Small Trees for Small Gardens to Get Year-Round Interest

Every garden, however small, deserves a tree. Whether you want stunning blossoms, fruit for you (or the birds) to eat or evergreen leaves, find the perfect match for your small garden in this comprehensive guide.

I've often dreamed of lazing away summer days under the dappled shade of a giant apple tree. While such a grand tree is ambitious for my current garden, I am lucky enough to have a delightful number of trees in my small front garden, including silver birches, acers, a holly and a beautiful purple-flowering magnolia. Trees not only add height, shade and colour to your garden, they're also really beneficial for wildlife.

When growing trees in a small garden, it's important to consider the final height and spread of the tree, and plant it far enough away from your house and other structures so the roots don't interfere with the foundations. You also want to make sure your tree has the right growing conditions to thrive. To help you choose the right tree for your garden, you can use the filters on our website to search for garden trees by size, aspect and soil type.

Choosing a favourite tree is like choosing a favourite child – impossible! Any of the trees I've listed below would make a wonderful addition to your garden, but some will suit your specific space better than others. Which will you choose?

 

Top 5 trees for small gardens

If you only have space for one tree in your garden, you want something that shines throughout the year. It's always hard to choose favourites, but these five trees work hard to earn their place in a small garden, adding interest in at least three seasons of the year.

1. Malus × purpurea 'Neville Copeman'

Crab apple trees have so much to offer a small garden. They're a native British tree, brilliant for wildlife and drought-tolerant. Even better, they provide interest throughout all four seasons of the year. Crab apple fruits are sour, but they make a really good jelly due to the high levels of pectin and can be combined with other fruits (and sugar!) to make a tasty dessert.

Malus 'Neville Copeman' is a compact variety, with a maximum height and spread of around four metres. In spring, deep pink-purple flowers cover the tree, alongside purple foliage that matures to green through the summer. The orange-red apples are larger than on other varieties and last through the winter. Malus 'Neville Copeman' has a long flowering period for a crab apple, making it an excellent choice for spring pollinators. 

2. Salix 'Hakuro-Nishiki'

I have several of these in my garden, and they are stunning. Salix 'Hakuro-Nishiki' is a dwarf willow, topping out at around 2.5 metres, so you don't need to worry about destructive roots. You can grow it as either a shrub or standard form – I prefer the latter when growing it in borders, as you can underplant to add different layers to your bed.

Most people buy Salix 'Hakuro-Nishiki' for its unique pink-and-cream tipped foliage, but I really love it in winter, when its vibrant orange and red stems light up the garden, providing much-needed colour during the grey season.

3. Amelanchier × grandiflora 'Ballerina'

Much lauded by garden designers, amelanchiers (serviceberry) are another great option for year-round interest, with spring blossoms, summer berries and stunning autumn colour. Their canopy isn't too dense, which allows for flexible underplanting.

Amelanchier 'Ballerina' is an elegant shrub-like cultivar that grows up to four metres tall. The leaves start out coppery-bronze before maturing to a deep green. In autumn, the leaves turn a fantastic reddish purple. Masses of white flowers form in early spring, and are followed by purple-black berries in summer. Amelanchier 'Ballerina' is a multi-stemmed variety, and once the leaves have fallen in late autumn, the elegant branches add shape and structure to your garden over winter.

4. Acer 'Sango-Kaku'

It's hard to choose a "best" acer, as they all have such beautiful foliage, but Acer 'Sango-Kaku' offer something extra. When the leaves fall, they expose vibrant coral-pink stems, which add valuable structure and colour to your garden in winter. In spring, pinkish yellow leaves emerge, which mature to a lush green for the summer months. As the weather cools, the leaves turn a soft yellow, which contrasts beautifully with the red bark. 

Acer 'Sango-Kaku' is a slow-growing tree, so it's worth buying a larger pot size to add instant impact to your garden. Unlike many acers, it can tolerate full sun, as long as it's well watered and mulched, though it prefers partial shade.

5. Prunus 'Kojo-no-mai'

Flowering cherry trees herald the start of spring and are a truly welcome sight after a hard winter. Prunus 'Kojo-no-mai' is the perfect cherry tree for a small garden, as it grows to a maximum height of 2.5 metres. You can plant it in the ground or in a large container, and it's recommended by the RHS as being a hardy, resilient plant that's brilliant for early-season pollinators.

Prunus 'Kojo-no-mai' is one of the earliest trees to flower in spring. Its pink buds blossom in March, covering the wiry, zig-zag stems with a profusion of white and pale pink flowers. The green leaves follow the flowers and offer fantastic autumn colour when they turn red and orange later in the season.

 

Small trees for pots and patio gardens

You can grow many small trees in pots, which is ideal for very small gardens, patios and balconies. It's also a good option if you may be moving home and want to take the tree with you. To grow a tree successfully in a pot, choose a slow-growing tree, a dwarf variety or a tree that doesn't mind hard pruning.

The trees in our patio tree collection are specifically grown to thrive in pots. The "lollipop" shaped standard trees are perfect trees for front gardens, formal arrangements and to frame a doorway. You can buy patio tree versions of many shrubs and trees, including magnolias, hydrangeas and lilacs, meaning you can include these beautiful flowering plants in your garden, even if you don't have space for the full-sized versions.

Japanese maples are often well suited to pots, as they tend to be slow growing. Choose a compact variety, such as Acer 'Beni-Maiko' or Acer 'Taylor'. When selecting a fruit tree to grow in a pot, make sure you choose one that's been grown on a dwarf rootstock or a patio variety.

 

Evergreen trees for small gardens

Evergreen trees and shrubs are essential for winter colour and structure. While you want to avoid towering conifers or monkey puzzle trees, there are plenty of compact evergreen trees that are suitable for small gardens.

Holly (Ilex) works well in most styles of garden, and brightens up the winter months with its festive berries (though remember, you need both a male and female plant to produce berries). Some holly trees can get quite tall, so make sure you choose a cultivar that's suitable for your garden.

Yew trees are a great choice for small, formal gardens, as they're slow growing, don't mind being clipped hard, and will grow in almost any soil, in sun or shade. Juniperus 'Blue Arrow' is another excellent native conifer for small gardens; its elegant, slim shape and beautiful blue foliage make it a good choice for framing doorways or beds.

The strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) offers more interest than many evergreen trees. In late autumn, you get a wonderful display of both white flowers and orange-red fruit. Sadly, despite the name, the fruit doesn't taste like strawberries, but it will attract birds to your garden.

 

Small native British trees

Native trees are brilliant for wildlife and most offer colour and interest across multiple seasons. As they're used to our changeable weather, they tend to be hardy and easy to look after.

People often get confused between blackthorns and hawthorns, but in spring and autumn, it's easy to tell them apart. Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is one of the earliest trees to flower in spring, producing bright white flowers on bare branches. Their deep purple edible berries are commonly used to make sloe gin. Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) flowers appear in late spring, alongside the new leaves, and are followed by bright crimson haws in late summer. These berries often last through the winter, depending on how hungry the birds are!

The rowan tree (Sorbus aucuparia), also known as the mountain ash, is one of the best native trees you can plant in your garden. You often find older trees planted near houses to ward off evil spirits, but most people today plant them for their feathery leaves and bright red berries. Plant it alongside a crab apple tree (Malus sylvestris) and use the fruit of both to make rowan jelly!

Flowering trees for small gardens

Flowering trees, such as magnolias and cherries, are popular garden trees due to their spectacular spring flowers. The most impressive flowering cherry trees are quite large, but you can still get a beautiful display with smaller varieties. Prunus 'Pink Perfection' and Prunus 'Kiku-shidare-zakura' produce pink cherry blossoms, with the latter having a wonderful weeping shape that looks lovely even when bare. For white flowers, choose Prunus 'Kojo-no-mai' or Prunus × yedoensis 'Ivensii'.

Amelanchiers are a good alternative to cherry trees for small gardens, as their root system is more compact. You can enjoy white blossoms in springtime and brilliant autumn colour. Single-stemmed varieties work well as specimen trees and offer more space for underplanting, whereas multi-stemmed cultivars give a shrubby feel. Amelanchier lamarckii, Amelanchier canadensis and Amelanchier × grandiflora 'Ballerina' are popular varieties.

Magnolia trees are an excellent flowering tree for small gardens as they have a non-invasive root system (though I'd avoid planting any tree right next to your house). While they may fade into the background for most of the year, it's worth it for the wonderful spring flowers. Magnolia 'Susan' and Magnolia 'Nigra' are good choices if you want the classic goblet blooms in your small garden, but for very small gardens and pots, Magnolia stellata is a safer option.

 

Fruit trees for small gardens

There's nothing like picking your own fruit off the tree, and as long as you have a reasonably sunny spot, you can plant a fruit tree in any garden. Choosing the right rootstock is important, as this limits the height and spread of a mature tree. Patio or miniature fruit trees take up the least amount of space and are suitable for growing in pots. The fruits are the same size as on larger trees, and you can buy many popular varieties, such as Granny Smith apples and Victoria plums as patio trees.

You can also train fruit trees to grow in a more space saving manner. If you visit a walled garden, you're likely to see fan-trained and espalier trees, stepover trees, and perhaps even fruit trees trained in a vertical, columnar form. You can use the same techniques to grow fruit trees in your small garden. If you really want to maximise the amount of fruit you can pick, you can plant cordon trees close together to create a mini orchard or fruiting hedge.