In my opinion, every tree is a treasure, and I tend to favor trees I grow from seed or grafts over the rarest and most expensive. However, if you are carefully selecting trees for a limited landscape, uncommon and unique trees will add an attractive accent to your backyard.
Unique bonsai
There are many unique trees that make a real statement in the landscape. We have selected a few particularly attractive ornamental tree options for specimen trees. They range from towering deciduous redwoods to small white-flowering trees that are perfect for smaller gardens.
1. Redwood Dawn
(Photo source: zhaojiankang / Getty Images)
- Botanical name: Metasequoia glyptostroboides
- USDA Zone: 4-8
- Height: up to 80 feet (28 m)
This redwood “came back from the dead” in an amazing piece of botanical history. The Dawn Redwood was thought to be extinct for decades, known only from fossil records. But in 1945, a botanist discovered a few in a remote part of China. Seeds were collected and distributed, and today these fast-growing deciduous redwoods are found in botanical gardens around the world. The pyramidal tree has pinnate needles. It leaves early and retains its leaves well into the fall.
2. Paperbark maple
(Image credit: Michel VIARD/Getty Images)
- Botanical name: Acer griseum
- USDA Zone: 4-7
- Height: up to 25 feet (8.3 m)
I love maples, with their peeling bark and their beautiful fall color. But the paperbark maple excels in both categories. This small tree has open branches that allow you to admire the trunk as the bark peels away in papery strips. Beneath is the coin-colored bark that brightens the landscape in winter.
3. Amur maackia
(Image source: katerinakorovina / Getty Images)
- Botanical name: Maackia amurensis
- USDA Zone: 3-7
- Height: up to 30 feet (10 m)
Small but striking, this garden-sized deciduous tree has dark green leaves, but really shines when it is covered with white flowers in summer. This makes the amur maakia a special ornamental tree as few other trees flower at this time. Hardy and easy to care for, with few pest and disease problems.
4. Japanese Snow Globe
(Image source: AKIsPalette / Getty Images)
- Botanical name: Japanese Bodhi
- USDA Zone: 5-7
- Height: up to 20 feet (6.6 m)
In stark contrast to the redwoods described above, the Japanese snowdrop remains small and often spreads wider than it is tall. The forest green leaves appear first on arching, horizontal branches, followed by graceful, pendulous white flowers. Mother Nature designed this tree brilliantly, with the fully developed leaves growing on the upper surface of each branch, while the deciduous flowers hang down below. This last specimen grows in full sun or light shade.
5. Weeping Mulberry Tree
(Image source: MaYcaL / Getty Images)
- Botanical name: white strawberry “pendulum”
- USDA Zone: 4-8
- Height: up to 30 feet (10 m)
This is not your grandmother’s white mulberry! Mulberries are plentiful, but weeping mulberries are not as common. Fast growing and fruitless, these ornamental trees have drooping dark green foliage. They are hardy and hardy.
6. Lebanese Cedar
(Image source: Kameel Rayes / Getty Images)
- Botanical name: Cedar of Lebanon aortic valve stenosis
- USDA Zone: 5-7
- Height: up to 50 feet (16.6 m)
Cedars are a true heartwarmer to any tree lover – and a real eye-catcher in the garden. The Lebanon Cedar is the prized cold-hardy true cedar, and its attractive pyramidal shape when young develops into broad, spreading branches as it matures. Slow-growing and imposing, these cedars are truly ornamental.
7. Cryptocurrency
(Image source: Photo by RA Kearton / Getty Images)
- Botanical name: Cryptomeria Japan
- USDA Zone: 6-8
- Height: up to 60 feet (20 m)
Also known as the Japanese cedar. If you want to incorporate this exotic tree into your landscape, you’ll need to be prepared to protect it. If your area has harsh winters, this attractive evergreen with short, bright green needles on drooping branches may suffer winter damage. Young trees are conical, but their branches spread out as they mature. Where to plant cryptomeria? In a protected spot with full sun, out of the path of winter winds.
