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Small flowering trees add plenty of appeal to your property.
Weeping forms, fruits, and colorful autumn foliage contribute seasonal interest.
Many desirable types of small flowering tree include different species along with their cultivars.
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Here are 23 types of small flowering tree to consider for your yard and garden.
Tip
Small trees are often multi-stemmed, developing shrub-like growth.
Carolina Silverbell
Carolina silverbellis a spring-blooming tree native to the southern Appalachian mountains.
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Dark yellowish-green foliage turns bright yellow in autumn.
Flowers attract honeybees and brown, nut-like fruits are a favorite food for squirrels.
Carolina silverbell tolerates black walnut.
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Gray green foliage is palm shaped with fragrance similar to sage.
Chaste tree grows rapidly with multiple stems emerging from the soil in spring.
This rapid grower featuresyear-long interestwith peeling bark, a long blooming period in summer, and colorful autumn foliage.
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Crepe myrtles come in dozens of cultivars.
Flowers appear from late March to early April followed by medium green leaves.
Once established, this tree grows rapidly forming an open, rounded canopy.
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Significant pruning is required to promote flowering and maintain an attractive shape.
It draws bees and butterflies but plenty of insect pests, too.
Dwarf flowering almond is mildly toxic to animals.
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Bloom fragrance can be apple-like or spicy with single, double, semi-double, cupped, or fringed flowers.
Foliage is green to dark green or purple turning golden yellow, red, orange or bronze in autumn.
Small, tart berries remain in clusters on trees throughout winter, and are a food source for wildlife.
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These species are deciduous and include a number of spring-blooming cultivars.
Dogwoods are understory trees that grow taller shaded under the canopy of other trees.
Light green foliage darkens through summer turning reddish purple in autumn before falling.
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Summer fruits are berry-like and food for wildlife.
Fragrant, 3- to 6-inch flowers open from late July to early September.
Glossy, narrow leaves turn red, orange and purple in autumn.
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The Franklin tree is an outstanding specimen tree for small spaces.
Green leaves are 6 inches long turning to golden yellow in autumn.
Two trees are needed to produce blue-black berries for wildlife food.
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Several cultivars exist including the dwarfL.
All parts of golden chain tree are toxic to humans and animals.
English Hawthorn
Hundreds of trees and cultivars make up the hawthorngenus (Crataegus).
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Foliage emerges reddish-purple, turning to dark green with autumn colors displayed in orange, scarlet or purple.
Some cultivars are thornless and not all types produce berries.
Every part of the hawthorn tree is edible.
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Rapid growers, they put on a stunning, fragrant spring display lasting several weeks.
Attractive foliage turns brilliant shades of red, yellow, and orange in autumn.
Growth habit is graceful with green foliage spreading to form a rounded canopy.
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This plant offers year-long interest with egg shaped seed capsules in autumn along with scarlet orange foliage.
Clusters of black, blue-black, or red berries follow as a major food source for birds and wildlife.
Both flowers and berries are edible when cooked.
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Pruning is needed to maintain the attractive rounded crown.
Purpleleaf Plum
Purpleleaf plum treedelivers vibrant color to the spring garden with both leaves and blossoms.
Fragrant flowers appear mid-March to mid-April followed by edible red berries in late summer.
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Black or purple fruits follow in summer as an important food source for birds and other wildlife.
Upright growth and an oval shaped canopy give red buckeye plenty of versatility in the home landscape.
This tree attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.
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It’s tolerant of black walnut and attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.
Delicate white blooms cover these multi-stemmed trees in March and April.
Edible berries follow in June turning to red or black when ripe.
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Several cultivars exist, some with purple leaves.
Autumn foliage displays in purple, yellow and orange before shedding.
Often grown as a hedge, this plant is easily shaped into a small tree with an open canopy.
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Smoke tree blooms on old wood so wait to prune until flowers fall.
This tree is mildly toxic to humans.
Japanese Snowbell
Japanese snowbellblooms from May to June with waxy, bell-shaped, drooping flower clusters.
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Fragrant blossoms take center stage under dark green foliage held on the upper portion of branches.
Small gray-green berry-like fruits appear in summer, with foliage turning to red and yellow in autumn.
Japanese snowbell and its cultivars take on various shapes, including vase-like, rounded, and weeping.
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Salt tolerance makes this tree a good choice for coastal gardens.
Fragrant, spidery blooms appear along branches, lasting up to eight weeks.
Witch hazel can be grown as a shrub or pruned to tree shape with a rounded canopy.
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Witch hazel attracts honeybees.
The most beautiful small tree depends on your preferences.
The red buckeye is a beautiful tree for any temperate zone.
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Many other small flowering trees can be kept to a desired size with careful pruning.
Black Walnut Toxicity, Wisconsin Horticulture
Chaste Tree.
The Morton Arboretum
Prunus glandulosa.
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North Carolina State Extension
Laburnum anagyroides.
North Carolina State Extension
Safe and Poisonous Garden Plants.
University of California, Davis
Poisonous and Non-Poisonous Plants.
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North Carolina University Extension
Plum.ASPCA
