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What do you all recommend for yard trees? I don't know the zone but it gets cold and snows a lot.
I just bought a house that has 3 gorgeous little blue spruce planted in a trio right close to the house. I hate to remove trees but I am going to take them out now while they are still only 8 feet tall and I can get them out without crushing the garage or ripping down the power lines.
I want something that won't get very big, doesn't spread or invade, or drop gooey sap or fruit. Slow growing is great. Flowering or fall foliage would be wonderful.
I'm considering dwarf flowering crab apple. But I'd love suggestions for something with good fall color.
I've got these cone shaped evergreens that don't get more than about 8 feet tall. I thought they were arborvitae but I am not finding pictures of them. Cone shaped with no trimming and the needles are tiny and radiate out from the branches, in case anyone can recognize what they are by the description. Those might work.
I've got these cone shaped evergreens that don't get more than about 8 feet tall. I thought they were arborvitae but I am not finding pictures of them. Cone shaped with no trimming and the needles are tiny and radiate out from the branches, in case anyone can recognize what they are by the description. Those might work.
Alberta spruce/dwarf Alberta spruce?
*Personally* I hate flowering crabapples. They are not a good quality plant.
You might want to consider vine maples. They're a fairly slow growing, multi trunked, understory tree. No flowers though. Or one of the very pretty varieties of Japanese maple.
White birch or river birch. They don't get horribly big like oak or maple. I don't know if they are goodf for Oregon. But leaves in fall a bright yellow.
Check out some garden/nursery stores, not big box stores that have a garden department.a good nursery /garden store may have more choices or can suggest or get you something else. I had my big ash trees removed by power company 15 years ago and they suggested to replant with trees that will not get over 30 ft. so I ended up with flowering crab, service berry, and two "trees" that are some form of Bush type plant that was made into a tree, I don't remember what it is but get glowing orange leave in fall. Yes I replaced two big trees with a mini tree forest, a bit crazy and husband hates mowing it.
Also, Japanese lilac trees are nice, but can be pricey.
Last edited by Izzie1213; 09-26-2017 at 07:14 PM..
North idaho. I looked up zone and got zone 5, zone 6, zone 7, depending upon what website.
Some more suggestions for your region - these are ornamental enough for a yard, they don't turn into giants, they aren't messy and I've seen them growing just north of you up across the BC border so they should do okay in your region too:
Cold hardy flowering dogwood, there are several varieties to choose from. Mountain ash tree has nicely shaped leaves and the orange berries will stay on the tree all winter to feed winter birds. Staghorn sumac has nice form and brilliant red autumn colours. Western red elderberry may do okay in your zone too, it has frothy sprays of white flowers and bright red clusters of small berries but the leaves only turn yellow in autumn, not red.
White birch or river birch. They don't get horribly big like oak or maple. I don't know if they are goodf for Oregon. But leaves in fall a bright yellow..............
I love birch trees. I had half a dozen paper bark birch and they were beautiful. Unfortunately my area of Oregon has some sort of horrible birch tree killing bug and a birch tree won't get very big before it is bleeding and dying.
These trees I am planning to buy are for North Idaho, not Oregon, but weather is similar so I suspect that if we don't have the bugs, they will get here eventually. Oregon has a lot of beetle kill pine that is pretty much out of control. I haven't seen it yet in idaho, but all it takes is one camper with a load of firewood brought from an infected area.
My new house has several older tall pine trees and they will be dosed in systemic so they are protected if the pine beetles do get here.
When I was a child, my family had a purple leaf flowering plum tree that was gorgeous. Huge clouds of pink flowers in the spring, lovely deep purple foliage. Survived some freezing weather.
I was thinking about one of those, but looked it up and they are considered to be invasive. Oops. I don't want anything invasive.
I suggest you flip to the back of a book called Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy. It goes through the country section by section and describes what trees will do best in your area. Crabapples are nice, but if you're looking for smallish trees that bear fruit, consider the pawpaw. (It's like a glacier banana, native to the US, pest- and disease-free.) I'm not sure if you're too far north for Carolina allspice but the fragrance is heavenly and the plants stay small. Smoke trees (Cotinus) stay small, are beautiful in bloom and they are also native, disease- and pest-free. So is the beautiful flowering Redbud or Judas Tree (Cercis Canadensis) -- very hardy and gorgeous when it flowers in spring.
It's the imported trees that keel over and die because they can't tolerate the conditions. Avoid Bradford pears at all costs. Not only are they short-lived, prone to dropping over sideways and destroying your living-room window, and poisonous to local wildlife, but they smell like feet when they're blooming.
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