Suggestions for naturally short trees?

[Smart Red]

There is a lovely decorative pear tree that is used a lot in landscaping that does not get too large.

Bradford Pear?

In addition to the lovely Japanese Maple, there is the Fringe tree and my Popcorn tree.

 

[JosephArehart]

Dwarf trees are also a good option if you want small size tree in your yard.These tree are evergreen and beautiful too.

 

[897tgigvib]

Welcome to the forum honeybee

Try to remember your login info. It's nice having you here.

Lots of trees are naturally small. Too bad that crepe myrtle is not good in your zone. Often a good replacement for them are TREE LILACS. These are grafted lilacs. One of the appropriate lilacs are grafted up high on the stalk of a species of lilac such as syringa reticulata. From a distance tree lilac can have a similar landscape appearance as crepe myrtle. Lilacs will grow in warmer zones but they thrive in the colder zones with harsher weather, even the grafted tree forms.

A trip to several of your local nurseries will reveal what experience the folks working at them have to share. Locally owned nurseries are the best. The owners and the managers are great sources, but also listen to the persons working at these nurseries who do the watering and weeding. Often they are the ones who can tell you things such as one that seems easily damaged or another that grows well even if not well cared for. Often bosses don't bother with things like that, or only develop that info second hand.

 

[ducks4you]

I don't know which trees they are BUT I have heard that you should look for "understory" trees. They grow in the partial shade of bigger forest trees, so they never get really tall.

 

[897tgigvib]

Some good ones:

Flowering Quince; These can also be allowed to grow prostrate or all over the place. They make a brilliant true red early flower show!

Redbud; These come in a lot of varieties in several species. They do a mid spring flower show of an amazing shade of deep cherry or magenta shades of red. I think there are also white flowering versions. After, they have pods that hang on that are often a deep red slowly turning brown the following winter that slowly fall. Winter interest is the stems are purple or reddish in some varieties along with the pods, look nice in snow.

Japanese Maple; These are not the same as the large american Maples. Same Genus, different several species. They are very tame, much smaller, really nicely shaped. With these there are many varieties, almost as many as, you know, like Tomato varieties. There are folks who specialize in breeding and grafting these all around. There is at least one man in Santa Rosa California who breeds and grafts his own varieties. Then, nurseries get hold of some of the more versatile ones. Most are 10 foot trees with exotic shapes, like garden sized bonsai. All kinds of lacey patterns and leaf shapes, lots of colors and variegations, jeez, almost like coleus with the leaf colors these days, yellows, golds, reds, almost blacks, greens, in patterns, so cool.

Dogwoods; There are a lot of very different dogwoods available in different species of the same genus. From the north and northwest shrub named after lewis and clark that is tough as nails with small flowers that are not the main show at all. These have coppery stems that are stunning in the snow. To the western wild dogwood of around here that would be doable as a good challenge in zone 6, or even 5, mostly to keep them from budding out too early. They have showy offwhite flowers in late spring. 10 to 20 foot around here where they are wild. To the kinds they grow down south which would be too tender for zone 6.

 

[Smart Red]

Two more shorter trees are FRINGE TREE and POPCORN TREE. Both beautiful when in flower, both yellow fall color.

 

[thistlebloom]

I just got a fringe tree this year, and even though right now it's only a foot and a half tall it bloomed! It's rated for z4 (I'm pretty sure...)
so I'm hoping to see it around next spring.

 

[Smart Red]

I just got a fringe tree this year. It's rated for z4 (I'm pretty sure...)

The one we bought was rated for zone 5. We purchased a group of 5 different trees all hardy to zone 5. The fringe tree was one of them. Two of the trees failed to survive (and eventually thrive) in our yard. The ones that grew were fringe tree, tulip tree, queen of China tree. They did take a few years to acclimatize to our yard. but once they did, they took off and did great.

 

[thistlebloom]

I just got a fringe tree this year. It's rated for z4 (I'm pretty sure...)

The one we bought was rated for zone 5. We purchased a group of 5 different trees all hardy to zone 5. The fringe tree was one of them. Two of the trees failed to survive (and eventually thrive) in our yard. The ones that grew were fringe tree, tulip tree, queen of China tree. They did take a few years to acclimatize to our yard. but once they did, they took off and did great.

What kind of fringe tree is yours Red? Mine is the American type ( Chionanthus virginicus ). I checked the tag, yep, hardy to z4.
They put the Chinese Fringe tree at z5.

 

[Smart Red]

What kind of fringe tree is yours Red? Mine is the American type ( Chionanthus virginicus ). I checked the tag, yep, hardy to z4.
They put the Chinese Fringe tree at z5.

Wish I knew. The trees are probably 20 years old or more. We didn't even remember what kind of tree it was until it flowered.