Ornamental Trees: 15 Showpiece Trees That Make Your Yard Unforgettable
A shade tree keeps you cool. An ornamental tree makes you stop and look. The best ornamental trees do something interesting in every season: flowers in spring, colorful foliage in summer, fire-colored leaves in fall, and architectural bark or form in winter.
These are the trees that give a yard personality. They’re conversation starters, focal points, and the reason you look forward to each season. Here are 15 worth planting.
Four-season standouts
These ornamental trees earn their spot in the yard 365 days a year.
Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum)
The most beautiful bark of any tree you can plant. Cinnamon-red bark peels in paper-thin curls, catching sunlight in winter when the branches are bare. Small, neat form with blue-green trifoliate leaves that turn red-orange in fall.
- Zones: 4-8
- Mature size: 20-30 feet tall, 15-25 feet wide
- Growth rate: Slow (less than 12 inches per year)
- Cost: $100-200 (hard to propagate, so pricier than most trees)
Plant where you’ll see it in winter. Near a front walk, outside a kitchen window, or at the end of a sight line. The bark is the show, and it needs winter sun to glow. This is one of my top picks for any yard with space.
Stewartia (Stewartia pseudocamellia)
Camellia-like white flowers in midsummer (July), when almost nothing else blooms. Orange-red fall color. And bark that develops patches of gray, green, orange, and cream as it matures, like a camouflage pattern.
- Zones: 5-8
- Mature size: 20-40 feet tall, 15-25 feet wide
- Growth rate: Slow to medium
- Needs: Acidic, well-drained soil. Morning sun, afternoon shade in hot climates.
Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa)
Blooms 2-3 weeks after native dogwood with white or pink star-shaped bracts. Produces raspberry-like fruits in fall that birds (and some adventurous humans) eat. Exfoliating bark develops a mosaic pattern with age. Better disease resistance than native flowering dogwood.
- Zones: 5-8
- Mature size: 15-30 feet tall and wide
- Growth rate: Slow to medium
- Best cultivars: ‘Milky Way’ (heavy flowering), ‘Satomi’ (pink bracts)
Spring showstoppers
Weeping Cherry (Prunus hybrids)
Nothing says spring like a weeping cherry in full bloom. Cascading branches covered in pink or white flowers for 2-3 weeks in April.
- Zones: 5-8
- Mature size: 15-25 feet tall and wide
- Best varieties: ‘Snow Fountains’ (white, 8-12 feet), ‘Pink Snow Showers’ (pink, 15-25 feet)
- Lifespan: 15-25 years (shorter-lived than most shade trees)
Plant weeping cherries as focal points, not shade trees. They’re at their best in full sun with a mulch ring underneath. No need to fight with grass under those sweeping branches.
Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)
Magenta-pink flowers appear directly on bare branches and even the trunk in early spring. It’s one of the first trees to bloom and the effect against a late-winter sky is electric. Heart-shaped leaves follow, turning yellow in fall.
- Zones: 4-9
- Mature size: 20-30 feet tall and wide
- Growth rate: Medium (12-18 inches per year)
- Best cultivars: ‘Forest Pansy’ (purple leaves), ‘Rising Sun’ (peach/gold/green new growth), ‘Ruby Falls’ (weeping form with purple leaves)
Redbud is native throughout the eastern US and attracts early-season pollinators. One of the best flowering trees for residential landscapes.
Saucer Magnolia (Magnolia x soulangeana)
Enormous pink-and-white tulip-shaped flowers in early spring on bare branches. Each bloom is 5-10 inches across. When a saucer magnolia is flowering, nothing else in the neighborhood competes.
- Zones: 4-9
- Mature size: 20-30 feet tall and wide
- Risk: Late frosts can destroy the flower buds. In zone 5, this happens every 2-3 years. Still worth it for the years it blooms.
Flowering Crabapple (Malus cultivars)
Crabapples have been bred for decades to produce bigger flowers, better disease resistance, and persistent fruit that feeds winter birds. The best modern varieties are nothing like the messy, scab-prone crabapples your grandparents grew.
- Zones: 4-8
- Mature size: 15-25 feet (varies by cultivar)
- Best cultivars: ‘Prairifire’ (deep pink flowers, maroon fruit, disease-resistant), ‘Sugar Tyme’ (white flowers, red fruit, extremely disease-resistant)
Unique and unusual ornamental trees
Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’)
Also called contorted filbert. The branches twist and curl in every direction, creating a Dr. Seuss-like silhouette that’s spectacular in winter. Yellow catkins dangle from the twisted branches in late winter.
- Zones: 4-8
- Mature size: 8-10 feet tall and wide
- Best for: Winter interest, conversation piece
Prune out any straight-growing suckers from the rootstock immediately. They’ll overtake the contorted growth.
Japanese Snowbell (Styrax japonicus)
Pendant clusters of white bell-shaped flowers dangle below the horizontal branches in late May/June. You look up into the flowers, which hang face-down. Delicate, refined, and completely different from any other flowering tree.
- Zones: 5-8
- Mature size: 20-30 feet tall, 15-25 feet wide
- Best planted: On a slope or raised area where you can look up into the flowers
Coral Bark Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Sango-kaku’)
The branches turn coral-red in winter, glowing against snow or gray skies. Green leaves with red edges in summer, golden-yellow fall color. This is a four-season Japanese maple that earns its spot year-round.
- Zones: 5-8
- Mature size: 20-25 feet tall, 15-20 feet wide
- Tip: Prune interior branches to expose the coral bark to view
Seven Sons Flower Tree (Heptacodium miconioides)
White, fragrant flowers in August and September when nothing else is blooming. After the flowers drop, the sepals turn deep rose-pink and persist for weeks. Peeling bark adds winter interest. One of the toughest, most underused ornamental trees available.
- Zones: 5-9
- Mature size: 15-20 feet tall
- Growth rate: Fast for an ornamental
- Tolerates: Drought, poor soil, full sun to part shade
Witch Hazel (Hamamelis species)
Blooms in February or March when everything else is dormant. Spidery, fragrant flowers in yellow, orange, or red appear on bare branches. You can smell a blooming witch hazel from 30 feet away on a cool spring morning.
- Zones: 3-8 (varies by species)
- Mature size: 15-20 feet tall and wide
- Best varieties: H. x intermedia ‘Jelena’ (copper-orange), ‘Arnold Promise’ (yellow)
Choosing the right ornamental tree
For small yards (under 3,000 sq ft): Harry Lauder’s walking stick, weeping cherry ‘Snow Fountains’, smokebush, witch hazel
For medium yards: Paperbark maple, kousa dogwood, Japanese snowbell, eastern redbud
For front yard focal points: Saucer magnolia, weeping cherry, stewartia, coral bark maple
For winter interest: Paperbark maple, coral bark maple, Harry Lauder’s walking stick, witch hazel
For summer bloom (when few trees flower): Stewartia (July), Seven Sons (August-September), crape myrtle (June-September)
For wildlife: Crabapple (winter fruit for birds), redbud (early pollinators), dogwood (berries for birds)
Don’t plant too many ornamental trees. One or two well-placed specimens have more impact than a collection that competes for attention. Use a single ornamental as a focal point and surround it with simpler plantings. Check our front yard landscaping guide for placement strategies, and see mklibrary.com’s curb appeal guide for ideas that complement your ornamental tree.