Best trees for pots to add height in a small garden

[Clangershome]

Hello all, please could anyone give some ideas on trees for pots. We have a small garden. We would like some height over some of the fences to the neighbours. Looking for nice bushy height. Any ideas welcome

A fruit tree might work, apple or plum or fig. We have a few in pots from when we moved house, still haven’t decided where to plant them! They will all do better planted in the ground though.

Acers do well in pots and can be bushy, but they're not fast growers - around 15-30cm a year. So you could buy them not far off your ultimately desired height, but it gets quite expensive.

Bamboo would do the trick but it must be in a pot otherwise it can become invasive and out of control.

Bear in mind only evergreens will give you year round privacy, deciduous trees will be bare for a lot of the year.

We have an olive tree in a huge pot - evergreen, likes a sheltered spot in sun, loves dry conditions of pots. Needs a little prune once a year before frosts start and grows little olives. Slow grower so get a big one.

We also have Chinese redbud (cercis chinensis) in a tub. It is stunning - definitely the showstopper in our garden. We do have that in a wooden tub and I suspect it has broken through the bottom and rooted in the soil as it is growing so successfully

Edit.
Misread the OP and missed the bit about pots.☹️

Thank you all!!!

Bumping this as I have the same question but for our front

Bumping this as I have the same question but for our front garden I’d to fill a spot on our front drive which gives me a really ugly view from the sofa!

It has to be in a large pit but anything with a bit of height, a pot friendly tree or a tall bushy shrub.

We sold our house with 0.5 acre garden and bought a cottage with a small paved courtyard eighteen months ago and - as the paving is firmly cemented in/we don't currently have time to kango it up - have been filling the space with huge pots.

Fortunately we already had a few potted trees that we brought with us - Gingko Biloba, Malus (crab apple) Profusion, Olive and Cornus Kousa China Girl (actually a shrub, but it's huge in a 1m diameter pot).

We've since added further pots containing - a columnar Amelanchier, Wisteria and an 8' Acer.

Everything is thriving (except the massive Ilex Crenata cloud tree that died during our first winter here).

We have several Photinia 'Red Robin' in pots - evergreen and lovely colour. Use the largest pots you can.

Would an oleander work? I was thinking of buying some for the same reason. I don’t really know how they grow but look pretty.

Malus, Acers, wisteria and fruit trees had a short flowering period and lose their leaves in Autumn so they won’t give you much privacy year round. Look for evergreens like bamboo, red robins, conifers and other trees in the same family.

How about eucalyptus? Fast growing and evergreen, needs keeping under control with pruning but a beautiful tree.

I have an oleander arriving today from the garden centre and I stupidly bought it without reading up on it. It's highly toxic to pets, and I have a cat and dog so I will need to be careful where I put it.

I've got a dwarf 'France bleu' eucalyptus. In fact I've got a gunii too - if you keep them in a pot and chop them back annually they can't cause root damage. Probably won't last more than a few years but I want them for the foliage and am happy to replace.

Keep an eye on your local FB garden page,I’ve rescued several trees in pots that way that are well established.

Standard Red robins, olive trees & eucalyptus , select several varieties of eucalyptus with varying leaf shapes, eg baby blue is a small growing variety, gunni a common variety that will
need pruning.

I have an oleander but it's in the garden and is now around10ft. high. My friend has one in a pot that probably about 6ft. high. It seems to be doing ok in the pot.

I have two Acers in pots, an Acer Garnet which is red and about 3ft. high and another green Acer, forget the name which is around the same.

Have had both for approximately five or six years. They are under a larger tree but looking down the garden they do give some height as they are now fully in leaf. In the winter they almost disappear as they are deciduous.

For quick cover and height you can consider some sort of structure for climbers. We have an arch thing in two huge pots with evergreen honeysuckle.

Birch Jacquemontii multi stem, we bought ours from mail order trees it’s in a large pot, or if you want evergreen a red robin.

Does it have to be a tree? I really like Forsythia for the vibrant yellow low maintenance, grows relatively quickly and good hardiness. Might be worth a look.

I also thought a forsythia 😊 thank you

I bought a small gunni recently but unfortunately I may have scuppered already as it feels very crispy and dry now 🤦🏼‍♀️ any advice?

I re-potted mine in these: The Fabric Pot Hydroponics Fabric... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079MBYF4H?ref=ppxpopmobapshare with compost and a bit of manure.

The France bleu is going mad, the gunii not so much but it's happy enough - foliage is nice and flexible.