A beautiful landscape has depth, movement, and colors that span the rainbow, but it can be difficult to decide where to begin when planning yours! Trees provide a great place to start, acting as a backdrop or focal point to build your landscaping around.
Taking into consideration everything from its mature size, flowering season, tree shape, and even the drawbacks each variety may have, here is a list of 18 tree varieties to make your landscape the envy of the neighborhood!
Things To Consider
While choosing varieties of trees for your landscape, you may find it difficult to take all the variables into consideration. A great place to start is by finding out what USDA Zone you are located in and then picking varieties that thrive in your zone.
Also take into consideration the overall space you will plant the tree in, sun exposure, any plants or objects that may obstruct its growth as it matures, and if it will cause any harm to existing plants in your landscape.
Take into consideration whether you are looking to plant for privacy, the tree’s growth habits, pruning needs, and whether it is deciduous or evergreen.
It is good to note that while most trees bloom in the spring, it is always wise to plant different varieties that will bloom at different times, providing continual color in your yard.
Be sure to consider the care some varieties will need. For example, certain varieties grow quickly and require pruning often while others will create fruit or leaves that can be difficult to maintain.
1. Maple
Known best for the vibrant shades of orange, red, and yellow their leaves turn in the autumn, the maple family has countless favorable characteristics. With over 130 different species in the family, some only reach 20 feet tall while many grow to be over 100 feet.
These trees are mainly deciduous, but some varieties keep their leaves in warmer climates year round.
- Mature height: 20 to 90 feet tall
- Mature width: 10 to 50 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 15 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 4 through 9
- Key features: Colorful autumn leaf drop, samara seed pods, broad-leaf and delicate leaf varieties
2. Crabapple
Mostly used as specimen trees in landscaping, this deciduous variety has a small stature and is great for areas that have low overhead clearance.
With a short flowering window of 10 to 12 days, its white and light pink blooms will prolifically flower and then grow small edible fruit. While it is a lovely tree, its fruit drops when ripe and can create a mess that isn’t easy to clean up.
- Mature height: 10 to 25 feet tall
- Mature width: 10 to 20 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 13 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 4 through 8
- Key features: Spring blooms, produces edible fruit, attracts birds, and is widely adapted
3. Birch
Mostly known for their white flaky bark and small serrated deep-green leaves, this family boasts more than 60 varieties. In the family, species offer strikingly different growth habits, leaf colors, and bark.
This tree can be a versatile asset to your garden that puts on a vibrant display of yellows, oranges, and reds in the autumn. Birch trees continue to bring texture to your yard after all the leaves drop with their unique bark.
- Mature height: Small varieties grow 8 to 10 feet tall while others will grow to be 50 to 70 feet tall.
- Mature width: Small varieties don’t exceed 10 feet wide, but a large tree will grow a canopy 40 to 60 feet wide.
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 2 through 6
- Key features: Colorful autumn leaf drop, distinctive bark, widely adapted
4. Serviceberry
Also commonly known as juneberry, these trees and shrubs offer something to see in your garden year round. Beautiful white flowers mature into small red or purple pome fruits.
With a strong habit to grow suckers from their roots, they will need continual pruning to keep them controlled. If you’re looking for privacy, their spreading habit is great at creating dense foliage.
- Mature height: 10 to 25 feet tall
- Mature width: 10 to 15 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 4 through 7
- Key features: Edible fruits, attracts birds, good privacy plant
5. Oak
With its ability to grow in almost every area of the continent, there is an oak tree for your yard! These trees have sprawling canopies that provide ample shade in the summer months.
The over 500 species of oak trees are divided into two categories- red oaks and white oaks, depending on their growth habits. Oak trees need ample room to grow because of their sprawling branches and root systems.
- Mature height: 50 to 70 feet tall
- Mature width: 30 to 50 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate to fast growth rate, on average 12 to 36 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 1 through 11
- Key features: Colorful autumn leaf drop, produces acorns, hardy, widely adapted
6. Eastern Redbud
This tree is a popular small landscaping tree that blooms in the spring with abundant pink flowers before the leaves form.
Throughout the spring and summer, the adolescent heart-shaped leaves change color as they mature and drop in all in an array of oranges, yellows, and reds come autumn.
With its bushing habit and small legumes, this tree requires consistent pruning and maintenance.
- Mature height: 20 to 30 feet tall
- Mature width: 25 to 35 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 6 through 9
- Key features: Spring bloom, legume pods, colorful autumn leaf drop, hardy, well adapted
7. Ornamental Cherry
Known around the world for their blossoms, the pink or white flowers overwhelm the branches of the tree from late March through April.
A few varieties will bloom year round, like the Autumn Flowering Cherry (Prunus subhirtella var. autumnalis). Some varieties will feature unique bark colors and drop burnt-orange, red, and yellow leaves during the fall.
- Mature height: 20 to 30 feet tall
- Mature width: 15 to 20 feet wide
- Growth rate: Fast growing, on average over 25 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 5 through 9
- Key features: Spring bloom, many varieties will emit an almond scent, attracts birds, low maintenance
8. Green Giant Arborvitae
Perfect for year-round privacy, these will grow tall and dense providing a deep-green backdrop to any landscape. Also great planted as stand-alone specimens, they have a neat conical shape that requires little pruning to maintain.
While it is a very hardy variety of trees, deer enjoy eating, it so it should not be planted if they inhabit the area.
- Mature height: 40 to 60 feet tall
- Mature width: 12 to 18 feet wide
- Growth rate: Fast growth rate, up to 36 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 5 through 8
- Key features: Evergreen privacy, low maintenance, hardy, well adapted
9. Sugar Maple
Exactly as its name suggests, the sap of this variety is known around the world as maple syrup. This tree is a great shade variety with its dense oval-shaped canopy.
Sugar maples are also known for their “helicopter” seed pods or samaras that fall in autumn. It grows best in full sun but can survive with as little as 4 hours of direct light a day.
- Mature height: 40 to 75 feet tall
- Mature width: 40 to 50 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 3 through 8
- Key features: Colorful autumn leaves, edible sap, shaggy bark, neat canopy shape
10. Blue Spruce
A well-shaped evergreen pine, this tree makes a great focal point planted alone, planted in rows to create privacy, or planted as windbreaks.
The most common, the Colorado Blue Spruce, is pyramid shaped, but other varieties grow rounded, weeping, and multi-stemmed. Its unique silvery blue-green needles handle drought well, but it prefers consistent water to thrive.
- Mature height: 60 feet tall
- Mature width: 20 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 3 through 7
- Key features: Drought tolerant, low maintenance, neat growth habit
11. Saucer Magnolia
This beautiful magnolia variety is a show-stopper in the spring! This is a small ornamental tree that has pinkish-white, pink, white, magenta, or purple flowers that seem to overwhelm its branches when they bloom.
This smaller tree makes a great focal point in your garden and is easily trained as a multi-stemmed bush or a single-stemmed tree.
- Mature height: 20 to 25 feet tall
- Mature width: 20 to 30 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 4 through 9
- Key features: Spring bloom, messy flower petals, neat growth habit
12. Dogwood
A great small tree for compact gardens, a dogwood will show its flowers before it forms leaves in the spring. White, pink, or yellow blossoms mature into crimson-colored berries.
The deep-green foliage turns a deep red and falls off in the autumn. They are beautiful specimen trees and should be grown in protected areas as they grow shallow root systems and can blow over easily.
- Mature height: 10 to 25 feet tall
- Mature width: 15 to 25 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate, about 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 5 through 9
- Key features: Spring bloom, bright autumn foliage, crimson red berries, compact shape
13. Rose of Sharon
As a member of the Hibiscus family, the rose of Sharon has enormous pink, purple, or white colored flowers that bloom in the spring and flower through fall or until the first frost.
This deciduous shrub is a drought-tolerant species, but it will thrive with ample watering. Planting it in full sun or partial shade will ensure it receives the correct amount of sunlight to grow at its best!
- Mature height: 8 to 10 feet tall
- Mature width: 6 to 8 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 5 through 9
- Key features: Large blooms, compact size, attracts pollinators
14. Eastern Red Cedar
Not actually a cedar tree at all, this juniper variety is the most widely distributed eastern conifer. In adolescence, the tree holds a neat pyramid shape, but as it matures, its shape varies. Pruning can help to create a uniform shape.
It grows well as a standalone specimen tree or among many to create a privacy hedge.
- Mature height: 40 to 50 feet tall
- Mature width: 10 to 20 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 2 through 9
- Key features: Resistant to drought, salt, extreme heat, and cold; widely adapted
15. Japanese Stewartia
A great small tree featuring exfoliating bark and delicate flowers that bloom in the late summer and fall. Its bark peels off in strips of red-orange, gray, and orange, and it blooms with white cup-shaped flowers that have distinctive yellow-orange anthers in the center.
Once the flowers drop in the fall, the leaves change from their deep green to red, burgundy, and orange.
- Mature height: 15 to 40 feet tall
- Mature width: 10 to 25 feet wide
- Growth rate: Slow growth rate, on average 12 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 5 through 8
- Key features: Low maintenance, colorful autumn leaf drop, distinctive bark
16. Smoke Tree
Normally growing as a small tree or shrub, the smoke tree offers a show of oval leaves in deep purple, green, and gold at different times throughout the seasons.
Its light, fluffy yellow and pink flower clusters that form in the summer give the appearance of a layer of smoke emanating from the center of its foliage. Being deer resistant, they make great border plantings for privacy as well.
- Mature height: 8 to 20 feet tall
- Mature width: 10 to 15 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, about 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 5 through 8
- Key features: Unique flower blossoms, deer resistant, privacy plants, drought tolerant
17. Crape Myrtle
A common ornamental tree, the crape myrtle is a deciduous species that will bloom with beautiful pink, red, purple, or white flowers for extended periods of time.
With its light beige bark that peels to reveal different hues of browns, it adds texture to your garden. Crape myrtles are great for small-location plantings because they don’t require much rooting space.
- Mature height: 15 to 25 feet tall
- Mature width: 6 to 15 feet wide
- Growth rate: Moderate growth rate, on average 12 to 24 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 6 through 9
- Key features: Drought tolerant, extended bloom, distinctive bark
18. Mimosa
A fast-growing tree that is considered invasive in North America, mimosa is widely adapted to almost any soil condition.
It has pink and white fluffy flowers that bloom in June and July maturing shortly after into brown bean pods that develop through the fall and winter.
Be aware that this fast-growing tree has brittle branches and can be susceptible to pests.
- Mature height: 25 to 35 feet tall
- Mature width: 25 to 30 feet wide
- Growth rate: Very fast growing, on average 36 inches per year
- USDA Zones: 6 through 9
- Key features: Unique fragrant flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies, fast growing
Conclusion
So many different trees with unique characteristics give plenty of exciting options to add to your landscape!
When well planned, you can have different varieties blooming through multiple seasons in a harmonious succession with lots of vibrant colors, textures, and contrasts. No matter what your landscape, the possibilities are endless!