Anyone recommend some colourful garden trees?

Kousa Dogwood Stewardia Franklinia Magnolia Crab apple Cherry Dogwood Pine

Prunus

This will get you going but the best is to visit a garden an look about. Take Pen & Paper & camera. Spring summer fall and winter are issues too.

Bill

Would you care to give us some sort of clue as to where you are located......country, city, Agricultural zone, etc. What would grow in southern California probably wouldn't do well on the coast of Scotland, just as an off the wall example. There is a 'uk.rec.garden' . The people there may be of more help to you.

Val

Since you don't say what zone you're in, it may be difficult to recommend trees for you. But, if you are in the right zones, decorative plums are nice with their deep burgundy leaves which would be a lovely contrast to the green from your surrounding forest. Japanese maples are a great choice because many can give you three colors for the three seasons. You can get them with either green or red summer foliage, and the autumn colors can be either red or brilliant oranges and yellows. Some start with one color green, like a light, lime or yellow green in the spring and go to another darker color green in summer. You can research them at many sites. Just google Japanese maples and you'll find a lot of site with pictures and explanations. Dogwoods come in white, pink and red flowers; but the flowers only last a small time in early spring. Then the leaves go green. If you're in the right zone, you can get flowering shrubs that are like small trees and they can come in various shades of white and pink. There are a lot of beautiful flowering spring trees like flowering cherry, styrax japonica which is a 20-30' tall, narrowish tree with charming white or pink, hanging bell shaped flowers in the spring. Your location and the size of tree you want is your first consideration. You can check out many of the on line nurseries for pictures and more detailed information on what would work for your area.

Regards, June

Most tree foilage is green. What exactly do you mean... flowers, fruit, bark, fall foliage... some trees have various hued magenta leaves but that may not be what you want You're in the UK, have you checked local nurseries?

Purple smoke bush Japanese Maples (if you have acidic soil, also these grow slowly) Purple plum

Do a search for local trees, that's best.

There a few different varieties that bloom at different times too.

or

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Bill

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, you've been very helpful!