Dwarf Flowering Trees – When you have a small space or garden, you need small trees. Flowering ornamental trees give your yard color, shade, and a place for wildlife to live. Dwarf trees are the best choice when there isn’t much room. Let’s look at a few small flowering trees you can add to your small yard.
Dwarf Flowering Trees
Let me tell you about eight small flowering trees that stay small on their own or can be trained to do so. These trees add splashes of color to the understory of bigger trees. They can also be grown as single plants in front yards and patio pots.
They look great in small yards or quiet spots in bigger landscapes. Not every tree is good for every small yard, but you can work with a local nursery to find the types that do best in your USDA hardiness zone, soil, and amount of water.
1. Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia species)
Crape myrtles are a group of about 50 plants that are native to India. They bloom brightly and reliably all summer long. They do well in hot, dry climates and have flowers on the ends of their stems for months at a time. These flowers are red, white, pink, or purple and add color to the landscape.
Crape myrtles can be less than a foot tall or more than 100 feet tall. You can grow them as individual plants, in pots, as hedges or screens, or as borders.
Crape myrtles have thick balls of fibrous roots, so they are usually safe to plant near sidewalks and buildings. They don’t have to be cut back in the fall to get more blooms in the spring, even though it’s true that more blooms come from new growth. When you prune this tree too much, you hurt the peeling bark that makes it so beautiful from late fall to late winter.
Crape myrtles can grow in USDA Hardiness Zones 7 through 9 where the summers are hot. Even partial shade makes it hard for flowers to grow. Crape myrtles require full sun.
2. Dwarf fruit trees (Citrus species)
Dwarf citrus trees are some of the most popular flowering trees in the world, and there are many things to love about them. Orange and lemon trees grown on a patio have leaves all year, flowers that smell great, and tasty fruit.
If you grow dwarf flowering citrus in pots, you don’t have to worry about the soil or the weather.
Here’s what you need to know to take care of dwarf citrus trees in pots:
Every day, all citrus trees need bright sun. In the winter, six hours of sun is fine, but in the summer, citrus trees need eight hours of sun every day.
Dwarf citrus trees also need soil that is rich in nutrients. Don’t use the dirt you dig up in your yard to plant trees in pots. Always use potting soil that has been improved with compost and coconut fiber, perlite, or vermiculite to help it drain.
The best places for growing lemons, oranges, and grapefruit outside are USDA Hardiness Zones 9 through 11. Kumquats are a good choice for Zone 8 of the USDA Hardiness Zone.
All citrus plants can be brought inside and put in a warm, sunny window for the winter. When they’re outside, they like full sun.
Keep your dwarf citrus plants to a height of 6 feet or less, if possible. Cut off any shoots that don’t have leaves.
Read more of our article on large flower pots for trees!
3. The Prairiefire flowering crabapple (Malus ‘Prairifire’)
There are some beautiful things about the apple tree, which is what it is. Every spring, it has blooms that are dark pink to red. The flowers on this tree stay on the tree for a very long time. Flowering prairiefire crabapple
The plant’s leaves then change color, making gardeners happy. In late spring, they are maroon or shiny red, in early summer they are dark green with reddish-purple veins, and in the fall they are bronze.
The Prairiefire flowering crabapple doesn’t grow up, but out. Its shape gets rounder as it gets older. The small, persistent, dark red to purple fruits are edible, but you may want to leave them on the tree to attract birds and other wildlife.
This tree can grow up to 20 feet tall, so you shouldn’t plant it near power lines. Leave 10 feet of space between the tree and your house’s foundation, sidewalks, or pavement. The USDA Hardiness Zones 3 through 8 are good places for the Prairiefire flowering crabapple.
4. The Purpleleaf Sand Cherry (Prunus x cisterna tree form)
Purpleleaf sand cherry is a very hardy, small flowering tree with pinkish-white flowers in early spring and purple leaves all summer long. It grows low enough that it is safe to grow under power lines, and its roots are not dangerous near sidewalks or pavement.
This small flowering tree is a cross between the sand plum (Prunus ceracifera), also called the myrobalan plum, and the sand cherry (Prunus pumila). It can grow into a bush or a small tree, depending on how long and warm the summers are where it is grown.
The fruits are very sour, but you can eat them. The tree lives for 15 to 20 years and grows to its full height of about 5 feet in places with short summers and 8 feet in places with longer summers. Sand cherry, purpleleaf
The pureleafed sand cherries you find in nurseries are grafted to certain rootstocks that determine their final height. This tree can handle cold in USDA Hardiness Zone 2, but it probably won’t make it through the summer in USDA Hardiness Zones 8 through 12.