Even the smallest garden benefits from including at least one tree – if chosen well, they provide year-round colour and interest, benefit wildlife and can make a small garden seem bigger. There’s a host of beautiful trees that can be grown in a small garden, and some that will thrive in a container. Here, we share some of our favourite trees for small gardens. There are options to suit every garden style and trees that will provide fabulous autumn foliage, beautiful spring blossom and delicious fruit for you or vibrant berries for the birds. Our choices include recommendations from the Gardeners’ World team and familiar faces from across the gardening industry.
Find more planting inspiration:Few so-called small garden trees are actually small, but this mountain ash forms a near perfect lollipop never taller than 5m. Its pale pinnate leaves have a delicate fern-like quality, which set off the white spring flowers and even whiter hanging clusters of autumn fruits, a treat.
Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’ Chosen by Frances Tophill, Gardeners’ World presenterIn a small garden, you need something that will work hard for its space. With a hazel, like Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’, the flowers may not be traditional blossoms, but the catkins, really bring that feeling of joy as spring emerges, the purple leaves look lovely through the year, and in autumn (if you’re able to fit two) you get delicious cob nuts, and coppice wood to provide timber for pea sticks and structures.
Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ Chosen by Toby Buckland, Gardeners’ World presenterI love Japanese maples because they’re
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