Great Small Trees for Houston - Buffalo Bayou Partnership

To celebrate the Garden Club of America’sCentennial in 2013, The Garden Club ofHouston has created a list of Great SmallTrees for Houston.Our city sits at the convergence of several majorecosystems, and our climate encourages the healthygrowth of an extraordinary variety of plants,especially trees. Over the years, the Garden Club ofHouston has researched an untold number of trees.Our recommended trees have been sold at our popularBulb & Plant Mart, and more importantly, have beengrown in members’ gardens. Our collective experienceis reflected in Great Small Trees for Houston. It isour hope that this list will be useful not only to publicentities who build parks and trails, but also todevelopers, civic associations, growers, and anycitizens interested in making our public spaces andprivate gardens more economical, sustainable, andbeautiful.The Great Small Trees were selected based onthree criteria:• native to our area and likely to thrive with littlemaintenance;• exceptional beauty and the widest possiblerange of seasonal interest; and• habitat benefits, particularly for birds.We chose to focus on the small trees that are oftenmissing from our public spaces and to emphasize treesthat are typically commercially available. To bepractical in a public space or a private garden, a treemust require little maintenance and thus beinexpensive over the longer term. Houston, a birdwatcher’s paradise, is on a major flyway, so plantingsmust provide shelter and food for birds if we are tosustain this key community characteristic. The bestway to achieve all these goals is to use native oradaptive plants found in our general region.Most importantly, these trees are beautiful. They canbring extraordinary variety and charm to ourlandscapes.The Great Small Trees offer a remarkable mix ofornamental interest from early spring through fall.