A Full Sun Tree Recommendation

Dan in Perry Township asks, ‘I had a tree taken out in my front yard, and I’m looking for a deciduous tree that tops out at about 20 feet, but gives me a nice shady canopy?’

If you’re looking for full sun, six hours or more of sunlight a day, and you want something in that 20-25 foot range or smaller? You’ve got a lot of really good options.

There’s some really great options here in that size category. Dogwoods, crabapples, and redbuds are probably the three most common all of those are flowering trees. They’re gonna have a little bit of different flowering time depending on the variety, because I think we carry 20 species of red buds and like 32 species of magnolias. Would probably be nice if you’re looking for more of a clump tree.

There are some dwarf magnolias that would also work in that area that will stay multi-stemmed from the base if you’re looking for a single trunk, then I would probably lean more into the dogwoods, crabapples or redbuds. And there’s some really cool new varieties of red buds that have come out in the last few years.

Redbuds have a heart-shaped leaf, that’s one of the easy ways to identify a redbud. And they’re a native, so they’re natural here. They’re never gonna go on like the banned list or something like that. Some of the new varieties, there’s one called Hearts of Fire, it’s a new one from last year and it has a fire engine red new growth to it. It hardens off to a dark green color. Beautiful, beautiful plant, and remember, it pushes growth twice a year. So not only do you have the beautiful red bud flowers in the spring, you get that flush of deep red that turns to a green. Then in the middle of summer you get that flush of red again with that green backdrop that’s still there from the first flush. So you really get a lot of color change with that tree.

There’s another one that’s called Flamethrower, it’s another really popular one that one’s new growth is purple and It hardens off to kind of like a chartreuse, greenish yellow leaf, and then flushes that purple again in midsummer. Now granted, there’s just regular purple leaf redbuds and regular green leaf red buds as well. But there’s just so many cool new varieties, and when those things flush their second growth, people stop. 

We’ve got one called Rising Sun planted at the very front of the store, and when that thing flushes its second growth in July and August, when it’s a bit dull and dingy, and that tree just explodes out of the landscape just because of that bright new growth.

We’ll have multiple sizes if it’s a cost issue. Then we’re gonna look at the container ones. Start you with something a little smaller. If you have more money than time, is the way I usually look at it. Either you have one or the other, but if you want to start with something bigger, we have those as an option for this next year. It’s the first time the newer varieties have been available in a larger size. It just takes some time to get them there, and they hadn’t been around long enough till this year, so we’re gonna have some really good options.

Questions? Email us at [email protected] or call one of our two locations: Portage (330-499-0101) or Everhard (330-492-1243).