What Makes A Good Small Tree?
Vibrant floral explosions, intoxicating fragrances, and landscape defining aesthetics. The remarkably hardy, yet delicately beautiful, trees on this list earn their keep by turning your sterile, urban yard, into a botanical experience.
Apple Tree (Flowering Crab)
My personal favourite; the timeless apple tree is a remarkable bang for your yard-space buck. With some of the longest lasting and robust floral displays giving way to astounding quantities of fruit. The generally higher maintenance required to keep an apple tree is well worth the investment.
Note: For cultivars chosen for fruit harvesting; edible apple trees do require a second tree to pollinate. Although some crabapple varieties are chosen specifically for their long lasting spring flowers, and won’t require a pollination buddy.
*Pictured is a Selkirk Flowering Crab
Canadian Service Berry
An often over looked tree choice; the Canadian Service Berry is a powerhouse in all of our ideal small tree criteria. Delicious fruit, hardy, and stunning floral displays, that come in even before the leaves, this yard companion is the gift that keeps on giving.
Amur Maple
A true staple when it comes to hardy, dwarf, Alberta yard trees; the Amur Maple is legendary for its blazing autumn foliage and nearly indestructible Alberta climate resilience.
Sutherland Caragana
A lateral growing variety of the long time favourite accent tree; the Sutherland Caragana adds a unique, almost dessert aesthetic, with its fine, textured foliage, beautiful yellow flowers, and glistening bronze bark.
A sure-fire conversation piece.
Japanese Tree Lilac
Certainly on the larger end of “small”, the Japanese Tree Lilac can reach a heigh of around 30′, making its breathtaking (thought short lived), floral display, an almost overwhelming spectacle of luxurious fragrance and colour.
