advice on slender upright small tree please

[traviata]

Very small space available, but I need screening. Bare branches will be sufficient, just to break up the sightlines, so I'm looking at a deciduous tree.
I've already got a crab apple and an apple and a magnolia.

The soil is clay and this corner does get a bit soggy in winter, but I could mound plant.

I need a bare stem up to 7' tall (to access the shed) and a spread of max 4m. Total height 4-20m.

The chief thing is to have something slender and upright.
My shortlist is:

Amelanchier arborea Robin Hill
Prunus Sargentii Rancho Tree
Prunus subhirtella Autumnalis Rosea Cherry Tree

Any thoughts?

Sorbus cashmiriana

ooh - that could work - thank you

Also Robinia Frisia, which is stunning even in Winter with its twisted branches. There is a new variety called Casque Rouge.

Chanticleer ornamental pear? Fantastic blossom and autumn colour!

I was just going to say an Amelanchier Robin Hill! I had a similar thread to this recently and looked at LOADS of trees.

lovely lovely trees, thank you.

Arsey I will try to find your thread as well.

If you're really pushed for space, a columnar cherry is tremendously slender. Something like 'Amanagowa' would suit.

I should never have clicked on this thread. My plan for minimalism in the new garden is going to pot. My wish list is growing as my bank balance is shrinking.

holly, do those look nice in amongst other things? The photos I've seen of them look a bit severe when they're on their own I think, a bit totem-poley.

I love this Acer Palmatum Silhouette, and it doesn't grow too tall, but I'm not sure it would work for the OP as I wonder if it would look weird with the bottom branches removed.

arsey - I think they can look good in lines or in very tight spaces when they have nice planting around them. They do NOT look good marooned in the middle of a suburban lawn surrounded by nothing higher than those hideous brightly-coloured primulas, which unfortunately is how you often see them planted. I think the OP has more space, though, so I suspect you're right that something more spreading might work better!

Argh! I HATE lines of primulas and pansies.

Yes. And begonias. I bloody hate them. Weird alien looking things!

I also dislike dyed heathers in garish colours. And don't get me started on brightly coloured petunias. They are unspeakable! In fact, all carpet bedding can go to the devil. When I am the Evil Emperor, I will ban it all.

All that said, I'm also really bored of the same old, same old naice middle class plants. So many gardens have exactly the same things, it seems a shame.

My garden is a designer's nightmare, as I made it from scratch and kept changing my mind as I was going along. Not helped by an exposed location where not everything will grow.

So I have palms and fatsia in amongst buddleia and grasses. I have heuchera and a Tetrapanx Rex in with an apple tree and crocuses. (I hate crocuses, I don't know what I was thinking.) I have one Billy No Mates mahonia that looks like it's been dropped in from space and a bottle brush plant that sort of glares defensively at everything else.

I'm hoping that the million allium bulbs I planted will tie everything together along with a liberal scattering of verbena bonariensis. Then I think I'll just dig up anything that looks out of place.

I honestly didn't know why I didn't plan it better, but as a learner gardener I just sort of went for it and committed the cardinal sin of just buying one of each plant that I liked.

And at least it's not a rectangle of grass with pansies around the edge.

Oh, and two Echium Pininana who look like they've arrived in bondage gear at a church fete.

I LOVE the sound of your garden! I don't see why you shouldn't have all those things together AT ALL! It really can work. I am not at all big on the whole 'all plants from one region' thing - it's so restrictive, and such a shame to miss out on some stunning things just for the sake of some academic idea of consistency. You don't see it holding Beth Chatto back, so I darned well don't see why we shouldn't have carte blanche too! In fact, I think I've seen a lot of those things at Scampston Hall, which is Piet Oudolf. So there, convention!!

Oh, and your description of the Echiums is PERFECT. They are JUST like that. I have some coming into their third year, and I'm hoping for great things this summer (quite literally).

I agree with you ShovetheHolly. My pet hate too. Along with fuschia. When I said to the landscaper that I would not be planting up the garden for quite a while, he said, "you can always put some nice bedding in temporarily" I said nothing, which was very restrained of me.

Arsey your garden sounds somewhat like mine

I love the turn this thread has taken!

Oh you're making me feel so much better about it!

Sorry for the hijack OP.

hijack is very welcome, I'm loving the chat

Arsey your garden sounds fab - full of excitement and unexpectedness. I bet you've got some great combinations. Love the rude Echiums!

My own personal hate is bergenia (elephants' ears). I detest it, squat toady plant that it is.

I promise there won't be any bright primulas around my new tree! Most likely at the moment to be partnered by the Japanese anemones & white acanthus that need a home.

This is the year of planting what I buy & propagate. No more sodden or desiccated pots of impulse buys hanging around for months, or bulbs that I discover in their packets the following Christmas. Everything will be in the ground pronto (unless it's an actual seedling).

I am quite fond of fuchsia, actually, but you have to be careful. I've got a lively Lady Boothby that grows tall (some people call it a climber but it isn't really) with red/purple flowers, and I've put an orange rose next to it. As long as the fuchsia are a little bit wild I think they can look great. I'm thinking tropical rather than sedate bedding.

Oh, just realised what I have are not begonias, they actually are bergenias. Yep, they're a bit weird looking, not sure if I'm going to keep them, I was on a roll of 'what to buy if you like tropical looking plants but a bit of the garden has no sun or moisture.

X post with your one about fuschias. I don't have any, but really like them grown as trees, can't be arsed with the bush version.

Just to mention in case you're imagining my garden as some sort of Heligan meets Babylon, my whole garden is less than a year old, so everything is tiny, it's a random selection of plants with lots of bare soil!

"Heligan meets Babylon"

it's just a matter of time