Choose Outstanding Trees for Small Gardens that add beauty, color, and privacy without taking up too much space.
Even the tiniest garden can have space for a tree. You can choose trees for small gardens by picking a small potted Japanese maple or a beautiful magnolia—both will add charm to your garden. Trees are very useful in small spaces. They can give you shade on a sunny day, hide a view you don’t like, or make your garden feel more private.
When picking a tree for a small yard, think about how big it will get when fully grown. A small sapling may seem harmless at first, but it can turn into a huge tree that takes over your garden. It’s better to choose trees that stay small or grow slowly. Also, pick trees that look good in every season. In a small garden, trees need to offer flowers, interesting leaves, or nice shapes during spring, summer, fall, and even winter.
Dwarf trees are great choices. For example, instead of planting a large white spruce that can grow up to 25 metres tall, choose a dwarf Alberta spruce. It only grows up to about three metres, which is perfect for small spaces.
Small gardens often have room for trees that grow tall but not wide. Look for slim, upright trees like beech (‘Dawyck Purple’), hornbeam (‘Fastigiata’), or tulip tree (‘Fastigiatum’). These trees are narrow enough to fit in tight spaces but still add beauty and height to your garden.
Outstanding Trees for Small Gardens
1. Amur maple (Acer ginnala)
Zone 2
Size: 15 to 20 feet
The Amur Maple is a good tree for small gardens or big pots because it stays a manageable size and can handle cold weather. It also does well in cities. However, in some places, it can spread too much. It may take over forest areas and block sunlight from native plants in prairies.
2. Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas)
Zone 4
Size: 26 feet tall by 20 feet wide.
The Cornelian cherry grows well in any soil that drains properly, even in dry areas. It can handle heat and drought without problems. Once it’s settled in, you can prune it a lot, and it will still grow back from the base. It also makes a great hedge or can be shaped into a topiary tree.
3. Paperbark maple (Acer griseum)
Zone 6
Size: 23 feet tall and 16.5 feet wide.
The young Paperbark Maple is a beautiful tree with peeling bark and lovely autumn colors. It comes from central China. You can recognize it by its hand-shaped leaves and the pods it produces in the fall.
4. Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)
Zones 5 to 6
Size: From two to six metres tall.
Every garden looks better with a beautiful Japanese Maple. These trees are loved for their bright, colorful leaves that change with the seasons. We’ve picked the best small Japanese Maples for you—perfect for small gardens or for growing in pots on your patio. We have many options, so use the filters to help you find the right one.
5. Magnolia (Magnolia)
Zone 4
Size:
Magnolia stellata is a great choice for very small gardens. As the name says, it has star-shaped flowers with long, thin petals. This plant grows slowly and stays bushy, reaching about 3 metres (10 feet) tall.
6. Serviceberry (Amelanchier x grandiflora and A. laevis)
Zone 4
Size: Heights range from five to eight metres.
This plant can grow as a small tree or a shrub with many stems. If you want it to grow like a tree, you should cut off the shoots that grow from the roots to stop it from looking like a shrub. It has shallow roots, so adding mulch will help keep the soil moist and cool.
7. Siberian crab apple (Malus baccata ‘Columnaris’)
Zone 2
Size: 30 to 35 feet tall but only spreads 8 to 10 feet wide.
The Siberian crabapple is one of the many types of flowering crabapple trees. It is a deciduous tree with a much narrower shape than most crabapples. The flowers are very fragrant and about 1.5 inches across. They start as pink buds but turn white when they bloom. In the fall, the tree produces bright red or yellow fruits that birds love.
8. Variegated Japanese angelica tree (Aralia elata ‘Aureovariegata’)
Zone 5
Size: About four metres high by three and a half metres wide.
The angelica tree is a beautiful plant that makes a great addition to your garden. It is a large shrub that can grow up to 8 metres tall, but it also looks lovely if you keep it smaller. It has big, drooping, heart-shaped leaves. The ‘Aureovariegata’ variety has special leaves with light green centres and golden yellow edges. Its red stems make the leaves stand out and give the tree a soft, graceful look.
In late summer to early autumn, it blooms with small white flowers, followed by black fruits.
9. White cedar (Thuja occidentalis)
Zone 2 to 4, depending on the species
Size: 20-40 feet tall
The northern white-cedar is a shrub or small tree that can grow 20 to 40 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide. Its trunk is often twisted and usually splits into two or more main stems. The branches are short and mostly grow sideways, sometimes making thick, hard-to-pass areas because the dead branches stay stiff and don’t fall off easily.
The bark is gray to reddish-brown and peels off in long, narrow strips. Its leaves look like small scales, are green to yellowish-green, and grow flat.
10. Witch hazel (Hamamelis x intermedia)
Zone 5
Size: About six metres tall by three metres wide.
The Orange Witch Hazel, called Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Orange Beauty’, is a great shrub that brightens up winter gardens with its colorful and sweet-smelling flowers. The flowers have long, ribbon-like petals that are orange to yellow with a hint of red near the base, making them look orange from a distance. Lots of these crinkled, spider-shaped flowers grow on the bare branches of this vase-shaped shrub.
