Gardening Guides
Landscape Design
5 Best-Behaved Trees to Grace a Patio
Big enough for shade but small enough for easy care, these amiable trees mind their manners in a modest outdoor space
What makes an ideal tree for a patio or other moderate-size outdoor living area? Generally you’ll want a plant that’s on the small side, good looking when you’re sitting near or under it, and well groomed without the need for frequent pruning or cleanup.
That job description sounds so demanding that you may want to resort to a big umbrella, but these five choices are well behaved, and they’re big enough to offer some shade but not so big that they outgrow their spaces.
Crape myrtle and Japanese maple are deciduous; the other three are evergreen and suited mainly for California and other mild climates. The emphasis here is on utility. If you give a higher priority to beauty, look at other, more glamorous choices with some pronounced frailties — such as flowering cherry (with a long dormant season) or jacaranda (gorgeous but a notorious mess maker).
Consult a local landscape designer to find the perfect tree for your patio
That job description sounds so demanding that you may want to resort to a big umbrella, but these five choices are well behaved, and they’re big enough to offer some shade but not so big that they outgrow their spaces.
Crape myrtle and Japanese maple are deciduous; the other three are evergreen and suited mainly for California and other mild climates. The emphasis here is on utility. If you give a higher priority to beauty, look at other, more glamorous choices with some pronounced frailties — such as flowering cherry (with a long dormant season) or jacaranda (gorgeous but a notorious mess maker).
Consult a local landscape designer to find the perfect tree for your patio
Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)
There’s no question that Japanese maples are beautiful, with colorful leaves in spring and fall, and graceful bare trunks in winter (some even have colorful trunks). With so many different varieties available, the secret is choosing the right one for your patio. As a rule, the common green-leaf species (Acer palmatum) tolerates more sun and heat (which can accumulate on a paved patio) better than varieties with fancy or colorful leaves; the common green one also tends to grow faster and taller.
USDA zones: 5 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun in cool-summer climates; partial shade during the hottest part of the day in most areas
Mature size: 15 to 25 feet high and 10 to 25 feet wide, depending on variety
Growing tips: Choose your plant in spring or fall to get the desired foliage color. Provide well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Burned tips of leaves indicate sunburn (provide more shade) or damage from salts in water (flood the root zone with water).
There’s no question that Japanese maples are beautiful, with colorful leaves in spring and fall, and graceful bare trunks in winter (some even have colorful trunks). With so many different varieties available, the secret is choosing the right one for your patio. As a rule, the common green-leaf species (Acer palmatum) tolerates more sun and heat (which can accumulate on a paved patio) better than varieties with fancy or colorful leaves; the common green one also tends to grow faster and taller.
USDA zones: 5 to 8
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun in cool-summer climates; partial shade during the hottest part of the day in most areas
Mature size: 15 to 25 feet high and 10 to 25 feet wide, depending on variety
Growing tips: Choose your plant in spring or fall to get the desired foliage color. Provide well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Burned tips of leaves indicate sunburn (provide more shade) or damage from salts in water (flood the root zone with water).
Fern Pine (Podocarpus gracilior)
Here’s a plant so malleable, so Gumby like that you can shape it into all sorts of things: a shrub, a hedge, an espalier, a small tree. As a patio tree, trained with a single trunk and a roundish top, it’s delicate, weepy, graceful, deep green and very easy to grow. It's not actually a fern or a pine; the name comes from the lacy leaves that are so slim, they look like needles.
USDA zones: 8 to 10
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade or almost full shade
Mature size: 20 to 30 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide when trained as a tree
Growing tip: Maintain a tree shape by pruning off side branches from the lower trunk and letting the top grow bushy (snip off the top to increase bushiness).
Here’s a plant so malleable, so Gumby like that you can shape it into all sorts of things: a shrub, a hedge, an espalier, a small tree. As a patio tree, trained with a single trunk and a roundish top, it’s delicate, weepy, graceful, deep green and very easy to grow. It's not actually a fern or a pine; the name comes from the lacy leaves that are so slim, they look like needles.
USDA zones: 8 to 10
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade or almost full shade
Mature size: 20 to 30 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide when trained as a tree
Growing tip: Maintain a tree shape by pruning off side branches from the lower trunk and letting the top grow bushy (snip off the top to increase bushiness).
Arbutus ‘Marina’
My daughter just planted ‘Marina’ in her Mediterannean-style courtyard, because it reminds her of the closely related Pacific Coast native madrone trees — nearly impossible to grow at home — that she used to see at summer camp. (And every time I see her tree, I think of carving a seventh-grade girl’s initials on a madrone trunk while on a Boy Scout camping trip in another time and place.)
Arbutus ‘Marina’ is much more accepting of garden watering and domestic life in general, but it retains some of the madrone’s wild beauty — twisted, peely-barked, glossy reddish trunks; little pink flowers; big leathery evergreen leaves. Not perfectly utilitarian, the tree is a bit messy and tends to die back, but sometimes sentimental reasons trump everything else.
Hire a landscaper to maintain your trees
USDA zones: 7 to 9
Water requirement: Light
Light requirement: Full sun
Mature size: 25 feet tall and wide, but can grow larger
Growing tip: Drainage must be near perfect. Make sure you incorporate ground bark or other organic matter into the planting hole.
My daughter just planted ‘Marina’ in her Mediterannean-style courtyard, because it reminds her of the closely related Pacific Coast native madrone trees — nearly impossible to grow at home — that she used to see at summer camp. (And every time I see her tree, I think of carving a seventh-grade girl’s initials on a madrone trunk while on a Boy Scout camping trip in another time and place.)
Arbutus ‘Marina’ is much more accepting of garden watering and domestic life in general, but it retains some of the madrone’s wild beauty — twisted, peely-barked, glossy reddish trunks; little pink flowers; big leathery evergreen leaves. Not perfectly utilitarian, the tree is a bit messy and tends to die back, but sometimes sentimental reasons trump everything else.
Hire a landscaper to maintain your trees
USDA zones: 7 to 9
Water requirement: Light
Light requirement: Full sun
Mature size: 25 feet tall and wide, but can grow larger
Growing tip: Drainage must be near perfect. Make sure you incorporate ground bark or other organic matter into the planting hole.
Sweet Bay (Laurus nobilis)
This is the tree that gives us bay leaves for cooking and supplied the ancient Greeks with leaves for their heroes’ wreaths — it’s also called Grecian laurel. Left alone, sweet bay can become a good-size tree, but trimming and shearing can enforce the right size for a patio — in the ground or a big pot. It’s the perfect choice for a spot near the grill or kitchen; leaves for cooking will be handy, although they’re usually used dried, not fresh.
USDA zones: 8 to 11
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun or partial shade
Mature size: Ultimately up to 40 feet tall and wide; pruning usually keeps it smaller.
Growing tip: Clip tip growth freely for kitchen use or to give away. This helps control the size as well as encourages bushiness and a round top.
Replacing a current plant? Let a tree company do the work for you
More: Guides to gardening in your climate
This is the tree that gives us bay leaves for cooking and supplied the ancient Greeks with leaves for their heroes’ wreaths — it’s also called Grecian laurel. Left alone, sweet bay can become a good-size tree, but trimming and shearing can enforce the right size for a patio — in the ground or a big pot. It’s the perfect choice for a spot near the grill or kitchen; leaves for cooking will be handy, although they’re usually used dried, not fresh.
USDA zones: 8 to 11
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun or partial shade
Mature size: Ultimately up to 40 feet tall and wide; pruning usually keeps it smaller.
Growing tip: Clip tip growth freely for kitchen use or to give away. This helps control the size as well as encourages bushiness and a round top.
Replacing a current plant? Let a tree company do the work for you
More: Guides to gardening in your climate
Even in the hottest climates, crape myrtle does something pretty every day of the year. In the heat of summer, its flowers bloom in bouquet-size clusters of rich shades of red, pink, purple or white. The leaves turn yellow, orange and red in fall. Leafless trees in winter reveal brown and pink bark that is sometimes so smooth it gleams. For a patio tree, depending on your space, you can choose a plant with a single trunk or multiple trunks.
USDA zones: 7 to 9 (find your zone)
Water requirement: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun
Mature size: Up to 25 feet tall and 25 feet wide; pruning keeps it much smaller.
Growing tip: In cool coastal climates, mildew often strikes the foliage and flowers. It’s best to avoid planting this tree if you notice similar damage in your area.
Landscape contractors can plant any of these trees for you