Ornamental trees are on the tips of every gardener’s tongue. These trees are known for their delicate and beautiful flowers. They are also known for being easy to grow and maintain. Ornamental trees tend to be small to medium tree varieties. Rarely you may stumble across a large ornamental tree variety, like the pear tree. Often utilised in Japanese and meditation gardens, ornamental varieties have a calming and tranquil effect.
They are perfect for an ordinary garden setting too. Ornamental trees flower densely with blankets of petals across the entire tree. Buy your garden trees with our ornamental trees for sale and enjoy FREE UK DELIVERY.
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Ornamental trees are flowering varieties that are grown for their beautiful appearance. They are perfect for small gardens and large settings, as mentioned. Every garden would benefit from planting a beautiful flowering ornamental cherry tree in Spring. Adding one or a few ornamental trees can add a structure to a garden. Check out our copper beech trees while you're here.
While providing shade for plants and wildlife where needed, planting ornamental trees can blend well with other plants and features year-round - like our magnolia trees. They are fantastic as backgrounds for shrubs and flower borders too.
Ornamental trees can completely transform the overall aesthetic of your garden space and provide interesting or unique focal points. They're particularly useful for drawing attention away from other parts of the garden, so if you have an area that isn't yet quite up to your standards, you can distract onlookers.
Our willow trees are perfect for this too.
Ornamental trees are eye-catching and blossom in different colours in Spring, Autumn and even Winter. How are you going to use your plant? Is it better as a stand-alone tree? Or as part of something bigger? They are versatile plants. If there isn't much else of note in the garden, choose an ornamental tree that stands out. Or one that has something unique about it.
While a specimen tree is great, it's good to plant them in small clumps together. This can build a new mini garden all on its own. Loose canopied varieties that allow sunshine throughout the day enable you to create a haven for plants below them. Shrubs and other garden perennials will be able to enjoy the light and shade through the canopy as the sun moves throughout the day.
There are a number of steps you can take to ensure your ornamental plants blossom.
Ensure they have adequate space to grow. This includes accommodating their root network. Remember that although unseen, roots are the vital heart of a plant and if you are planting a tree alongside others then you need to consider whether the roots will encroach on each other's space. Likewise, try not to plant near existing structures as they can damage the structure's foundations and harm the health of the tree. Climbing plants are more suited to growing against existing structures.
Understand when to prune and how to cut back the tree without damaging its health. Pruning should normally be done in the autumn at the tail end of its bloom and in the case of deciduous specimens, when it is just about to enter its dormant phase. If you need to cut back a tree, ask Gardener's dream about how much cut back the specific variety of tree can tolerate. Preventing your plant from getting too big is essential for small gardens.
Ensure you plant the tree in a location that is suitable for optimal growth. If a tree needs full sun and you plant it in part shade then it won't grow as well as it could do. If the soil needs to be well drained but that part of the garden retains water, you could soon find yourself dealing with root rot. Not every garden will suit all plant varieties!
Understand how climate affects your tree - most are also fussy about temperature (even if they like growing in full sun conditions). During hot or warmer seasons, you may need to adjust your watering regimen to ensure the tree has enough water. In colder months, especially autumn into winter, the tree may not be hardy or frost-tolerant, so try and plant it in an area of the garden where the ground is less likely to freeze.
Other things to consider when adding an ornamental tree to a garden include the size - does your garden have room to accommodate a tree? Will the tree fit in with the garden landscape? Picking the right location - making sure the soil is matched right with the tree. Is there enough sun or shade for it to live and grow?
Make sure that surface roots do not interfere with general gardening. Have an ornamental tree that doesn't require much upkeep, pruning or general maintenance. Luckily, there are lots of ornamental trees that require little attention. Some require watering during dry soil periods though. Flowers in Spring look their best on trees with some attention now and then. Others will put on spectacular foliage shows in the autumn.
Do you want a tree for Spring, Summer. Autumn, or Winter?
Check neighbouring gardens for inspiration
Check the height and spread and how quick the tree grows
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Planting your ornamental tree is easy. Plant by watering it well and at the depth of the root. Once bedded in, ornamentals require little pruning or watering. Just enjoy the colour change from spring through summer into autumn.
One of the key attractions of ornamental trees is that they provide a focal point within your garden. With evergreens, you have the added benefit of year-round colour - not just a foliage display in autumn.
They offer a fairly low maintenance solution as well, for those gardeners who like to do less work and more admiration because they don't drop their leaves each year.
Some of our favourite evergreen ornamentals are:
Cypress
Laurus nobilis
Holly
Scot's Pine
Cotoneaster
Evergreen ornamentals typically prefer to grow in moderate to warm climates which may seem counterintuitive as we are used to seeing a snowy tundra covered in evergreens. The truth is most evergreen trees don't like frost and prefer to grow in either a full sun or partial shade position.
They can also be pot grown and make excellent patio or decking plants. Here at Gardeners Dream, our best trees are supplied in a pot and delivered to your door with free delivery! This includes our magnificent laurel trees as well.
Most trees will also flower and produce berries, fruits or cones - giving them a stunning presentation when they are in bloom. They're fast growers and will mature in a short space of time, although you may need to be a bit proactive in cutting back a tree that is growing too quickly.
If you don't want to use this variety for an ornamental tree, they make a fantastic hedging solution, offering privacy and annual coverage. Young trees will establish quickly and in a few short years you can enjoy a mature hedge.
To discover more year-round green colour that won't fade in autumn, shop on our online store for pot-grown foliage at Gardener's Dream.
With evergreens, the fruit and berries produced are likely to not be edible and some are even toxic or poisonous (specially to pets like dogs). If you want a delicious delight to grow in your garden, a tree that produces fruit is your best bet.
Not only will you get a yummy reward for your efforts, but fruits add bursts of colour that you will find it hard to achieve with plants that don't produce fruit.
What's more, the range of colour provided by fruit is often very different to flowering plants which can add extra layers of colour complexity to your garden.
Our favourite ornamental fruit trees are:
Pear trees
Apple trees (including crab-apple trees - see below)
Plum and Damson trees
Cherry trees
All our picks grow natively in the UK, are supplied pot-grown, and will have no problem adjusting to most gardens. If you don't want to enjoy the fruits yourself then you can always leave it to ripen and fall as this will attract wildlife like birds, insects, and mammals.
For more ornamental trees that produce delicious edible fruits check out our online shop at Gardeners Dream, where all manner of trees and plants are sold.
There are various ornamental trees as mentioned. Small trees that are low maintenance to large white flowering trees that are the centrepiece of gardens. Trees with white flowers, flowering cherry trees, trees for pots and more. We even stock pot-grown conifers too, if you want something a little less foliage-showy in the autumn.
The trees listed below are some of our favourites that can be added to a garden.
The Japanese Maple is one of our favourite small tree variations. The maple is a great option to install in your garden. It can be added as a specimen tree or as part of a wider selection of plants and flowers, like our roses.
This type of tree adds a touch of class to a front garden. The Japanese Maple tree can be traced back to Japan, China, and Korea. The foliage is absolutely stunning, and the price isn't bad either!
We really like the Cornus kousa. One of the favourable points of planting this tree is that it can be grown in full sun, partial or shade. When Spring arrives, the Kousa blossoms white flowers on its branches and in late Summer, berries grow that can make the perfect wine. During Autumn, purple foliage will add the finishing touches to a lovely garden landscape.
Exfoliating bark will also add interest to the garden with this tree in Winter. The garden will be a nice place to spend time in with the white flowers that grow on this stunning specimen.
The crab apple is a popular type of plant for the garden as they are excellent for wildlife, harvests food, and looks pretty. The tree has eye catching flowers in Spring and red fruits in Summer. When the crab apple tree flowers in Spring, it will attract an abundance of wildlife to your garden, including insects such as bees and other species.
Planting crab apples allow you to enjoy cider, jams and jellies from the apples grown. This tree is fantastic for small gardens due to their compact size, small trunk, and short branches. Soil should be moist and well-drained when growing a Crab apple tree. It should be grown in full sun or partial shade, several metres from any nearby structures to prevent root damage.
The Flowering Cherry is a tree to add to a smaller space. It will add interest year-round due to its show-stopping colours. When Spring arrives, the flowering cherry will open to pink flowers that blossom on every branch.
As the bloom settles and fades, foliage grows into green by the Summer and an orange yellow by Autumn. The tree will grow 1-2 feet every year, making it grow into a wonderful stand-alone plant in your garden. The Flowering Cherry will blossom best in Spring will full sun.
Lilac ‘President Grevy’ is another example of an ornamental tree. Shrubs such as the Lilac have a range of flowers that will make your garden look fantastic. The variety of colours from the pink, purple or white flowers have a strong scent and can be shaped or cut as you wish. Lilac shrubs prefer sunny locations. Lilac species like soil that is well-drained. The smaller versions are perfect for small tree pots.
Tulip flowers spring to mind when we describe the Magnolia tree. It grows in a variety of colours such as magenta, white, and pink. The tree flowers in Spring won't blossom until the summer months.
They are also versatile, grown as shrubs and into large extravagant giants. (Double-check the size of the plant that you end up buying so it fits your garden). They are known to be grown as evergreens too.
When you create an account with Gardener's Dream you have access to our gardening experts for any advice you need. What's more, we offer our customers deals, discounts, and offers, so join by creating an account today.
When you join, you can track your orders and have complete confidence that any species supplied are hand-picked by our gardening experts to ensure you get the best quality products. We offer free delivery to any UK location too.
At Gardener's Dream, we offer a wide variety of beautiful species. Please find our selection below and don't forget to take a look at the other magnificent pot-grown varieties supplied through our online gardening shop!
From adding colour to borders to brightening up patios and balconies with our pot-grown pink flowers, you can find anything at Gardeners Dream. Even if this is the first time you've even heard of ornamental trees, we have the knowledge to help. Read more about each species on our website or reach out to ask a specific question!
Next, take a look at our wonderful varieties of:
Also, check out our other house plants, evergreen trees, large trees, hedging plants, garden plants, shrubs and fruit trees.
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