The first stage is deciding where the tree is going and why you want it there. This may seem obvious but unless you are clear about this from the start you are almost sure to end up disappointed. A tree will provide height and structure to your garden and with careful placement can provide privacy by blocking the view of overlooking windows or screen an unsightly building.
When choosing your tree bear in mind it will take up a significant part of the garden and is going to cast shade. Therefore think about how the sun moves around the garden and when the tree is going to block the sun and cast shade in the garden.
Once you’ve imagined how you and the tree are going to get along together in the garden it’s time to start considering the actual tree. A mature cedar is a magnificent specimen but in normal sized garden it’s never going to work; that said no tree will just grow to a particular size and just stop. Yes some will end up a lot smaller than others because of their genetics; but climate, soil and may other factors will influence how quickly they grow and how large they are after say 10 or 20 years. You also need to bear in mind that some trees have a lot longer period of interest than others (flowering cherries look lovely in flower but that may be only for a couple weeks and the rest of the year they can look rather drab). A lot of people are tempted by an evergreen tree but this will restrict your choices a lot, the shade is all year round when in winter you want all the natural light you can get, and you will still have the problem of clearing up the dead leaves as all trees lose their leaves, just evergreens do not lose them in one go at autumn.
There are many thousands of trees available and so I’ve made a list below of some suitable plants with their main attractions. That said this is a personal list and I’m sure other people would come up with other names, but I would hope there would be considerable overlap.
Lastly you cannot hope to walk into any nursery or garden centre and expect to find all of these, it would be impractical for many good reasons, but you should be able to find an example of a cultivar which is very close to it if you are prepared to look around. It is all well and good setting your heart on a particular plant put there is no guarantee any nursery will actually have any for sale. Be prepared to be a little bit flexible.
| Tree | Flowers | Foliage | Berries | Bark | Ever-green | Autumn Colour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acer campestre |  |
|||||
| Acer griseum | |
|
||||
| Acer pseudoplatanus ‘Brilliantissimum’ | |
|||||
| Betula pendula | |
|
||||
| Betula pendula ‘Laciniata’ | |
|
||||
| Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii | |
|
||||
| Crataegus laevigata ‘Paul’s Scarlet’ | |
|||||
| Eucalyptus gunnii | |
|||||
| Eucryphia x nymansensis ‘Nymansay’ | |
|||||
| Ilex aquifolium | |
|
||||
| Laburnum x watereri ‘Vossii’ | |
|||||
| Prunus ‘Amanogawa’ | |
|||||
| Prunus cerasifera ‘Nigra’ | |
|
||||
| Prunus ‘Cheal’s Weeping’ | |
|||||
| Prunus ‘Kanzan’ | |
|
||||
| Prunus pendula ‘Pendula Rubra’ | |
|||||
| Prunus serrula | |
|||||
| Prunus x blireana | |
|
||||
| Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis’ | |
|||||
| Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’ | |
|||||
| Rhus typhina | |
|
|
|
||
| Salix babylonica f. pekinensis ‘Tortuosa’ | |
|||||
| Sorbus aria ‘Lutescens’ | |
|
|
|||
| Sorbus aucuparia | |
|
||||
| Taxus baccata | |
|
