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Ornamental trees
Hello folks, I'm after a few medium sized ornamental trees for a large back garden something unusual that would give good all year interest or look well at different times of the year. Anything around 15/20 metres tall. Would appreciate your suggestions. I have a cherry tree, birch, copper beech and type of sorbus. Something that flowers would be nice but not a necessity.
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Liquidambar for fabulous spring and autumn foliage and magnolia if your soil is right and you are not exposed to heavy spring frosts that will spoil the magnolia flowers.
Cercidiphyllum japonica smells of caramel at this time of year and has good autumn leaf colour.
How about the Snowdrop tree, Halesia monticola, early spring flowers and autumn colour? Then there's Cercis siliquastrum, unusual purple pink flowers on bare stems, or Styrax japonica, the Japanese snowbell which flowers in summer, good autumn colour. Or Prunus serrula for its gorgeous copper bark and spring flowers, or the Acers, griseum or davidii for differing bark effects and autumn colour. Parrotia persica, lots of lovely crab apples, some nice Hawthorns... what a lovely 'problem' to have!
For medium size flowering trees consider some of the alternative horse chestnuts.
Aesculus indica-elegant dark foliage and horse chesnut flowers in summer.
Aesculus flava - yellow buckeye yellow horse chesnut flowers in spring and lovely autumn colour.
Neither grows as large as the common horse chestnut.
If you in S.E England or east midlands there are the Catalpas, the Indian bean but also Catalpa speciosa and Catalpa x erubescens.
An easy to grow one is Manna ash, Fraxinus ornus - looks like a smalller common ash but has ornamental flowers in May.
Very nice but horse chestnuts are susceptible now to a pest that turns their leaves brown in summer so they'll never thrive and there's the fast spreading ash die-back disease that has arrived and is killing trees.
Any others would be appreciated
Thanks again