In my previous article, I highlighted several small flowering trees that are recommended for planting in Georgia. This week, we will explore some of our relatively small native trees that are evergreen as well as a few deciduous trees with great fall color that are underutilized in Georgia landscapes. As a reminder, fall and winter are the best times to plant any new trees and shrubs in Georgia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most people are very familiar with Southern Magnolia, a rather large native evergreen tree with fragrant white flowers from May to June. However, there are now dwarf cultivars of Southern Magnolia that are more suitable for landscapes with limited space. The \u2018Little Gem\u2019 Southern Magnolia will grow to about 20 feet tall and will begin to flower at a much younger age than traditional magnolias. Also, the \u2018Little Gem\u2019 cultivar will continue to flower intermittently from spring through fall! In general, magnolias are highly adaptable to full sun or part shade and can even tolerate high soil moisture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are many native hollies that can grow to become trees such as our native American Holly. However, there are also several hybrids of native hollies crossed between the American Holly and Dahoon Holly. These native hybrid hollies are botanically known as Ilex x attenuata<\/em> with cultivar names such as \u2018Fosteri\u2019, \u2018East Palatka\u2019, \u2018Hume\u2019 and \u2018Savannah.\u2019 These hybrids typically grow to about 25 feet tall and form more dense, narrow-conical trees than the native species. These hybrid hollies can be used as specimen trees or evergreen screens. They are heavily fruited with red berries that often persist through the winter and attract birds to the landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Black Tupelo, Nyssa sylvatica, <\/em>is one of the most impressive native trees for fall color. The dark green lustrous leaves turn fluorescent yellow, orange, scarlet, and maroon in fall. Black Tupelo will average about 30 to 40 feet tall and will make an excellent specimen tree, acceptable for streetside plantings and residential areas. Certainly, one of the best and most consistent native trees for fall color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana<\/em>, is also called Ironwood or Musclewood tree. The bark of the tree develops a smooth, muscular appearance. Hornbeam trees average about 25 feet tall and can be successfully grown in full sun as a small street tree or landscape tree. The leaves change to yellow, orange, red, and reddish purple in the fall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Although there are many types of native oak trees that thrive in Georgia, most are too large for the average landscape.\u00a0 However, there is one small oak species known as the Georgia Oak, Quercus georgiana, <\/em>that averages about 25 feet tall. The Georgia Oak naturally grows on dry granite outcrops in full sun as typically seen at Stone Mountain.\u00a0 The dark green summer foliage will turn red to reddish purple in the fall. Unfortunately, this is a tree that is not commonly found in the nursery trade but is easily grown from seed planted in the fall.\u00a0 For more information, check out our UGA Extension Circular 999, \u201cGreat Plants Under 20 Feet for Small Spaces<\/a>\u201d on our website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my previous article, I highlighted several small flowering trees that are recommended for planting in Georgia. This week, we will explore some of our relatively small native trees that are evergreen as well as a few deciduous trees with great fall color that are underutilized in Georgia landscapes. As a reminder, fall and winter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-landscaping","category-ornamentals","category-trees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/bartow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}