There are some lovely native deciduous trees that you can grow in your garden. The ones I will write about are fairly small and don’t take up a huge amount of space. We have, of course, some very large deciduous native trees such as Big leaf maple, Garry oak, Red alder, Black cottonwood and Paper birch that are beautiful but often too big for most gardens. The first tree that comes to mind because the blossom is the flower of British Columbia is Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii). The tree can get up to 10-20 m tall depending on the conditions. It likes sun, some moisture and well-drained sites. Another little tree that can provide glorious reds and gold colors in the fall is Vine maple (Acer circinatum). It is smaller than Pacific dogwood growing to approximately 7 m tall. Vine maple grows best in moist to wet places where there is light shade. The next tree is one of my favorites. It grows in the forest under the canopy of conifers. Cascara (Rhamnus purshiana) is an erect small tree that grows to about 10 m. It has white flowers with a black edible berry. And last but not least is Black hawthorn (Crataegus douglasii). Unlike English hawthorn that has white and pink flowers with red berries our native Black hawthorn has white flowers with black berries. Growing to about 8 m it does best in open areas along forest edges and thickets. You may want to consider one or more of these small trees as an addition to your garden.
Native Deciduous Trees for your Garden
