Your favourite trees

[TiddleTaddleTat]

Looking to plant one or two small to medium trees at the end of our garden. Will be clearing and landscaping first and then planting next Autumn/Winter. The space we are redoing is about 7mx6m.

I fancy one with an open shape, maybe decorative bark, flowers, possibly fruits or berries.

Would like to have dappled shade and gently screen for privacy from neighbours.

The site gets sun all day. We'd sit there in the evenings in summer. I'm keen on native and/or wildlife attracting plants.

Hit me with some suggestions please!

A willow 'Kilmarnock' is rather nice - this can be made into an attractive shape if you're that way inclined. It doesn't grow too tall or wide.

@MereDintofPandiculation useful info thanks. Do you have any idea about whether semi double flowers are good for pollinators?

We have a winter flowering cherry “Autumnalis rosea” arriving in a month to be planted, it has semi double flowers and one online description says it produces small fruit ... so hopefully would be good for bees etc too?

Amalanchier. I love them.

If you’re short on space but greedy for trees, how about...

Hedge on stilts - espalier. Choose a variety which you like ie a crab apple (fruit, blossom & autumn colour) and train. Flat, takes up little space.

Walk / step over - again, like espalier but lower down. Could be grown against a wall or freestanding. Choose your height- hip, knee, ankle ...

Fan train against a wall, or build semi permanent frames and eventually you can remove.

Umbrella- you end up with a permanent living pergola. Good for privacy.

Train as arches over a bench. Weave seasonal climbers through it.

Most of the training was used on fruit trees to get more trees in the plot and higher fruit yields but there no reason that other trees can’t be used.

Silver birch is my all time favourite, then beech and then oak.

@AuntyFungal thank you those are great ideas!! I will definitely look at training against a wall/fence or pergola. We are redoing a whole section of garden so can start from starch with structure, landscaping etc

In my fairly small London garden I planted a flowering cherry with light pink blooms and a tree called a red October which is currently turning red. Neither are too big.

@minipie When a flower goes double or semi double it usually does it by converting stamens (the pollen bearing organs) into petals. So for semi-double flowers it would depend how many stamens you have left, I presume.

I've never noticed fruits on my Prunus autumnalis "Rosea*. I've never regarded as being particularly wildlife friendly, but it is a lovely tree to have in late winter/early spring, especially on those rare days when you see the blossom against a blue sky. Round our way (Yorkshire) it's out a bit early even for the early bumblebees.

There is a moth which occurs in huge abundance on our native wild cherries. Don't know what it thinks of the winter flowering cherry.

Some of the willows are very good for early bees.

Thank you. Yes, of course, if the flowers are out over winter there aren’t going to be any bees around then 🤦‍♀️ silly me! Maybe not such a bee friendly choice then. We chose it to have some flowers in winter as there won’t be much else out in the garden then. We will have plenty of other bee friendly flowers so hopefully enough there.

Regarding AuntyFungal’s advice - we are intending to plant a fig tree in a very narrow space between a climbing frame and a wall! I guess we will need to clip the tree to the wall to start with and then prune it to encourage it upwards rather than outwards....Let’s see! We are also having a small tree (olive) in a pot on the terrace. Squeezing as much in as we can!

I’ve just planted an Amelanchier and a Cornus contraversa variegata. 2 acres and will probably plant a rowan Joseph rock. I think you get a lot of bang for your buck with a Rowan.

We planted a Rowan (Olympic flame variety) and Judas tree last winter. Both stunning, the Judas tree has the most amazing blossom in the spring (bright pink) and the Rowan goes a deep red in the autumn.