Gorgeous. As if that little adorable little Josie wasn't enough to attract all the neighbors!

"One man's meat is another man's poison". One of my neighbours complained that my Japanese cherry blossoms blew over onto her patio and made a mess.

I wouldn't plant anything under or between them. I like the simple beauty of them as a trio and sometimes less is more.

Here is the allée from a different angle. The tree in the foreground is a redhaven peach. The creeping charlie I haven't tackled totally because I don't want to disturb the roots or use an herbicide around the dogwood, it is hanging by a thread due to some other stressors. I'm hoping the mulch will eventually take care of some of the problem with the creeping charlie.

So beautiful, pink! I agree with you about them inviting nice interactions with people. My former house was that way, with Crape Myrtles.

I took a picture one year of pink "snow" from the crabapple. Luckily it only blows all over my own yard! My neighbors are quite understanding though . . .

The best is when we are out working in the yard and have Josie tied up in the middle.

I have thought about leaving "as is" and it is going to stay that way for the foreseeable future, but at some point, I will not be able to resist some type of planting in that space . . . just sort of day dreaming right now. It's much less interesting during the middle of the summer and early spring and late winter. The dogwood and crab do put on a nice fall show though . . .

I guess I don't have a good shot of the red crab apples up close. Dogwood also has red berries. The birdies like those two!

How beautiful, Pink! Your neighbors are very lucky to have you!

Your trees are so beautiful!! I especially love the magnolia.

I find my neighbors stop by when they see me hard at work in the front yard. I'm not particularly sociable in my neighborhood so it's been a nice way to meet neighbors and chat.

The magnolia is a memorial tree for my late mother. The dogwood was planted by the previous owner in honor of his daughter. He stops by every once and a while to check on it, although not lately I think he may have moved farther away and doesn't get back here anymore. That's the one I have to baby, it was planted too deep, and my late mother underplanted it to the max, which is not good for dogwoods. I have been gradually moving the perennials out of there . . . the crabapple I gave my parents as a housewarming gift when they moved into the place 2004. The peach we planted last year in honor of John Prine, one of our favorite musicians.

I'm living for now in my parents old house and trying to rehabilitate the landscape. The PO built the house but he landscaped for the day he moved in, not for the future. Everything way too close to the house and close together plus some nasty invasive species. My Dad jimmy rigged everything, and is still living but moved to a condo. He is always around to visit and criticize on how he could have done or did it better. Yesterday (Sunday) was all about how we didn't cover the sprinkler system pump correctly. Never mind all the other work we did, we are lazy bums now. This is what depression and anxiety can do to a person, he can't even enjoy the beauty that is all around him.

That is so wonderful that the magnolia is a memorial for your mother. I love to imagine someone would plant something beautiful as a memorial when I pass away.

I am so sorry that your father is criticizing you when you obviously are doing wonderful things with the house. It makes me angry on your behalf. It takes so much time and energy to do landscaping. I feel like I'm finally (sort of) getting the hang of it at this house. I really struggled at my last house when nothing would grow in certain areas. I wish I had more property so that I could grow more beautiful trees like yours. I'm hoping to sneak out to the garden nursery this evening to take a look at some trees to see if I can fit some more into my yard. Not looking forward to hours and hours of backbreaking digging, but I am so excited about the prospect of more trees.

PPC, dwarf trees are your friend!! My last house was an urban row house with a tiny yard. Some people probably have bigger bathrooms. I managed to squeeze quite a few trees in there. I wanted to recreate a northwoods feel, so I planted a dwarf Japanese white pine, musclewood/blue beech and Japanese maple, all standing in for the full size white pine, beech and maple of the north woods forest. Even dogwoods, magnolias and crabapples come in dwarf sizes. Well, with dogwoods its actually bushes in the genus "Cornus" and the magnolias are things like star and sweetbay magnolia depending on your zone, and my favorite dwarf crab is Sargent crabapple. Smells good too. Even with some shrubs you can prune them to look like small trees. And if all else fails, there's always bonsai! And my good friend does espalier around his back fence to squeeze in some trees.

I added some Columnar Norway Spruce and Armstrong Maple trees last year. Right now I'm eyeing some more Armstrong Maples and either Swedish Colunnar Aspens or Kindred Spirit Oaks. My biggest issue is that my yard is so shallow. I want more trees for some more privacy, but I don't want to be the jerk that planted a tree close to the fence that overtakes my neighbors' shallow yards. But there is something beautiful about how your trees are showcased with all of that space around them.

Reminds me of my last place. I planted the trees near the fence for privacy, and I was always going along the fence line and pruning out any outliers that were hanging over too much. Luckily my neighbors were not super picky on one side. The guy on the other side was but he wasn't outside much. His smoking sure wafted over the fenceline!!

I do have a few flowering crabapples but the traffic stopper in my yard is my poppies. These were tag a longs in some ferns I moved from my grandmother. The birds or the wind moved them from the backyard to the front. After flowering, they die back to brown and ugly. I get ruthless pulling them up then.

Enjoy!

Maybe think about planting natives for your location?

You make me smile, pink. The bloomyest trees, sweet thoughts of your mother, and bringing lots of positive energy to obliterate the negative. It's not about you, it's about who he is. Enjoy who you are (we do) and keep bringing happy into the world.

So pretty, I love it. I've always wanted flowering trees, but haven't had even one. One of these days.....

I'm sorry about your dad. My father also has severe depression and anxiety and is ultra-critical and difficult to be around. I have had to detach; I can still love him but what he says goes in one ear and out the other. It has taken many years to get my mind right about doing so but if I don't, my sanity is at stake! ;)

RNmom I used to have poppies at my last house that I was mentioning! They escaped from my neighbors beautiful flower garden, 90 year old Mrs. Roth. When she moved to assisted living and sold her house, the guy that I mentioned who was a smoker plowed the whole thing up and planted grass over it. He claimed he had allergies. Kind of weird because grass also has allergens, and he smoked . . . but anyway, he wasn't a yard upkeep guy to say the least . . .

So I had columbine and poppies popping up every year in my yard, a reminder of Mrs. Roth that I never had the heart to pull out . . . they both fade away after they do their thing anyway . . . I miss my old sunny little garden, that southern exposure sure makes a difference!!

I love poppies but just don't have enough sunny space for them . . . maybe someday when I get my little meadow next to John Prine's peach tree I will have room for a poppy or two . . . My mom tried to grow them on the property, there just isn't a sunny enough spot and we're not cutting down any of our legacy oaks . . . sigh. I need another sunny beach cottage for all my sunshine flowers . . . You just can't beat poppies for that oh la la burst of color!!

Me and the neighbors on the other side of Mrs. Roth all felt a little glum when the anti-garden guy moved in. His mom used to come over and talk gardens with me over the fence, but not the son. On the other side, they had a grape arbor and would share occasionally. Obviously some folks are born gardeners and some are just not. I am an addict! It's in my Dutch blood at the very least, although my Polish grandma liked gardens too, same as me, stuff to eat and pretty flowers . . .

Oh yes Cyn, natives would be in the mix if I underplant. I just have a lot of goals . . . This is all part of a larger restoration I'm working on over the whole property. I'm removing invasives and trying to keep the natives healthy. Across from the allee is an assemblage of legacy trees that I hope this year to create a mulched island around for underplanting with spring ephemerals. I have been composting all the oak leaves to make mulch for restoring the soil. The soil is very degraded from all kinds of bad things that were done to it. Also in the back I have several hundred feet of riparian area that I am restoring plus a shady Japanese/wildflower garden under a red oak. That project is taking forever because the PO's created a huge rock bed there with plastic underneath. I only have it about half removed. It's ancient so layer upon layer of rocks and fishing out degraded plastic . . . my Dad's solution to it was to put more and more rocks on top of rocks . . . The back yard is almost all shade with a couple of huge trees, so that's where I'm doing the most native plantings and native landscaping. But I always try to squeeze in a few of Mom's favorite plants here and there, which are mostly British cottage, and a few edibles for me . . .

Tulips and daffodils appeal to me because Mom was Dutch and also an English teacher and she taught me the William Wadsworth poem,

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

I'm thinking a few daffodils out by the river. Dad planted a huge patch of ditch lilies there, he thinks that is is great accomplishment . . . I haven't made it a priority to remove them yet, but I am eating away at their edges. Trying not to do it in a way that Dad will notice. He comes over for Sunday dinner and literally walks the grounds looking for anything, any tiny little thing he can find that is "out of place" or "neglected" or "not done right" in his mind. That's all he sees, and if he doesn't see anything, he'll go looking for something. It's an obsession. My late Mother was the exact opposite, a real Pollyanna, which she sometimes defended as having to be due to my Dad's inclinations. So I don't mind putting little plant references to her around the yard. She left the house to me. Ironically, when my Dad lived here he forbade my mother to have any "flower gardens." Too much work was what he said. Mom was allergic to the sun and lots of plants so couldn't garden much in her old age. I would have helped her but didn't want to argue constantly with Dad when he lived there. Now he moans and moans about how much he misses my Mother, but he's still hounding her pleasures away, even in death!!

It's like what Bluebell said, I try to detach. It's not me, its him! But sometimes he is absolutely maddening.

DH just came in from the back yard and told me to be prepared for the angry neighbor. The people behind us blame our crepe myrtles for all their landscaping issues and floaters in their pool. If they planted appropriate plants in appropriate places, they would grow and look better. But we all have to deal with the trees -- I have no pines or oaks in the back, but get plenty of leaves and needles. Sigh

But we do have neighbors stop and talk about our garden in the front. We've been replacing the builder landscaping and adding color and interest, including several blooming trees. My favorite time of year is when they and start blooming -- usually only one or two at a time, and the azaleas provide a backdrop for at least some of the show.

The one tree I have not been able to get to take here is a dogwood. We tried a couple and gave up. Then when my mom passed, we tried again because they were a favorite of hers. I hear different things about whether they should grow here, but apparently there has been a fungus that has been very hard on them. We just got a variety that is supposed to be resistant. One more try.....

Springtime is my favorite for the spring green color, spring flowers and flowering trees! They are beyond gorgeous and every year I say I'm going to plant some. Thanks pink for showing us your beauties and naming them!

Dogwoods in TX? That would be a feat.

Took a serious look at mine today. Sadly, it is on its way out. I've tried everything to keep it going but it is losing a battle against some kind of bark disease . . . It was planted too deep, and then my Mom underplanted it way too much, which was not good, but it was the only spot my mean Dad would let her plant flowers. Then Dad piled rocks around the trunk and the sprinkler hits the trunk with river water every time we water because of the way the sprinkler system works . . . I don't water every day like my folks did. I have taken out about half of the plants under it, more to go, and I removed the rocks and dug a tree well around the trunk to expose the root collar, I fertilized it (hence the creeping charlie invasion) and make sure it gets enough water. But it is just dying bit by bit every year . . .

I am looking for a dogwood hybrid for the back yard to plant to get it going so that if and when the front one dies, I will still have a replacement memorial tree. I'd like to get one of the hybrids coming out of the Rutgers breeding program but they are hard to come by. I'd hate for the PO to come back to check on his tree to find it totally gone . . .

https://agproducts.rutgers.edu/dogwood/varieties.html

If the dogwood in the front dies I will probably replace it with a sour cherry like Montmorency or North Star.

I sure hope it holds on but I have to be realistic and prepare.

Another flowering tree I would love to plant is Seven Sons Tree, (Heptacodium) https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/heptacodium/temple-bloom-seven-son-flower-heptacodium-miconioides

It's not invasive, smells heavenly and blooms in early fall, unlike the other trees in my allee. Although there is something to be said for all 3 blooming together. We had some of the seven sons trees at the arboretum where I worked, they were stunners. They have a long season of interest, even the flower bracts are pretty, and so is the bark. In the end, either a native or an edible will probably win my favor though. That is if we are still in the house.

If I don't get my Mountain Silverbell planted in the back, that one is a contender too, Halesia monticola or teraptera, I've seen both . . . I planted some at the Arb. but they were mail order . . . they are also rare trees, not sure why, they are also gorgeous and smell good too . . .

Meanwhile, I still love my dogwood baby . . . sigh.

Beautiful! Love flowering trees. We

have quite a bit of room on our back hillside but not much of a water system there, so we just have one flowering tree.

Wow, beautiful! Is that a crepe myrtle? I can't grow them in my zone. I used to love seeing them out east in the Philly area when I lived there. That and all the azaleas. Azaleas grow in south MI but just don't thrive like they do in Philly. Crepe myrtles were already pushing it in Philly, so not here. They are such a perfect flowering tree. I can't grow Chaste tree here either, another sweet smelling stunner.

What a gorgeous sight! I can see why neighbors stop to appreciate them.

A Crape from former house, had matching one on other side of entrance. I miss them all.

Not to self: Crepe is what your upper arms are doing, CRAPE is the name of the tree!!

Well today while looking for a nearby nursery that sold the dogwood hybrids, I ran across a mail order source. It's far, but almost all mail order is, and not super far like the west coast or some of the other nurseries. It's in a neighboring state. So I bit the bullet and mail ordered a dogwood for the back yard. It wasn't terribly expensive so we'll see. At least I can get something started . . .

You will actually see both spelling for crape/crepe myrtles. Southern Living seems to have adopted the "e" spelling -- which follows the first crepe paper like bloom notion.

Dogwoods do grow here. I recently heard someone saying they aren't found as much south of the Dallas area, but I remember seeing them near downtown Houston growing up. They are an understory tree among the pines and oaks. I actually had one starting to settle in, but we lost the pine it was nearest and I was worried it was going to get too much sun and we relocated it since it had been in a short time. Might have been a mistake, but the intense afternoon sun might have gotten it anyway. Good luck with yours, Pink. Hope we both have a new one that will take and be happy. They are so pretty. And they remind me of my mom and how she would light up when she saw one blooming. They grow here, but they aren't terribly common,

Thanks Lascatx, guess I'm still not quite ready for dotage. I thought I had seen it spelled the other way!

The dogwood I got is a cross between the native white dogwood, Cornus florida, and Kousa dogwood, which is of East Asian origin, Cornus kousa. The Kousa is a little more hardy towards stress but I still love the natives. Much better for wildlife. I'm sort of compromising/hedging my bets because it is a memorial/specimen tree . . . the spot mine is growing right now, the native, is not ideal--full sun southern exposure. I didn't plant it . . . Like I said, we'll see how it goes, I'm up for an experiment. I also have the native flowering Serviceberry out back . . . and native witch hazel and some silky dogwood shrubs along the river.

Dogwood is so beautiful blooming white in the understory in its native habitat. Although it is native to Michigan too, it is not common here either. More of an Appalachian mountain/southern hardwood forest thing . .

What a state you have there! A little bit of everything, something for everyone, botanically speaking . . .

We have different flowering trees where I live, and the jacaranda are blooming right now. Their season is typically April through May, and they make beautiful blue-purple flowers and are one of the few trees that make bluish flowers. There are a lot in my neighborhood and on the Sony lot, where my brother works. He doesn't like them because they cover the sidewalks with blue flowers, and he says that makes them slippery.

Of course the palm trees bloom also, at varying times of the year. There is an Australian palm two doors down from me, and its flowers look like strings of pearls.

I have a lot of palm trees in Cathedral City, but I did not plant any in Westchester. I did plant a Queen's Palm at my house in Venice, and it made interesting flowers.

Down the street from me in L.A. is an African Tulip tree, and it makes beautiful red flowers in January, when the tree has almost no leaves, and so the flowers stand out more. There are also several types of orchid trees on my street with pink or white flowers, and some of these bloom in the winter.

My favorite flowering trees are citrus because the flowers have a wonderful sweet fragrance, which is much more noticeable at night. The flowers aren't showy, but the fruit is.

I have a Silk Floss tree in my front yard in L.A. that will eventually make pink flowers like this:

This is the one in my front yard in Venice, and you can see the Queen's Palm behind it, which is also blooming. This tree blooms in October and November, and so I can always tell when it is autumn when I see these flowers. This tree is very popular in West L.A. The trees look like pink powder puffs when they are in full bloom.

More of a bush than a tree, but hybiscus are very popular in my neighborhood, and I have several in both front and back yards:

I also have agaves that get as tall as trees when they bloom, and the largest one I have will be about 25 feet tall when it blooms, but it takes about 25 years for this to happen.

Lars I always love it when you post photos of your yard! So glam by subdued midwestern standards . . .

Lars, when we were in LA for our son's undergrad graduation, the jacarandas were in full bloom and my DH was so taken with them. He wanted to find out what they were and get one here. I don't know that they would grow here, but they certainly aren't native -- and we have a problem with wanting more trees than we can accomodate anyway. But they are stunning when in bloom.

Pink, Texas is so that it includes swamps and bayous, coastal plains, piney forests, flat lands and hills, desert - it really is so diverse, and that is part of its beauty. Politicians are it's ugly -- we can work on that.

Pink - Not 100% sure the type of tree, it came with the house. We love it.

Had to laugh when Lars mentioned a Jacaranda, totally spaced we have one of those too. How I forgot I do not know. It is blooming right now and was playing havoc with my allergies before I came out to the desert. Not a great photo, but this is it.

The jacaranda growing zone is 10-11, meaning that it does not survive frost. It does not grow in Palm Springs, which is zone 9 because it gets too cold in the winter. It is very much a tropical tree, but it is quite common in the tropics, including central Mexico.

Yeah -- that wouldn't work here. We get frost nearly every year, even when we do not have hard freezes. But I have said no more trees again this year and already for next year.

Lpink, i think the variety of snowball you’re looking for is the japanese viburnum plicata. Could be another viburnum varietal though that would be better for your zone that is very similar, but i can’t recall your zone. Plicata is gorgeous, needs sun (i think 4-6 hrs) to part shade, and doesnt grow into the tree form which is what I think you want. You can always trim a little after it reaches it’s maturity after blooming. That’s what I do to keep mine under control. I only do it now about every 2-3 years.

I just love your trees and the look it gives your allee. Your neighbors must be highly envious!

I live in a weird zone. I'm in southern MI, zone 5b surrounded by 6a, which means I could have a 5b or 6a winter depending on which way the winds blow coming off of Lake Michigan. 6a plants should survive though, due to climate change. That's another complicating factor if you live on the edge of two zones . . . so with protection the first years as they establish, 6a plants can usually withstand a stressor or two, or three . . .

Pink, you once again inspired me! This time, with your thread here. I was telling hubs about it at dinner last night and he loved your photos and the idea! Soooo, this afternoon he took me out to one of our local plant nurseries and bought me (us, really) this beautiful Vitex tree (also called a Chaste tree) and 5 flowering bushes! Thanks once again for the inspiration!

BTW, we love our little wood spirit candle holder!

Vitex is popular here too -- wish I had a place for one. Enjoy that one!

Ah Chaste Tree! I always seem to find myself just outside of the zone it grows in . . . I first saw it at the Philadelphia Flower show in a landscaping display one year. Gotta have it for my yard . . . then found out it grows in Philly but not one hour north where I lived in Allentown. Same now in MI, it doesn't thrive here . . . Hubs and I got married at a camp in Philadelphia where I used to work and live, and planted a chaste tree on the grounds as part of our wedding ceremony. I hope to visit it this fall . . . it is even touch and go in Philly, needs shelter and the spot we planted it in was only marginally sheltered . . . oh well, it looked pretty at the wedding . . . .