Midsize trees just right for this part of the landscape
Many landscapes rely on a lawn and large shade trees, but the addition of mediumsize trees provides a transition between the lawn or ground covers and the shade trees, creating a complex, attractive landscape that can still look neat and manicured.
One great reason to add midsize trees is to boost the amount of shade in the garden, which will mean switching out part of the lawn for alternative ground covers. These generally use less water and are easier to care for than lawns in full sun.
Midsize trees also can provide more color and wildlife habitat in the landscape.
Here are some of the ones I love.
Mexican buckeye
Mexican buckeye is a native tree with pink flowers that is long-lived in shady alkaline soil. It grows from 8 to 30 feet tall depending on soil depth and fertility.
It makes a good springblooming informal hedge with much the same impact as redbud. It grows as a screen that does not block the view, but it serves as a transition between ground covers and shade trees.
You can propagate Mexican buckeye from seed or plant it from a seedling bought from area nurseries.
Vitex
Vitex is also called Texas lilac and chaste tree. It has showy blue flowers in the spring and summer that attract hummingbirds and other pollinators seeking a nectar source.
Its inclination seems to be to grow somewhat like a cross between a midsize (15-foot) crape myrtle and a Mexican plum. Some gardeners see it as a very large salvia, and, in fact, just like salvia, deer do not eat it. It is popular with birds as a nesting site and as cover when they are fleeing predators.
Grow vitex in the sun and prune it as necessary so that it fits its designated role as a transition tree or a dense specimen in full sun.
The newest selections available in retail nurseries are described as “not being invasive.” Some gardeners spend time pruning off the spent flowers to extend the blooming
period into the summer.
Texas persimmon
Texas persimmon is evergreen when the winter is mild, but with the record-setting cold weather the last two years, it has dropped its leaves. There are male and female plants.
Texas persimmon in my neighborhood grows about 20 feet tall. It has a dense crown with distinctively patterned bark, and it grows well in full sun and also on the edge of a large shade tree.
It blooms in the spring with the fruit ripening in the summer. The flowers are fragrant but not showy. When the fruit is ripening, the female trees appear to be in motion because of all the mockingbird, woodpecker, cardinal, doves and other bird activity picking apart the large-seeded black fruit.
Japanese plum (loquat)
In past years Japanese plum, also called loquat, was used effectively as a road border or shade tree transition because it was disciplined and grew well in our climate and soil, and also in the sun or the shade. With its large exotic-looking leaves, it also was popular in landscapes around swimming pools.
It grows to 25 feet tall and is evergreen most winters. The past two winters damaged many loquats in the area, reducing the winter blooms and early spring fruiting. But if winters generally get warmer with climate change, that might be less of an issue.
Other medium-size trees to consider for your landscape include anaqua, crape myrtle, Mexican plum, Mexican olive and redbud.
You can find more information at plantanswers.com.