These small trees can provide big-time, colorful charm for your North Texas landscapes

When a gardener hears the word “tree” it probably conjures up the image of a large, shrouding plant that fills its half of the landscape like a seven-piece sectional sofa fills a studio apartment. In other words, “Big!”

And, while it’s true that many of our favorite landscaping trees are indeed very large, others stay quite compact, eager to bring their magic to even the smallest of spaces.

I’ve brought six of my own personal favorite small trees to the party today, and I’d like to introduce each of them to you. Spend a little time getting to know them. You might be pleased with the outcome.

Redbuds

Growers have brought us oodles of choices in recent years. Gone are the days when we had only the old native eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) with its endless shades of pink blooms early each spring. Now we have grafted selections including the white-flowering form, also burgundy-leafed “Forest Pansy,” glossy-leafed and wine-flowering “Oklahoma,” a weeping type called “Traveler,” one with apricot-colored new growth called “Rising Sun,” and several others.

Standard types grow to 25 feet tall and wide, and they’re equally suited to sun or part sun. Variegated types are better with protection from afternoon sun. Keep them moist at all times until they are well established (usually the first 2-4 years).

Mexican plums

You grow this one for its fragrant white flowers in early spring, and for its rugged texture of the peeling bark. It does, however, produce fruit that ripens in the fall. It’s not a fruit you will eat fresh off the tree, but it makes delicious jelly.

Mexican plums are native to the wooded areas around North Central Texas. They’re always quite visible in early March when their bright white flowers stand out as the first flowering trees in nature. Birds love them for nesting and for the fruit. Bees love the flowers. Gardeners love it all.

Little Gem southern magnolias

Standard southern magnolias (Magnolia grandiflora) would be too large for almost any contemporary landscape. They grow to be 50-70 feet tall and 40-50 feet wide. Granted, that takes a while, but it does eventually happen.

If you have a smaller space, it’s best if you start with a smaller magnolia. Little Gem grows to be 30-35 feet tall and 20-25 feet wide. It’s evergreen, and it looks like the traditional magnolia except that it’s half the size in all respects: height, width, leaf and flower size. That makes it perfect for any full-sun garden as long as you promise to keep it moist and well fed.

If you don’t have even that much room, opt instead for a more compact form still, one that is known as Teddy Bear. Curiously, even though it only grows to 15 feet tall and 8-10 feet wide, Teddy Bear has normal-sized leaves and flowers.

Golden raintrees

It took me several weeks to find a golden raintree when we moved into our new house here in the DFW area 45 years ago. One nursery in Fort Worth had one tree. I bought that tree and it served me beautifully for 25 years until three native pecans grew up and over it, shading it to extinction.

Golden raintrees produce panicles of small, bright yellow blooms late each spring. The flowers are followed by papery brown fruiting structures that resemble small Chinese lanterns. The trees grow to 25 feet tall and wide, and every few years they bless you with attractive fall colors as well.

Golden raintrees (Koelreuteria paniculata) are not to be confused with Chinese flame trees (K. bipinnata), a species that is winter-hardy only to South Texas. Its flowers are followed by pink “lanterns” in fall.

Dogwoods

Native to East Texas, these would seem to be ideal choices for the Metroplex. But there’s a huge difference. Dogwoods require more iron than our local soils can provide. Iron becomes insoluble under alkaline conditions. Few soils are any more alkaline than our black clay gumbos.

The secret with dogwoods is to plant them into beds 8 or 10 feet wide and prepared 15 to 18 inches deep with almost pure organic matter. Sphagnum peat moss is the most acidic, although it’s also the most costly. In simple words, the bed prep will cost you more than the tree itself.

Dogwoods do best in morning sun and afternoon shade. If you’d like to include a few azaleas around them that would work well since you’ve done the proper bed preparation.

There are excellent improved varieties of grafted dogwoods on the market today. I’ve had a “Cloud 9” for more than 40 years and can recommend it highly. Many people also like the pink and rosy-red types.

Bloodgood Japanese maples

There are hundreds of varieties of Japanese maples in the market today. Most popular among them, however, is the burgundy-leafed type known as “Bloodgood.” It grows to 15 feet tall and wide in our area, doing best in full shade — certainly no afternoon sun in the summer. Its big selling point is that it holds its handsome color better through the summer than almost any other red Japanese maple.

Keep your Japanese maple moist at all times or you can expect to see marginal and tip burning of the leaves. They’re great in a shade perennial garden where you’re growing ferns, hostas, hellebores, oxalis, violets, summer phlox, ajuga and other shade-loving plants.

Finally, when you ask for one of these maples, be sure to call for a “Japanese” maple. “Red maples” are Acer rubrum, and their leaves are as green as grass. Japanese maples, including the red-leafed types, are the species Acer palmatum.

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 p.m. and on WBAP 820AM Sunday mornings 8-10 a.m. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.

This story was originally published March 4, 2022 at 5:30 AM.