Gardening With Flowering Plants

Trees with attractive bark

In winter, when the leaves have fallen, trees with exceptional bark are the ones that stand out most in the garden. Even if you don't have acres to play with, it's worth trying to find room for a small one.

Acer capillipes is one of the snake-bark maples, so called because of the wavy, grey-green stripes running up and down the trunk. The leaves are three-pointed maple leaves that turn bright red in autumn and, in spring, the young shoots are bright red too, so there are plenty of seasonal attractions. It makes a dome-shaped tree that eventually gets to the larger side of medium, but it's slow growing, so anticipate 4.5 x 4.5m (15 x 15ft).

Eucalyptus species include many with very striking, flaking bark that leaves peculiar stripy, piebald and python-skin patterns, and the best of these is probably Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. niphophi/a, the snow gum. The older, thicker trees are the ones that have the most characteristic bark patterns, so leave them unpollarded. This means you'll have quite a large tree, as it grows fast and reaches maybe 6 x 4.5m (20 x 15ft) or more, but it doesn't cast much shade. Older trees often lean over and grow into angular architectural shapes, which makes them good as 'character' specimen trees.

Betula species make good, small to medium-sized garden trees, but if I was only allowed one it would have to be Betula

utilis var. jacquemontii, Jacquemont's birch. It has the typical open, spreading birch form and, like other birches, doesn't cast a lot of shade. What's special about it is the peeling bark that is dazzling white: I wash mine twice a year! In theory it can grow quite tall but, in gardens, it'll take a long time to grow to more than 10 x 4.5m (30 x 15ft).

Flowering trees

Everyone goes mad over lilac and cherry blossom in spring, but these are not always the best flowering trees to go for — in a windy situation, the flowers last no time at all and, if the weather is wet at flowering time the petals turn brown, so you might only see them at their best one year in three. Don't let me put you off if you like them, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Buddleja afterlife (1) is a relative of the butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii). Left to itself it makes a big, untidy shrub; it's much better trained on a single stem to make a tree. It then grows into a rounded mushroom sort of shape, and has clusters of scented lavender flowers arranged along semi-trailing stems in early summer. It'll make about 3.6 x 2.4m (12 x 8ft), which makes it suitable for most small gardens. Best at the back of a border.

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