Gardening with Gary

Gardening Advice from an Expert

Ornamental Trees

Q. I want to plant some ornamental trees in my yard that will have white or pink blossoms (or even another color) I live in Northwest Pennsylvania. There is less sun than most places and more snow. I want the trees for decoration but the practical side of me was thinking cherry trees. Any thoughts?

A. Of course you are on the right track with flowering cherries. They are great and well-suited to your climatic zone. I used to garden in NW Ohio.

Also:

flowering plum
spirea
redbud
lilac
dogwood
mock orange [fragrant!]

You could grow real fruit trees too and get a bonus from your spring flowers, as

apple
peach
cherry
plum
apricot
nectarine

Forsythia is a bush but so beautiful and ornamental.

Check out your local nursery and garden centers to see what is for sale. That will give you a good idea of what is best suited for your locale and what they recommend and sell, or else they would not carry it. There are always special order nurseries, catalogs or online. Let me know if I can be of assistance.

JC writes~
I am trying to find an ornamental tree that I can grow indoors that resembles a Japanese Maple. Are you aware of any such tree? Is it possible to grow a Japanese Maple indoors? I am not looking for a bonsai, I'm hoping to find something as large as 3-4 feet tall. A ficus would do, but I was hoping to find something with red/purple color.

A. If you have a small greenhouse or solarium with even heat and ample humidity, you could try a maple, but for the rest of us home growers, they will die very quickly. It is hard to acclimate a tree to the indoor conditions, especially the dry winter conditions.

Ficus do quite well indoors with plenty of sunlight and even water, the bottom of the pot never sitting in water. They will drop their leaves right after home introduction, but that will slow down as it acclimates. Never have them near a draft, hot or cold. Feed lightly and regularly.

As for other trees, in the purple-red foliage color, you would be best getting a hardy dracaena or diffenbachia, or an easy-to-grow rubber tree. These house plants do very well indoors, but any tree from outside will usually not adjust to your home conditions.