreens will give you year-round privacy, but consider creating a mixed or layered hedge that incorporates some flowering trees or shrubs, to add both visual interest and food sources for your friendly neighborhood pollinators.

Statement Pieces: Many trees function well as statement pieces, fitting in well with the overall landscape design while also drawing your eye to a specific area. Flowering trees are an obvious choice, but be sure to pick varieties that spark interest even once the flowers have faded. Beyond blooms, look for unique bark textures (great for year-round interest), unusual shapes (weeping forms look intriguing all year long), and captivating foliage (including how the foliage changes in the fall).

As you consider planting purpose and plant placement, don’t forget to consider the views from inside your home or the places in the landscape you frequent, like a patio space. Do you tend to look out the window in the living room more often throughout the winter, while spending more time on the patio in the spring, and heading for the shade of the front porch in the height of summer? If so, you might want an evergreen you can see from inside, a spring-blooming tree near the patio, and a large shade tree in the front yard.

Consider the seasonality of your spaces, and what you want to look at throughout the year. This is one of the most important steps to making sure you’ll love the plants you pick!

Flowering Crabapple

Other Considerations

While we’ve covered a lot of things in this post, there’s plenty more to consider that would take up another entire post! We’ll touch on a few of them here:

Fruiting vs. Non-fruiting – Flowering trees were designed to produce some kind of fruit, but not all fruit was created equal. On the one hand, you might plant an apple or cherry tree for the purpose of harvesting the fruit, or you might chose something as a food source for wildlife. On the other hand, some fruit trees can create a considerable mess that you might not have the time to cleanup.

Native vs. Invasive – As you research plants, pay attention to words like “native” and “invasive”–they’re not simply buzzwords in the plant word, but vitally important to the health of your local ecosystem. Native plants are those that naturally occur within a specific area. They generally perform well with our specific climate, growing conditions, and wildlife, making them low-maintenance options for the landscape. These days, there’s a wide variety of plants that boast native parentage but have been bred for specific colors, sizes, growth habits, or disease resistance. Sometimes, these cultivars grow more successfully than the parent plant. There are plenty of non-native plants that will also grow well in your landscape, and many of these are great compliments to native plants. However, there are those non-native plants that grow too well, spread out from the gardens they are planted in, and begin to take over the surrounding wild spaces, choking out native plant growth. These plants are classified as invasive, and they can be devastating to local flora and fauna. Do your part to protect your environment and plant responsibly!

Soil pH – Did you know your soil has its own chemistry? It’s true–and different plants prefer different kinds of soil chemistry. Some plants, like rhododendrons, prefer soil that’s a little on the acidic side, while ironwoods appreciate alkaline soil. However, soil isn’t the only element at play when it comes to chemistry. Some plants produce chemicals that make it difficult–or even impossible–for other plants to grow near them, a process known as allelopathy. Understanding which plants coexist well with each other helps you build a healthy plant community within your landscape.

Mature Sizing – Whether you’re starting from scratch or adding to your landscape, your plan must include the mature size of the tree you’re considering. Consider both it’s overall width and it’s mature height–as well as how fast it reaches this size–to ensure you don’t pick a plant that will outgrow your space in just a few years!

Shading – An ornamental shade tree can increase your summer fun, giving you a place to shelter and relax on those hot, sunny days. Gardening under a shade tree can pose challenges, as it limits your plant palette–but it can also be a fun opportunity, giving you a chance to flex your creative muscles!

Drainage and Irrigation – Proper drainage is critical to most plants. Rain runoff and irrigation systems can over water some species, so think about where water gathers during a heavy rainstorm and whether or not you’re planting near irrigation lines.

landscape design for bay front property

Time to Plant Your Ornamental Trees

Now that you’ve considered the kind of tree you’re looking for, what landscape situation you’re working with, and weighed things like fruiting or non-fruiting options, it’s time to purchase your trees and get to planting!

But if you find yourself wanting a little more guidance, the team at Drost is here to help. With our own on-site nursery, we have a wide variety of trees you can view up close, and experts to help you learn what will grow well in your unique landscape. We also offer design and planting services, so you can skip the heavy lifting and get right to enjoying your new ornamental tree. To find out what Drost can do for you, contact us today.