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Six flowering trees that add big impact

An easy way to fill your garden with flowers. - by Rachael Jones
  • 30 Sep 2020
Six flowering trees that add big impact

Want to make a big impact in spring? Grow one of these fabulous flowering trees!

Each covers itself in blossoms so thoroughly and creates such eye-appeal, your whole street will experience a seasonal lift.

Even if you grow nothing else, your garden will look as though it’s full of flowers. Best of all, you can enjoy this spectacle no matter where you live, because there are varieties suitable for tropical, temperate, or cooler areas.

Golden chain tree

These small, fairly erect trees put on a stupendous display of pendulous blossoms that look like wisteria flowers, only in golden yellow. These appear in early to midspring, along with the new leaves. There are a couple of types sold but Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’ has flower clusters that droop half a metre or more. Average garden soil will do as long as it drains well.

Facts

Size: 5–7m tall, erect at first, spreading with age

Habit: Deciduous

Aspect: Full sun

Climate: Needs a prolonged chilly winter – takes any frost level

Botanic name: Laburnum anagyroides; L. x watereri

Redbud

About September, the rosy-purple flowers appear along the branches of this lovely tree, well before the leaves get a look in. In nature, they’re often found in moist, rich soil along streams and they’re easy to grow in cooler areas as long as they don’t suffer prolonged dryness. There are at least three species available in Australia. All look good teamed with pink or white dogwoods.

Facts

Size: 6–10m tall with a similar spread

Habit: Deciduous

Aspect: Full sun or afternoon shade

Climate: Takes any frost

Botanic name: Cercis canadensis; C. siliquastrum; C. chinensis

Trumpet tree

There are many species in this big tropical genus, but in Australia we mostly see two: one with pink, the other with golden flowers. Both are remarkable, flowering in August or September on leafless branches. They are fastgrowing and start flowering when quite young. They’re at their magnificent best in Brisbane and areas north.

Facts

Size: 10–15m tall and wide

Habit: Deciduous

Aspect: Full sun

Climate: Winter minimums above 6°C, dryish winter, hot rainy summer

Botanic name: Tabebuia argentea; T. chrysantha

Dogwood

Very popular in southern highland areas, where the cold winters and warm to hot and humid summers suit it, the dogwood has to be one of the prettiest small trees you can grow. Flowers are white, pink or rosy red and the leaves turn a deep red in autumn before falling. Average, free-draining garden soil suits them, as long as you water them when the rain stays away, especially in summer.

Facts

Size: 5m tall but usually wider

Habit: Deciduous

Aspect: Full sun or with a few hours broken shade

Climate: Chilly winter, warm to hot summer, good rainfall

Botanic name: Cornus florida

Wisteria

Draped over a stout pergola, running along a house wall or even grown as a short-trunked, free-standing ‘tree’, the lovely wisteria never fails to attract gasps of admiration and desire in spring. It’s an easy plant to grow anywhere winters are at least cool, but it is a vigorous grower and does need at least annual pruning to keep it within bounds. Sweetly fragrant blue to lilac blossoms appear in early spring along with the new leaves.

Facts

Size: Very large but usually pruned

Habit: Deciduous

Aspect: Full sun

Climate: Takes any frost but also mild winters

Botanic name: Wisteria sinensis.

Flowering cherry

So lovely and popular in springtime, the flowering cherries have now been bred into dozens of different forms that mature into plants of various shapes and sizes, with flowers in pink or white. Weeping forms with strongly pendulous branches are most elegant and, because they grow on tall straight trunks (called standards), they are ideal for smaller spaces. Tree matures to a range of sizes, but all are magnificent in bloom.

Facts

Size: 3–10m tall depending on species and cultivar

Habit: Deciduous

Aspect: Full sun

Climate: Chilly to cold winter is essential

Botanic name: Prunus subhirtella; P. serrulata.

You may also like 

5 climbing plants perfect for your pergola 

7 old-fashioned flowering plants you need in your garden

8 best climbing plants in Australia

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