Plenty of trees to add interest to your yard

By Bev Johnson | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, November 10, 2007

Now is the time of year the ornamental apple comes into its own again. The first time is in the spring when it is a virtual cloud of white or pink and now when the bare branches are covered with tiny red or yellow apples. It adds color to the otherwise bare branched landscape.

If you would like to add a crab tree to your landscape, but think you don't have the room, there are some new dwarf crabs available in the spring. Some to look for are Louisa, Tina, Lollipop and Candymint. A slightly larger crab that stays under 20 feet is Red Jewel. It blooms white and has red fruit that stays on the tree until the robins or cedar waxwings eat it in the late fall.

Another fruiting tree that the birds love is the Showy Mountain Ash. It is a small tree, about 20 feet tall. In the spring, it blooms in white umbrellas. These flowers turn to clumps of bright scarlet berries. They will stay on the tree until the birds clean them off.

Tatarian Maple called Hot Wings is another ornamental, 15 to 20 foot tree, known for its bright red seedpods that dangle from the tree in midsummer. This tree will grow most places, full to part shade and even in the alkaline soils. It could be a problem as it will seed freely like its cousin — the Amur Maple.

Then there are the Laurel and Hardy of trees. Laurel is the Crimson Spire Oak. While it will grow to 45 feet tall, it will only get about 15 feet wide. The leaves are dark blue-green in the summer and turn a bright red-purple in the fall. It may not be hardy past zone 3, but in a protected site, might do okay. It likes full sun and will tolerate drought.

The Hardy of the set is the Fox Valley River Birch, Little King. It is a short, round tree, more like a shrub than a true tree. Again, it is only listed to zone 4, but some landscapers feel it will be hardy here, too. It is resistant to the bronze birch borer. It, like other birches, likes moist acidic soil and cool roots. It is more tolerant than most birches to drought.

Another shrub that comes into its own in the fall and winter is the red twigged dogwood, a native that often grows near sloughs.

It has white blooms in the spring and dark berries that the birds strip off almost before you notice them.

Buckthorn is another small tree that shows up now. It is that small under story tree that still has green leaves now that every other tree is bare. If you have one, KILL IT. It is a very invasive tree. The seeds have a laxative in them. A bird will only go about 1/3 of a mile before he poops it out. It competes with our natives. It was imported for a nice, thorny hedge. They didn't study it long enough to learn about this nasty habit of spreading all over the neighborhood. Even the experts screw up.

Bev Johnson is a master gardener for West Otter Tail County.