Spring is the best time to plant ornamental trees and shrubs for your home or commercial business, and sometimes the overwhelming number and variety of choices can be intimidating. The best approach is to work with a professional landscape designer, but if you’d prefer to take this on alone, here are seven trees that are excellent for Utah businesses.
The tulip poplar has many other names, such as tulip tree, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow poplar. This fast-growing tree provides excellent shade, is drought-resistant, and is ideal for homes and businesses. Tulip poplars have an added bonus of flowering each spring, generating yellow, tulip-like flowers from which it gets its name.
The crape myrtle is a genus of about 50 species of trees and shrubs that generate colorful, long-lasting flowers each summer. The crape myrtle is popular for home and business landscapes because of its versatility. It can be used as part of shrub borders, as container plants, or out on its own. They can be safely planted near foundations, patios, and walkways because the roots are not strong enough to damage these areas.
Each spring, the eastern redbud blooms with spectacular magenta flowers, making it desirable as an ornamental shrub or tree for landscaping. They rarely grow higher than 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide. These trees require a bit more TLC than most of the other trees on this list because it is less drought tolerant and prefers consistent moisture all year round.
The Japanese tree lilac is well suited for the Utah climate (except in the hottest areas). It thrives in Utah’s high pH soil, resistant to disease and insects, and very easy to manage. The flowers bloom around June with spectacular 6 to 12-inch white flowers. The Japanese tree lilac is the largest known lilac species.
Also known as a Mossycup (White) Oak, this tree is an excellent choice for homes and businesses in urban areas. It grows well in Utah’s high soil pH, is a drought-tolerant, wind, heat, and cold-resistant tree. It also is a fast-growing tree that can reach as high as 90 feet or more. Trees older than twelve years old are also somewhat fire-resistant because of their primary natural habitat on the Midwest plains’ eastern prairies, which often must survive the occasional prairie fire. They are also popular because of their wide leaf canopies that provide excellent shade during the summer months.
The yellowwood is popular for Utah landscaping because of its fragrant white flowers that bloom each summer attracting many birds. It grows best in full sunlight and tolerates the high pH soil in Utah. It is a great mid-sized ornamental tree that grows up to 35 to 50 feet tall with an attractive broad crown of leaves that turn a blend of yellow, gold, and orange each fall.
Also known as the swamp, water, or soft maple, this tree can be identified by its red flowers, twigs, and brilliant red leaves in the fall. The red maple tolerates many soil types well and is at home in both swampy and mountainous terrain. Most Utah landscapers love the red maple because it grows extremely fast–up to two feet each year–making them popular as shade trees for homes and businesses.
At Aeroscape, our experienced landscape designers can help you select the perfect trees and shrubs for your home or business and plant them for you solo or as part of a full-blown residential or commercial landscape design. For more information, give us a call at 801.569.2383 or click on the green Contact an Expert arrow on any page of our website, and an Aeroscape account manager will get in touch with you.
