Recommend me a tree for my front garden

[sweetkitty]

I have a large front garden just laid to lawn, it's very boring and I would like to plant a "nice" tree. 6m from the house. Soil rubbish heavy clay.

What do you recommend?

How much sun will it get? Is it sheltered or exposed?

I'm a huge fan of japanese maples, sango-kaku is a particularly nice one imo, with interest all year round. Need a fairly shady and sheltered spot though.

Magnolia stellata is a lovely small tree which I've had doing well on rubbish clay soil, it flowers early in the year when it is most welcome.

If you have enough sun you could have a go with a fruit tree, a cherry for example will have lovely blossom in spring, fruit in summer and beautiful autumn colouring.

I could carry on like this indefinitely!

I would suggest one of three choices. Amerlankier lamarkii, Prunus suburtella 'Autumnalis', or Betula utilis jacquemontii.

The Amerlankier has beautiful blossom and lovely berries and won't get too big.
The Prunus flowers in the winter and is delicate and pretty
and the Betula doesn't flower but has fabulous bark.

Enjoy choosing

I had a flowering cherry "Okame" in my last garden, on a dwarf rootstock so it didn't get too big. It was absolutely beautiful, rich pink flowers in early spring, and humming with bees as not much else would be flowering at the time.

I'm thinking of pulling out the current rubbish weeping tree (that looks like a stupid blob when the leaves are out) in my new front garden, and planting an Okame in it's place. I miss my old one!

A dwarf conifer

A Medlar.

Get an eating apple tree then you can snack on them when you walk past!

Oh I was thinking of a cherry tree, very sunny spot especially in the afternoon/evening but quite exposed. I'm in Scotland so also very wet.

Can I hijack here? We'd like a small tree in front of the house (not a garden as in the op, but a strip about 1.5 - 2m deep across the width of the house). DH wants a mini magnolia, and there are a few around here, but I'm not sure if it might be too close to the house.
Any suggestions?

For the small strip against the house I would suggest an upright Ceanothus ( a shrub rather than a tree). Although It will need to be a sunny spot and not too exposed.

i love ceanothus, Silver - and we have a gorgeous one at the other end that comes up to my bedroom window! . Thanks for the suggestion, though.

You can keep magnolia stellata really quite small sweetkitty - it doesn't grow that fast and is easy to prune. A neighbour in my road has one that is kept below 1m.