Chinese fringetree leaf          

Editor's note: This is the eighth in a series of 10 articles written by Bob Polomski.

DATE: 4/25/06

WRITER: Bob Polomski, Extension consumer horticulturist (864) 656-2604; bplmsk@clemson.edu

Discover uncommon and underused trees for your home landscape

CLEMSON -- Landscape trees are a lot like apples. Everyone is familiar with ‘Red Delicious’, ‘Golden Delicious’, and ‘Granny Smith’ apples. Similarly, folks can spot flowering dogwood, Leyland cypress, and crapemyrtle. Recently, the “big three” have been joined by newer apple varieties that have become widely available, such as ‘Jonagold’, ‘Gala’, and ‘Braeburn’.

The same can’t be said about trees. Have you ever heard about ‘Spring Glow’ cornelian cherry dogwood, serviceberry, or Japanese snowbell? These are terrific small trees that you’ll find in public gardens and arboreta, or on college campuses, but not in every garden center or nursery.

Since there won’t be an American Idol TV show for uncommon and underused small trees, I thought I’d share my “top ten” list to give them a little much needed publicity.

All 10 of these small native and adapted trees share these features: They’ll reach a mature height of less than 30 feet; they’ll thrive in our state where they’ll offer us at least two seasons of interest; they’re not widely known; and they simply lack a good PR agent.

At the beginning of my list is ‘Spring Glow’ corneliancherry dogwood (Cornus mas ‘Spring Glow’), a winter-flowering tree that blooms from February to March just before forsythia. The flowers give rise to bright red, berrylike fruit and older trees develop interesting flaking bark for winter interest.

Next is serviceberry (Amelanchier species and hybrids), which includes a wide array of species and hybrids. Serviceberries bloom in the spring about the same time as cherries and pears. Their white flowers eventually give rise to juicy, edible purplish-black berries. The tree has attractive, smooth gray bark, but it’s the fall color that’s truly spectacular: shades of scarlet, orange, and apricot.

Another spring-flowering small tree is Chinese fringetree (Chionanthus retusus) which produces fragrant snow-white flowers at the ends of its branches in the spring. Later, female trees bear bluish-purple fruits. In the fall, the Chinese fringetree leaves turn a showy yellow.

In mid-spring Japanese Snowbell (Styrax japonicus) showcases gorgeous bell-shaped flowers that dangle from the undersides of its limbs. ‘Emerald Pagoda’ and ‘Pink Chimes’ are two terrific cultivars. Plant this tree over walkways where you can look up and admire the flowers. The grayish-brown bark on the trunk develops cinnamon-orange grooves with age.

For a shady, moist area, consider Japanese clethra (Clethra barbinervis). In midsummer it produces 4 to 6-inch long drooping clusters of fragrant, white flowers. The leaves change to shades of red and gold in the fall and the bark peels away to reveal polished grayish-brown to cinnamon-brown underneath.

The next four trees on my list are noted more for their stature and late season interest than their flowers. American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), also called ironwood or blue beech, is an underappreciated native tree that has gray, muscular bark and showy orange, red to yellow fall color.

Another native, Eastern hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), has orange or grayish brown shaggy bark and leaves that turn yellow or tan in the fall. Eastern hophornbeam produces brownish-green flowers in the summer that turn into dainty little nutlets that are food for wildlife.

Chinese pistache (Pistachia chinensis) is another multi-season interest tree with leaves that turn red, yellow, or orange in the fall; its orange, peeling bark looks great year-round.

Rounding out this list at number nine is Persian parrotia or ironwood (Parrotia persica). In the spring reddish purple leaves emerge and then turn dark green. In the fall, they turn brilliant shades of pumpkin-orange, red and yellow. The bark peels away to reveal a puzzlelike framework of silver-, green- and cinnamon-colored pieces.

Finally, the last tree on my top 10 list of underused and uncommon small trees could be considered the darkhorse of the bunch. It was discovered in 1907 in China, but seeds of this plant were not officially released until more than 70 years later when it was sent to the Arnold Arboretum in Boston and the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington. Still, seven son flower remains a novel, obscure plant. Similar to Japanese clethra, seven-son flower can be grown either as a multistemmed shrub or small tree. Seven son, by the way, refers to the number of individual flowers in each flower cluster. It’s not until mid- to late summer when seven-son flower comes into bloom, producing white fragrant flower clusters. As the flower fade, small fruits surrounded by rings of petal-like leaves develop and then turn bright red. Seven-son flower has attractive light brown bark that peels away in thin, curling strips to expose reddish-brown bark underneath.

I hope you’ll seek out these uncommon and underused landscape treasures. If you can’t find it, ask for it. You’ll be glad you did.

Funds for this project were provided by the urban and Community Forestry grant assistance program administered through the SC Forestry commission and funded by the USDA Forest Service and the SC Nursery & Landscape Association.

END

Special thanks to the following individuals who contributed their favorite small flowering trees to my "Top Ten" list:

James Arnold and John Bodiford, SC Botanical Garden, Clemson; Andy Cabe, Riverbanks Garden, Columbia; Jon Hanna, Horticulturist/Arborist, City of Clemson; Ted Stephens, Nurseries Caroliniana, Inc., North Augusta; Paul Thompson, Clemson Extension Service, Rock Hill; Jimmy Walters, SC Forestry Commission, Hodges.

Here's the rest of their favorite small landscape trees:

Trident maple (Acer buergerianum), paperbark maple (Acer griseum), Oliver's maple (Acer oliverianum), three-flower maple (Acer triflorum), red buckeye (Aesculus pavia),Fox Valley river birch (Betula nigra 'Little King'), Japanese hornbeam (Carpinus japonica), 'Avondale' Chinese Redbud (Cercis chinensis 'Avondale'), Empress of China evergreen Chinese dogwood (Cornus angustata 'Elsbry'), Mt. Emeievergreen dogwood (Cornus capitata subsp. emeiensissyn. Cornus omeiense), Magniflora Silverbell (Halesia diptera var. magniflora' [30-40 ft.]), longstalk holly (Ilex pedunculosa), Magnolia maudiaevar. platypetala, Oyama magnolia (Magnolia sieboldii), Japanese stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia), bigleaf snowbell (Styrax grandifolius), Chinese parasol storax (Melliodendron xylocarpum), and Japanese apricot (Prunus mume).