Talking Trees with Davey Tree

Best Small Flowering Trees

March 25, 2021 The Davey Tree Expert Company Season 1 Episode 11
Talking Trees with Davey Tree
Best Small Flowering Trees
Show Notes Transcript

Chelsi Abbott, technical advisor for the Davey Institute, shares everything there is to know about small flowering trees, such as which ones she recommends for low maintenance and which ones you should stay away from. She also shares some advice for planting a tree this spring and how to make it thrive. 

In this episode we cover:

  • Flowering trees Chelsi recommends (1:08)
    • Kousa Dogwood (2:12)
    • Catalpa (4:03)
    • Japanese Lilac (6:20)
    • Partridge Pea (6:51)
      • Grafted trees (7:22)
    • Hydrangea (12:26)
    • Fringetree (13:37)
    • Redbud (14:40)
  • Rose of Sharon (8:18)
  • Trees that can cause trouble (9:17)
  • Mulberry (16:08)
  • Spring planting season (16:57)
    • Watering (18:37)
    • Mulching (19:49)
    • Fertilizing (21:38)
  • Chelsi's job as a technical advisor (22:57)

To find your local Davey office, check out our find a local office page to search by zip code.

To learn more about small trees for small spaces, read our blog, Best Dwarf Trees for Small Space Landscaping (Flowering and More).
To learn more about Dogwood trees, read our blog, Do I have a Flowering Dogwood Tree?

Connect with Davey Tree on social media:
Twitter: @DaveyTree
Facebook: @DaveyTree
Instagram: @daveytree
YouTube: The Davey Tree Expert Company
LinkedIn: The Davey Tree Expert Company

[music]

Doug Oster: Welcome to the Davey Tree Expert Company's podcast, Talking Trees. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Each episode showcases one of Davey's certified arborist sharing advice with everyone about caring for your trees and landscapes. We'll talk about everything from introduced pest, seasonal tree care, zero damage, how to make your trees thrive, and much, much more.

Tune in every Thursday to learn more, because here at the Talking Trees podcast, we know trees are the answer. We're joined this week by Chelsi Abbott. She's a technical advisor with the Davey Institute out of Chicago. I can't wait to talk about small flowering trees. I'm going to pick your brain about some of your favorites. Welcome to the show, Chelsi.

Chelsi Abbott: Well, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Doug: First off, when you say small, what does that mean when we're talking trees?

Chelsi: Well, that's going to be really dependent on each individual person. Some people might think shrub is a small tree, so something under 10 feet, and then some people might think anything under 30 feet is small.

Doug: When you're thinking small flowering trees, just start off, tell me a couple of your favorites in the landscape.

Chelsi: Okay. I have quite a few that I tend to like to recommend. We have to be careful because a lot of flowering trees have a lot of insect and disease issues. We're going to have to look at it from through that lens, too. That's why I select the ones that I did, is because they typically don't have lots of disease or insect problems. I do love a great cherry but they have a really bad disease called black knot that gets on them so I have to kick them off my list.

Doug: Let's just start right there because lots of people have cherries in their landscape and we do hear a lot about that black knot. I guess the first thing is, like you say, when you're recommending a tree, even though a cherry is beautiful, it can be a challenge to grow.

Chelsi: Yes. That's why I would recommend things like kousa dogwood, because it doesn't get the diseases that, say, a flowering dogwood would. Even though they're both dogwoods, one of them gets a pretty bad disease. You have to consider that.

Doug: I want to stop you right there with kousa dogwoods. I love kousa dogwoods. Tell me, have you had good luck with the variegated ones in the north?

Chelsi: No, not so much. A lot of the variegated ornamentals, they tend to dry out. The leaves get a little crispy, especially with the droughts that we've been having. I haven't seen them much of where I'm at. If I do see them, they don't look as nice as just the not variegated kousa dogwoods.

Doug: Let's just talk, explain to people what a kousa dogwood is because they might be thinking of our native dogwood, and this is a completely different plant. It blooms at a different time and the flowers look a little bit differently, but it has some other positives, too.

Chelsi: One of the also big difference, I would say, is the kousa dogwood has that beautiful raspberry-looking fruit. You get some nice late summer fall action as well, which sometimes you need to consider with your ornamental trees. One of the main differences between just your generic flowering dogwood and kousa dogwood is that kousa dogwood is resistant to a fungal pathogen that could really cause a lot of cankers.

There's not really much we can do about it other than prune it back. Just like with the cherry, flowering dogwoods are beautiful but if you have to constantly be keeping up the management and pruning back the limbs, then you're pruning back your flowers. You want the flowers on your tree, so you want something that can retain them.

Doug: What else is on your list?

Chelsi: It's interesting, because I also love a catalpa tree, but that's not a small tree at all.

Doug: I know it's not small, but in a way, it's an unusual tree. I had one in my backyard growing up. Just explain to people what they look like, and when you say the seed pod, they'll know what it is.

Chelsi: I will say that, just as a full disclosure, catalpas are among my favorite tree of all time because they really look interesting no matter what time of the year you're looking at them. They have really in like knobby bark that's very large and ridged and they get an interesting form to them. They have these gigantic heart-shaped leaves. They've got these big, beautiful bean pods that can fall and cause a mess. In the middle of summer, they form these beautiful white orchid-looking flowers that when they fall, the entire flower falls, not a petal. You get all these orchids just essentially dotting the landscape below. I think it's the most dramatic tree, but it is really beautiful.

Doug: I'm wondering, is it one you grew up with or one that you discovered when you got into trees?

Chelsi: I'm actually originally from Ontario in Canada and there's a lot there that line the highways, to be honest. They're like a weird, almost weed tree. They didn't get a lot of love from me growing up because most people found them to be a nuisance. Then when I moved to Chicago, I happened to be walking through Oz Park, where there's this catalpa grove, and I just had to happen to hit it right at the time when those orchids were falling down. It was just a magical moment. I was like, "I didn't know these trees were so beautiful." It's something I came to like in the game.

Doug: Chelsi, we only got to our second tree and we're already to a big one. I thought it would take at least five trees to kill this bigger.

Chelsi: No, go big or go home. [laughs]

Doug: Okay. What else would you recommend when we're talking small flowering trees? Then I have a lot of other questions for you about planting and caring for them.

Chelsi: Another one that I'll recommend is the Japanese lilac. It has very beautiful fluorescence. It almost looks like feathers and it blooms a little bit later than your typical ornamental. You can get that if you want to stagger your bloom times with your tree. Then some people don't prefer the smell. I think it smells a little bit like honey. It's quite sweet. For me, it's quite pleasant, although for some people it can be maybe too perfume-y.

Another one that's a really cool kind of tree is a partridge pea. If you can get it in a grafted form, you can actually have it where it sits up a little bit higher, and that just has a really cool look to it just because it's just very different. You don't see them very often. I tend to go for some of those trees that I would say are not overly planted because then you have a better chance of not having a insect or disease come through and wipe them out.

Doug: Tell me about that tree, because I don't know anything about it.

Chelsi: They're not super common. A partridge pea typically is more of a shrub. Like a lot of other ornamental, actually almost most ornamental flowering trees, they can graph them so that you can lift them up off the ground a little bit. Grafting is essentially where you take one species grafted with another species of the same kind, so it's just cultivars, essentially. You can actually graft it so that it comes up and then it weeps down.

It has these beautiful yellow flowers. The leaves, if you're familiar with the honey locust or a black locust, very similar look of the leaves but it's much smaller. It's like a conversation plant, I like to call it, because most people will pass it and they'll ask you what is that? In the winter, it looks a little bit knobby and Halloween-y, but it really has some nice foliage and some nice flowers to it.

Doug: Okay. Now, most people hate rose of Sharon. From your standpoint, if I found one that was sterile and pretty, can I get away with it from your standpoint of being a tree person?

Chelsi: Yes. I personally don't have any issue with rose of Sharon. They can look a little interesting in the winter. I like that visual interest that lasts throughout the year. It might be a little bit messy for some people. As far as insect and disease issues, they don't really have much to go off of. Again, I usually come at it from that view, because I want a plant that looks beautiful and doesn't require too much maintenance. It still needs a little bit to shape it, but it's not going to get, say, apple scab or fire blight or some of these other problems.

Doug: That leads me to where I want to go next is are there some other things out there that you see people planting a lot of that you know are going to be trouble for them? [chuckles]

Chelsi: Oh yes, [chuckles] big time. We already mentioned cherries. Plums, unfortunately, fall into that category as well. Same problem, black knot. Crab apples. Crab apples are the big one. They are gorgeous. I love them. They're just so beautiful, but they get fungal diseases and bacterial diseases like you wouldn't imagine, and they become so much work. That beauty is dependent upon you applying chemicals in order to keep them healthy.

Doug: I have a crab apple that I inherited when I moved into this house 22 years ago, and the guys from Davey actually had to save it because a pine tree fell on it and they're saying this, they're just like, "Come on, Doug. You know what trouble this tree is." I said, "I know, but it was here when I got here and I can see it right out the window when I'm doing the dishes and when it's blooming." They were able to save it. It's in about its second year of coming back and it's starting to get a little bit of form, but I know what you mean. Especially on a wet year, it's going to lose its leaves.

Chelsi: Yes. It's going to look terrible. Then a pear tree is also another one, gets pretty bad bacterial blight and also some certain pears are invasive, so we have to watch out for that. Then the other one that I can think of that people plant a lot, we went with our crab apple, then we went pear tree, magnolias also, they have insect issues. Particularly now that we have the hotter and drier summers that we're getting often, that really boosts insect problems. Magnolia gets a scale that can be at times impossible to manage. It's not only bad for the tree, but the scale itself produces a honeydew, which can actually ruin anything below that tree, so it's like a sticky substance.

Doug: Let's say, Chelsi, in my landscape, I have a crab apple, a cherry, a magnolia, I guess the rose of Sharon's the only thing that [unintelligible 00:11:38]

Chelsi: You've got the trifecta of our no-no plans. [laughs]

Doug: Is there anything else you were thinking of as an idea to grow something a little different?

Chelsi: Yes. Other than the insect and the disease, I think also having something different that other people don't, it really adds a variety, different types of texture to your landscape and lets you stand out. A lot of times when I recommend these different types of flowering trees and shrubs, people at first are hesitant because it's not something that they've frequently seen, but after we plant it, it becomes their favorite because the only place you can see it is your property. It's not something you can just walk around your suburb and find your crab apples everywhere. [chuckles]

Doug: Anything else on your list before we start talking about planting and taking care of them?

Chelsi: I'll have to give a shoutout and this one is 100% a childhood plant, is a hydrangea but a hydrangea that's been grafted to be a hydrangea tree. I just love them. The snowball flowers, they're great for the bees if a lot of other pollinators will visit. They can come in a variety of colors. I don't see them as often as I think I should but yes, that's a cool one. Then I will say fringe tree as well. That's another out there one that I wish I saw more of.

Doug: All right. I'm going to go back to the hydrangea. What is your connection with the hydrangea tree?

Chelsi: It was a tree that was planted in the front yard of my childhood home and it was actually very next to our mulberry tree and so [chuckles] we had this just so many bees and so many butterflies and you could just sit there and just watch all the different pollinators. I think I saw a hummingbird at one point or just hovering around. Yes, as a kid, it was just gigantic flowers mixed with pollinators. It was very fun to watch.

Doug: Tell me a little bit about a fringe tree, because that one again is one that's definitely unusual for the landscape, but as you said, you put a fringe tree in, boy.

Chelsi: People will ask, yes. One of the things, I love fringe trees. I think I've really only seen maybe three or four in my years of walking around properties. Like you said, whenever you see one is, you have to stop because the flower, it's hard to describe. They're almost like they're not-- They don't really have petals in the sense that you would think of them.

They're almost more like little strings hanging down, but when it is in bloom, it's almost like a smoke tree or smoke bush where it's almost very feathery, but you can see through, so it's extremely delicate-looking. The leaves themselves are really cool, too. When the blooms do fall off, you still have a lot of visual interest. It's a smaller tree, so it fits in a lot of places like a crab apple or a serviceberry might fit into. Oh, I also just remembered another one, a redbud.

Doug: Oh, okay. Tell people about redbuds because early in the spring, we get lots of questions about what is that beautiful pink blooming tree? Tell everybody about a redbud.

Chelsi: Absolutely. Okay. Redbuds are super cool because the blooms are actually on the actual stems and so they'll coat the entire-- It's almost like this trunk and the stems. The best part about redbud, in my opinion, is one, the flowers are magenta. They are so bright, insanely bright. It is at that time of year where everything is still dormant so early that when it rains, the redbud bark turns black and that magenta pops even more like it's unbelievable at some stances.

I know it's one of the ones that I will recommend, but I'm hesitant to because it is starting to get planted a little bit too much that when you plant something that's becoming a monoculture, you have to watch out for a disease or insect, which I haven't had any so far, but just like with anything, you watch more and more of it getting planted, you get a little nervous, because you're like, "Oh, something could come through."

Doug: It depends on what part of the country you're in, but a lot of times when you're driving around certain parts of the country during redbud season, I know exactly what you mean. There are more than there should be, but you did open the door to one of the tree I have to ask about, and it's not a small tree, the mulberry.

Chelsi: [laughs] Yes, mulberry. This is another one that's there's a childhood connection. I love mulberry trees, but they're more considered to be weedy trees. They create a little bit of a mess when those berries fall. They are interesting, I think mostly because you can't really kill them. [chuckles] A lot of these "weedy trees" like catalpas and mulberries, they get that name because they really could grow in any kind of situation but the look is not for everybody, that's for sure. They do have a bit of a messy look to them so they're not as manicured as some of the other flowering plants that we're talking about.

Doug: We're moving into a spring planting season. I've always been taught that you plant your trees in the fall, but you can't always do it that way. You get something in the fall, spring comes and you want to add something to the landscape. Talk a little bit about, is there anything special we should be doing once we get to a season where we can start digging?

Chelsi: Yes. The fall or the spring, it is generally accepted that fall is better, but it's not that spring it's terrible. You can still plant anything in the spring. You just have to be a little bit more cautious about freezes right after planting and then the drought that could follow with the summer. With any plant, not even just flowering trees, if you're going to put it into the landscape, the main thing is really trying to make sure that it recovers from the shock of being planted because lots of trees, they'll actually lose about 90% of the root system when they move from the nursery into your landscape, so water is key. Be careful, don't overwater it, but making sure that soil is moist, not oversaturated or sopping is perfect. You have to baby a tree for about three years when you plant it.

Doug: Three years?

Chelsi: Yes. Three to five, depending on how big the tree is when you put it in.

Doug: Let's talk a little bit about watering. I did do some spring planting last year and oh, that was a tough year to do it because in the east, we had terrible heat and drought and I was out there once a week, watering those young trees. How do I quantify how much water I need for a tree? I know how much I need on a tomato plant but often don't know on a tree.

Chelsi: One of the big rules is about an inch or so a week. If you don't know how much your landscape is getting, put out a pie tin, mark an inch, water as you normally would if whether it's sprinklers or irrigation dripline or whatever it might be, and see how long you need to water to get that inch. The other thing I would recommend is using slow drip systems, not a full blast hose. You're going to want to see the water infiltrate downwards. You don't want to see any kind of pooling and then running off, because if it's running off horizontally, the roots aren't going to get it.

There are some bags that you can put along the tree. I'm much bigger fan of just a soaker hose, just coiled around the base-- not around the base, sorry, under the dripline of the tree. That's just going to really ensure that you're fully saturating the soil but not oversaturating it, because you don't want to have water pooling and standing because the roots are just essentially going to get rotten if you do that.

Doug: Then let's talk a little bit about mulching. Every time I talk to anybody who's a tree expert, and the word volcano mulch comes up, they get angry.

Chelsi: [chuckles] They coil back in fear?

Doug: Yes, they get angry. [laughs]

Chelsi: Mulch is 100% the best thing you can do for your tree if done correctly. You're going to want a two to four-inch layer under the dripline keeping it away from the base of the tree. You're not wanting it to touch the bark at all. If so, even just a little bit that's okay, but do not pile it up. That'll just incite rot because of just the excess moisture. You're creating a conducive environment for fungal pathogens, essentially. You're saying, "Hey, fungi, I've created this beautiful home for you and I've made your meal a little bit softer, so go at it." We really want to keep the mulch away from the trunk but definitely mulch when you have a new tree, they will thank you for it.

Doug: Let's explain the dripline. Pretty easy to understand but a lot of times when I say that term, dripline, it does confuse people. Just explain where that mulch is.

Chelsi: If you think about a tree in your head, just draw a tree. You got your little stick and then usually people will draw a cloud above it and they'll color that green. When you look at that green canopy, the dripline is essentially think about when rain will rain on that tree and then it'll come off and it'll come off underneath that canopy. That's what the dripline is. It's really anything underneath the canopy or the branches of the tree. You want to go out to the dripline just because we're essentially trying to get as much moisture conservation as possible.

Doug: What about fertilizing? A lot of people don't think about fertilizing trees, especially spring-planted trees. What should we be doing as far as that's concerned?

Chelsi: You could think about the soil has three sort of components. You've got your nutritional component, and that's going to be your fertilizer. That's something that you're probably going to want to at least talk to an arborist about when you put a new tree in. Then you have stuff like the physical component, and that's going to be things like, is it compacted? If you don't know what compaction is, essentially, that's when the soil gets squished down so there's no water, there's no air. In that case, mulch is really great for compaction over time.

Then the third one is going to be a biological component, which is going to be the microbes that live in the soil. If you have compacted soil or if you have super dry soil or soil that maybe doesn't have a lot of organic matter, then you don't have that component. Fertilizer is part of a great soil program, but I will give it a caveat. It's not the only thing you should be doing for a tree. When we plant a tree, fertilizer is usually going to be one of the tools that we could use. Things like mulch and compost and watering, these are going to be our other toolboxes. I would say you can fertilize as long as you're doing other things as well.

Doug: Tell me a little bit about your job. What does that mean, technical advisor with the Davey Institute? Tell me a little bit about what you do.

Chelsi: Sure. It sounds like I'm in IT, but I'm not. I've had a petition going to change it to scientific advisor. I think it's a little bit more accurate, but essentially what it means is I am the go-to consultant for Davey arborists if they are unfamiliar with what's going on with a tree or a property. My background is in plant pathology, which is in tree diseases but over time I've had to become a bit of a generalist.

I know about tree diseases, tree and shrub and turf diseases, insects, soil problems, the whole gamut and I'm like a diagnostician. When they run into something as an arborist that maybe they haven't seen before, they call me and I come in with advice on how to diagnose it and how to manage it. There are some other aspects to the job, but I would say that that's the main core of what I do.

Doug: How is it that this is the right job for you?

Chelsi: Well, I love teaching and I love helping trees. It's the marriage between the two, because I get to teach clients and arborists about trees, tree problems. Then I also get to practice my actual plant pathology, which I think a lot of people can't say. I went to school for this and now I'm actually doing it every day, which is very nice.

Doug: All right, Chelsi, great stuff. Thanks for that great list of trees. Very much appreciated. Since I grew up with a catalpa tree, I think I'm going to have to put one in, too.

Chelsi: Good. I 100% endorsed that. [chuckles]

Doug: All right. Nice to talk to you.

Chelsi: All right. Nice talking to you, too.

Doug: Tune in every Thursday to the Talking Trees podcast from the Davey Tree Expert Company. I'm your host, Doug Oster. Next week begins our month-long celebration of our birthday with some great stories and fun interviews, and we're launching the Davey planting project. We'll have some free seeds for you, might have to get in on that deal. Remember, on the Talking Trees podcast, we know that trees are the answer.

[music]

[00:25:20] [END OF AUDIO]