6 Unsung Spring-Blooming Trees

Billowy blooms and rare fragrances will make you wonder how these flowering trees could ever have been underused in landscapes

Andrew KeysApril 17, 2012

I’m a writer, designer, and lifelong gardener. I'm also author of "Why Grow That When You Can Grow This?", a book due out from Timber Press in November 2012, and I host/produce a podcast and column called Garden Confidential at Fine Gardening Magazine. My company, Oakleaf Green, is a boutique landscape design firm specializing in planting design with primarily sustainable and native plants. Oakleaf Green is currently on hiatus while I wrap up a book, for Timber Press, due out in Fall 2012. In the meantime, you can find me here or on my blog, Garden Smackdown.

Flowering cherry, flowering crab apple, flowering plum: all spring-blooming trees you're bound to know and love. How can you not? I'd never be so callous as to diss these billowy, cheery signs of spring, but I'm always on the hunt for something ... well, different. You know? Cherry blossoms are great and all, but cherry trees also aren't right for every site, and if yours is one of those, a menagerie of other arboreal spring bloomers exists to choose from. Here are a few.

Pam Bycraft

Texas mountain laurel (Calia secundiflora or Sophora secundiflora, zones 8 to 10) is a familiar site in spring in the Lone Star State, but sadly not so much outside it — surprising, because blue-flowering trees are scarce. Another of its surprises is its fragrance, which some liken to fruit punch. Texas mountain laurel is evergreen, grows slowly enough that it won't overwhelm your other garden plants and prefers full sun. A true Texan, it weathers drought with no problem and grows to 15 feet tall and wide.

Great Design Plant: Texas Mountain Laurel

Who wouldn't love a tree with flowers like wild crimson firecrackers? Hummingbirds sure do. Red buckeye (Aesculus pavia, zones 4 to 8) is a native of the Southeast with spring flowers neither you nor the birds will soon forget. It tops out at 15 feet tall and wide, and grows well in full sun to part shade and in average to moist soil.

Photo by Magnus Manske via Wikimedia Commons

One tree you'll find on almost every list of underrated trees is shadblow (Amelanchier species — this one is Amelanchier x grandiflora, zones 4 to 9). Many species exist, and most you'll find at nurseries are also native to North America. Shadblow is a sure sign of spring in the Northeast, with billowy white flowers similar to those of flowering fruit trees, and it produces edible fruit as well. (Get it before the birds do.) On top of that, most shads have fabulous fall color, from red-purple to red-orange. Most grow to 25 feet tall and wide, though some may grow taller, and they prefer average to moist soil.

Photo by BlueCanoe via Wikimedia Commons

I have fond childhood memories of the native fringe tree, but I have to confess, I think the Chinese fringe tree (Chionanthus retusus, zones 5 to 9), is a better plant all around. It blooms bigger, brighter and more billowy, and its leaves are a cleaner, darker green. It adds great gold fall color, and it's an all-season showstopper. Chinese fringe adapts well to tough sites of all kinds, as long as they're not too droughty. It prefers full sun to part shade and reaches 20 feet in height and width.

Photo by Dalgial via Wikimedia Commons

Another graceful all-season star is fragrant snowbell (Styrax obassia, zones 5 to 8). You can see how it blooms in spring, but what you may not quite be able to tell is how gigantic this tree's leaves are. They're huge! It adds a surprisingly tropical presence for such a hardy tree, and its smooth, gray bark is beautiful as well. Fragrant snowbell thrives in average garden conditions in full sun to part shade, and it tops out at 30 feet tall and wide.

Photo by SB_Johnny via Wikimedia Commons

Finally, another native Southwestern stunner: Mexican buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa, zones 7 to 9), a drought-resistant little tree with flirty pink-purple flowers in spring and striking arrowhead-shape foliage throughout the growing season that turns a pretty yellow in fall. Its flowers remind me of tiny hibiscus, and it grows to 25 feet high and 8 feet wide. As its name suggests, its big seed pods are reminiscent of unrelated buckeye.

Photo by Stan Shebs Wikimedia Commons
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