Just right: Find smaller trees for your yard

Trees are the "bones" of your garden and yard, and they can be a big help in your campaign for year-around interest. But oftentimes in the suburban yard it's best if they are not too large.

Important features of trees, which sometimes can grow multi-stemmed like a shrub, are flowers, leaves, shape and bark as well as size.

Area members of the plant industry recently learned about "Small Scale Trees with Big Impact" from Jeff Epping, director of horticulture at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wis.

While Epping loves trees with unexpected forms, such as the weeping katsuratree Pendulum, he warns that these should be used as a focal point like architecture or art. Too much tree diversity can be disconcerting.

Here are some of his favorites.

Maples

Do not overprune maples with thin bark, such as white tigress snakebark, because they don't heal well and this makes them more susceptible to infections.

Epping thinks Japanese maples should grow in our area, but they are susceptible to verticillium wilt, which is caused by fungi.

Emperor I, which grows to 15 feet tall, is the hardiest of the Japanese maples and holds its color very well. It does not like heat. Epping recommends planting it with an eastern or northern exposure to protect from afternoon sun.

White tigress snakebark maple has white stripes on its green bark and golden fall color. In the winter, its younger twigs are reddish or at least pink.

He would plant this tree, which can reach 30 feet tall, outside the kitchen window against a darker backdrop of perhaps arborvitae. And, you may want to upright it at night.

Pawpaw

Pawpaw grows 30 feet tall relatively quickly. Although it is native to territory just south of us and hardy in our region, the tree's large foliage presents a tropical look.

Epping raved about the taste of the fruit. But according to the University of Illinois Extension Web site, the tree produces shoots you will probably want to eliminate.

Birch

Create a woodland feel and lower your blood pressure with birches to wander among or sit under. All birches need cool areas and lots of water, and northern exposure is often recommended. They can reach the 30-foot range.

A birch called Whitespire Senior is rugged and resistant to borers, but Epping said his have been damaged by Japanese beetles. Be sure yours is one propagated by tissue or cutting, not seed.

Betula White Satin also is borer resistant.

Paper birch features the ever-popular exfoliating white bark and has some resistance.

Eastern redbud

Never fertilize cercis canadensis because the slower it grows to its approximately 25 feet, the stronger and more picturesque it will be.

Morton Joy's Pride blooms a nice pink color and is completely hardy.

Columbus Strain is one of the redbuds that can suffer ice damage as it gets older.

Pagoda dogwood

Cornus alternifolia is a native that often grows multiple stems. Epping recommends choosing new shoots and cutting out old ones. Pagoda dogwood, which grows to about 20 feet, is difficult to transplant and works well in shade, but not full sun.

Golden Shadows presents variegated yellow and green leaves.

Bachone or Gold Bullion with its gold leaves is very vigorous, and Epping likes to see it pop in the landscape.

Chinese kousa dogwood

Cornus kousa chinensis produce creamy blooms in the spring and grows 25 feet tall.

Choices like Golden Glory make great hedges with no shearing required.

Magnolias

The buds on Merrill loebner do not open all at once. So if there's a late frost, you won't lose all your flowers. The tree can reach about 25 feet.

Leonard Messel loebner is upright and wears nice silver bark. Expect this to grow to 20 feet or more.

Ornamental crabapple

If you don't have room for a crabapple tree, Epping recommends espaliering, which means training it to grow up the side of a fence or building. Europeans are better at taking advantage of vertical space, he said.

Red Peacock pairs great ornamental fruit and excellent disease resistance.

Sutyzam or Sugar Tyme bears in alternate years and is 15 to 18 feet tall. Epping likes its fall color, and says when it does have fruit it holds it until March so the cedar wax wings can have a spring snack.

Etc...

If your heart is set on a weeping willow, Epping recommends salix Golden Curls. It grows to 30 feet but is still smaller than the species, which makes pruning out the deadwood easier. And it glows in the winter sun.

Catalpa bignonioides Aurea or golden southern catalpa can be a drought-tolerant focal point in front of arborvitae or in the back of a perennial garden. Prized for its pinkish gold foliage, it grows 6 to 7 feet a year. In Madison, they cut back all but 4 inches of new growth.

Chionathus virginicus or white fringetree is a native large shrub or small tree. Both male and female trees are needed to create the fruit but not the beautiful flowers. It grows 10 to 12 feet tall and wide.

Cotinus obovatus or smoke tree - not smoke bush - grows 25 feet tall and white with flowers. It's the spent flowers that look like smoke. The tree is sensitive to verticillium, but not as sensitive as smoke bush.

Heptacodium miconiodes or seven son flower blooms creamy white in August or September when we need to see something flowering. Then red calyxes, which are modified leaves, decorate the tree. It also has peeling bark, and Epping finds them both drought tolerant and people magnets. It grows 15 to 20 feet tall.