My patio has petite black figs, a kumquat, and a bay laurel. These are all edibles (I'm a veggie gardener) and they are all fine in pots.

The kumquat looks like a typical citrus (but small all around) and the bay laurel is pretty. The fig is not pretty, but gives me figs. :) I think they'd all be prunable.

nicole:

First, "Zone 8b - 10b" is a HUGE spread in climates. It's also not very helpful to us to determine better what exactly would do best for you. Plus, it's the "USDA climate zoning" system and is not a good guideline for us in California.

If you don't have a Sunset Western Garden Book, do buy one. If you're on the "Central Coast", I'm assuming your'e somewhere between Monterey and Santa Barbara. In which case, you're in Sunset zone 15, 16 or 17 (from coolest/coldest to most mildly coastal).

My favorite tiny trees or large shrubs pruned as trees that would do well where you are include:

Tiny to Small Trees --

Eriobotrya deflexa BRONZE LOQUAT
Eucalyptus torquata CORAL GUM
Fortunella japonica KUMQUAT
Ilex x altaclarensis ÂWilsoni WILSON HOLLY
Michelia doltsopa MICHELIA
Pittosporum tenuifolium KOHUHU
Rhaphiolepis ÂMajestic Beauty M.B. INDIAN HAWTHORNE

Large Shrubs as Small Multi-trunked Trees --

Arbutus unedo STRAWBERRY TREE
Cotinus coggygria cultivars SMOKETREE
Escallonia x exoniensis ÂBalfouri ESCALLONIA
Escallonia laevis PINK ESCALLONIA
Fremontodendron FLANNEL BUSH
Leptospermum scoparium (large cultivars) NEW ZEALAND TEA TREE
Myrica californica PACIFIC WAX MYRTLE
Nerium oleander OLEANDER
Pittosporum crassifolium KARO
Rhaphiolepis ÂMajestic Beauty M.J. INDIAN HAWTHORNE
Viburnum suspensum SANDANKWA
Xylosma congestum SHINY XYLOSMA

Joe

Joe, that's a great list!

I wanted to mention that oleander is very, very toxic. If you have children, and they put a leaf in their mouths - they'll ned a trip to the emergency room. Pets can become ill from it, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: oleander

There are a number of common garden plants equally as toxic as oleander, so as often reiterated, it's just a good idea to teach kids never to put anything from the garden in their mouths unless they show it to an adult first. Okay, back to the real topic:

There are Japanese maples that love full sun. 'Emperor One' is a new variety that can take sunny windy conditions as well as it handles cool shade. Extremely vigorous and fast-growing, gorgeous purple-red leaves that will turn bright red if you get enough cold, which we seldom do in coastal areas. There's others, but this is the one of our five different JMaples that has impressed me the most.

I posted a similar question on this forum a couple of months ago. If you go to search and type in "your choice for drop dead gorgeous patio tree", you'll be able to see some of the great suggestions that were given to me.

Good luck!
Provence

I just posted a pic of this on another thread:

{{gwi:524779}}

It is cotinus coggygria (Royal Purple Smoke Tree) mentioned by gardenguru. It's just about to come into bloom, but it's beautiful as is. This little tree is a slow grower to about 15' and likes sun.

That is a beatiful tree... so is the art (table) you have there! I've done some research on all the trees listed and am actually taking my search on the road... the little nurseries within a few minutes of me don't have much to offer now. I appreciate the input from you all!!

Brugmansia is a lot of fun--fragrant in the evening, and grows super fast--rooted cutting to 10' in a year--and if you don't like it, not a lot of time invested. You can prune it to your heart's (and HOA's) content.