small tree recommendations for teeny London garden

[IDidntChoseThePondLife]

Hi there,
I have recently moved to quite a green part of London where a lot of my neighbours seem intent on cutting their trees down. I have seen quite a few sparrows around, and would love to provide a new tree for them and other birds.

I have a small garden 35ft long and about 20ft wide. it tapers off towards the end and is a strange sort of skewed triangular shape. At the end of the garden is the side wall of the house round the corner, and neighbour to the right has large leylandii trees (tops now lopped off) and to the left fig trees. I've linked to a previous thread I started about my garden when we first moved in so you can see plans.

I have planted 3x cotoneaster bushes and 2x pyracanthus for berries, and also nectar rich plants for bees and insects so hopefully there will be food for the birds in the winter.

I would love a birch tree but think the maximum height I should go would be 12 ft high and the ones I have seen grow taller than that. My next two choices would be either a hawthorn or a rowan as they are native trees and (I think) better for wildlife.

I really like cottage garden plants so wouldn't want anything that looked tropical.

Can you offer any suggestions/recommendations? Thanks in advance!

The go to trees for small gardens are usually the smaller ornamental cherries, rowan, or amelanchier.

Flagpole cherries are skinny, but I don't like them, I think they look like they're being strangled.

Not an answer, but my neighbours' bird feeding station attracts the birds.

Thanks both, yes GoatsInBoats i think a flagpole cherries would look a bit odd too, and would want something that looked a bit more natural.
I like the look of Sorbus rosea ‘Rosiness’ but not sure if pink berries would be as popular as red ones?
My neighbour has a bird feeder middleager which he keeps topped up, so I'm after more a 'destination' for them rather than just food source if you see what I mean!

What about a crab apple? They don't get too big, have beautiful blossom in the spring and birds eat the apples. Ours makes more than enough fruit for my friend to make jam and to leave some for the birds.

I've looked at your other thread, you can do a lot with that garden. There is a small(ish) sorbus called Autumn Spire which has really lovely orange berries. It only grows a metre wide, and although the description says 4-8 m high, I've seen one kept pruned to about 10 feet that is doing really well. You could plant it plonk in the middle of the bottom of your garden without losing ;any light.

I wouldn't plant a cherry unless you are very sure that the roots won't sucker - that's a real pain in a small garden.

I second the Amelanchia suggestion - the birds eat the buds off mine in the spring and the fruit in the autumn. You can buy them as a shrub or a small three - I'd recommend the shrub version and you can grow it as a small multistemmed tree which is happy to be pruned. You could plant one half way down on the right hand side and use it as the basis for a bird station.

You could also plant a small crab apple anywhere, or even in a pot.

Why not go for a pear or apple tree? On the right root stock the size would be managed. Birds and bees love them, and if you are lucky you get dessert. The squirrels and wasps ate my pears this year :( The parakeets had them last year!

Pleached trees are another approach to mange size. If you have an appropriate wall or fence then maybe a cherry trained as a fan? Or espalier apples and pears?

What about a mahonia? Can grow to around 4m tall, evergreen with pretty yellow flowers in winter and then berries.

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/popular/mahonia

Crabapple, Rowan, Damson, Ornamental pear
basically anything with rough bark, single flowers and fruit

I have a dwarf plum tree which is about 8 foot tall. It's lovely and the plums are great too!

We have a 15 ft or maybe 20 ft photinia on clay in Surrey. Allowed to grow into a tree rather than shrub.

Thanks all for your suggestions.
There a quite a few fruit trees near here which I can see from my window, and I never see any birds on them, so I thought I wouldn't bother with a fruit tree. They'll just make me feel guilty for not making jam.

I have thought of a mahonia TheSweetestHalleluja but I don't like the spikiness or the yellow really.

The leylandii next door used to be smothered in birds of all types, so I was quite sad when they cut them down, although I do understand why they did it - they were massive and rather overbearing!

Does anyone have a view on hawthorn trees? They are meant to sustain a huge amount of insect life, and the thorns might keep the cats off of the branches...

It is possible to grow birch trees in containers, which will restrict the height, if you want a silver birch.

Here are the RHS suggestions:

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=117

Cercis canadencis from the list has pink flowers in spring, followed by purple foliage that turns to orange. It could be a good focal point at the end of the garden. I'm not recommending gardening express but they have the best photos of it!

www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/cercis-canadencis-forest-pansy

Sorry, I see you want a native species/cottage garden feel/something good for wildlife. How about a twisted hazel?

www.rhs.org.uk/plants/97648/Corylus-avellana-Contorta/Details

What keeps cats out of trees is density ....
If you have a clipped holly, next to a clipped forsythia with a crab apple growing near them
you WILL get birds and insects

Thanks again everyone,
I have been thinking about a birch in a pot actually orangenasturtium that could be the way to go, and I haven't ruled out a crab apple ListeningQuietly. I am going to plant a holly in the front garden, and will definitely think of a forsythia too.

Thanks everyone! All of your replies are much appreciated.

There are lots of hawthorn hedges where I live, and they are brilliant for nature, they offer something all year round. Standalone hawthorn trees are lovely.

Hawthorn has needles- I doubt you will get cats in it and berries for the birds, blossom in the spring but would be short and wide rather than tall and thin like a birch

When my mum's friend dies, the people she worked for planted a tree in her memory outside their building in the grounds. It's pretty and has vibrant autumnal colours, it is also not very big (and it is 23 years old).

It is a paper bark maple. It does say here they grow to 30m, don't think hers is pruned but you could prune it to keep the size down, hers is definitely not much more than 4-5m tall www.deepdale-trees.co.uk/trees/2015/10-Acer-griseum.html

I've namechanged to something less pondy.
That's a beautiful tree ariela.
The problem is that my garden is small and tapers off, so I have to be careful not to fill the end of it with a massive tree canopy.
I love hawthorns but when I saw this pic thought it might overwhelm the space I have.
I have attached a pic of the garden as it is now, please bear in mind all of the plants are new this year (apart from the rose) so it all has a lot of growing to do. Also I would have made the beds bigger, but my DD insisted on having space for cartwheels.

having trouble getting my pic to load! Gah! will try again later on.

🤞🏻

Looking at your picture .....
In the middle a holly clipped tightly into a tower that you let get no taller than 6 feet.
To its left a pyracantha that you clip up to the level of the fence and then run riot
To its right a midland thorn (pink flowered hawthorn)
and in front of them
cerinthe, foxgloves, evening primroses and nicotiana sylvestris

that will get you birds, insects andif you are very lucky small mammals

keep the ivy on the left trimmed

Hawthorn is lovely - had one in the front garden growing up. You'll know when summer's arrived. "Ne'er cast a clout till May be out." May is haethorn's name.

Beech trees round us (central London) are full of birds.

If you want a birch then you can buy a weeping variety that won't grow so tall.

We have a pink sorbus, it is quite small and seems quite slow growing, it looks lovely at the moment but I am not sure the birds are so interested in it. We haven’t many birds at the moment anyway as they are all out on the fields feasting on the remains of the harvesting but they will be back soon. We also have at twisted hazel which the squirrels love, they take the nuts and bury them in the plant pots.