It is a very pretty bed, however the first thing that comes to mind in the possibility that the utility people butcher the canopy (or ask that you trim) b/c interfering with utility lines. From the pics, it appears like they will be in the way, eventually. This is extreme but I cringe every time I see this gross alteration of tree canopy

Thanks guys, good to know about Rose of Sharon and will do some research on your suggestions. You can't tell in the pic but the utilities actually run behind the fence along the back on my neighbor's side. Shouldn't be too much of an issue for me.

Little Gem Magnolia, Purple Leaf Plum, and a small growing Crape Myrtle are all good candidates.

There are seedless varieties of Rose of Sharon, I'm told. It attracts hummingbirds and has huge flowers in late summer and early Fall, but leafs out so late it looks dead in the spring.

The right variety of magnolia or Japanese maple could work well. You have to be careful on the variety in Zone 5...not personally familiar with Emperor one way or another. Magnolia virginiana 'Jim Wilson' MOONGLOW?

Don't think Crepe Myrtle could be counted on to reliably survive Zone 5 winters. Ditto for Little Gem.

How tall are you looking to go?

American Persimmon are bigger then your other ideas. No flowers, but edible fruit and good fall color. I like their bark. Somewhat narrow habit, and shade tolerance to help them deal with the shade of the fence when young.

Just from playing with google...Liriodendron tulipifera 'Fastigiata'. Huge columnar flowering tree. (Taking you at your word about not caring about height.)

Quote "You can't tell in the pic but the utilities actually run behind the
fence along the back on my neighbor's side. Shouldn't be too much of an
issue for me."

Unless the power lines are at least 30 feet behind the fence, at some point in the future the tree and the power lines will meet. You may get by with less than 30 feet with some trees.

As for plantings you may try Miss Huff Verbena. It is a perennial plant that grows about 4 to 5" tall, as a bush.

http://www.plantdelights.com/Lantana-camara-Miss-Huff-for-sale/Buy-Miss-Huff-Hardy-Lantana/

For most of the summer (Raleigh NC) it is covered with small yellow and orange flowers. It gives you a change to learn about the birds, bees, and butterflies, as they love them.

If I were planting them I would put one in each of the middle nodes of the bed with a flowering tree in at the front (relative to the picture) if it is not too close to the house.

I spent too many hours last summer sitting in my patio chair taking pictures of butterflies and hummingbirds on the bush.

Please do you and your neighbors a huge favor and don't plant any trees that are going to get anywhere near the power lines. I have been dealing with that issue for the past several months trying to get the utility company to come out and take down a nearly dead black cherry tree that is hopelessly entangled in both the power lines and our service drop because someone at some point thought it would be a good idea to plant a couple of them right along the fence line. All of my neighbors have - or will have - the same issue because everyone did the same thing several decades ago.

Great advice across, thanks guys :)

I'll keep doing some research on your suggestions, but based on the points you are all bringing up I may opt for more shrub-like plantings and perhaps only one or two trees AWAY from that back corner where the lines are, following krnuttle's suggestion. That Miss Huff Verbena looks absolutely gorgeous, but unfortunately won't be hardy to my zone. Keeping in that spirit though, there are plenty of other bush varieties that have similar growth habits, i'm sure.

Jnavarro, I'm surprised your local line clearance contractor (for the power company) doesn't jump at the chance to remove a tree in the ROW. Around here, it's the quickest, easiest, and cheapest (free!) way to get a tree removed.

I'm surprised too. From what I've seen and heard around here, the typical case is that the power company comes in and just takes trees down and leaves homeowners in shock when they come home from work to see what has been done. In our case, it has taken several calls just to get someone out to look at the tree. They told us it was definitely a problem, and that they would schedule a crew to come out and take it down. Several months and numerous phone calls later, and we are "still on the list." I get that there are other trees that need to be pruned away from power lines, but if you saw this one you would think it would be a top priority.

I like your idea of some decorative evergreen conifers. Something blue, something greeen, maybe something yellow, maybe not.

Picea orientalis "skylands" is an attention getter. It MIGHT get too big someday and is a bit fussy to get established so depending I might pick similar but not skylands.

The idea if an evergreen seems right to me. I am always tempted by Metasequoia though. The "ogon" cultivar is more narrow than the species for me at least when young, it should grow a bit slower for you than me which is acceptable in tighter spaces and man does it get attention.

Honestly, I think a small evergreen conifer would present *MORE* of a problem then even a huge deciduous tree would. Deciduous trees lose their lower limbs...once they reach a certain height, they don't have much of a "footprint". Look at a 100 year old oak, and see how much ground space it takes up. You could plant a deciduous tree and have the limbs spread out above the fence. Many conical conifers keep their lower limbs and look stupid if limbed up. Also, few conifers that grow well in Massachusetts like shade, so growing next to a fence you can expect the back and the lower branches to end up looking ratty.

Ordinarily I'd suggest American Holly for this use, but I don't think it's reliably hardy in Zone 5. I would include Mountain Laurel.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for your input! I wanted to follow up with what I actually ended up planting in the bed:

Along the wide parts of the bed I planted a mock-orange (white flowers foreground), tamukeyama japanese maple, and in the back corner a sensation lilac. In the end I agree that shrubs would be more appropriate given the proximity to the fence and not wanting to have it interfere with the power lines or my neighbors. I also planted perennials along the beds including dwarf lupines, shasta dasies, bee balm, perennial grasses, delphiniums and a tree peony. I'm very happy with how it has turned out!

Thanks again!

Great job. Looks very nice.