Why is an ideal tree for a terrace or other moderate-size outdoor living area? Generally you’ll need a plant that’s on the side, great looking when you’re sitting near or beneath it, and nicely groomed without needing regular cleaning or pruning.
That project description seems so demanding that you might choose to resort to a significant umbrella, but these five choices are well behaved, and they’re large enough to offer some shade but not so large that they outgrow their own spaces.
Crape myrtle and Japanese walnut are deciduous; another three are evergreen and suited mainly for California and other spaces that are mild. The emphasis here is on utility. If you give a higher priority to beauty, consider other, more glamorous choices with some pronounced frailties — like flowering cherry (having a very long dormant period) or jacaranda (stunning but a notorious mess maker).
Laura Trevey
Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)
Even in the hottest climates, crape myrtle does something pretty every day of the year. From the warmth of summer, its blossoms bloom in bouquet-size clusters of rich shades of red, pink, white or purple. The leaves turn yellow, orange and red in autumn. Leafless trees in the winter show brown and pink bark that is sometimes so smooth it gleams. To get a terrace tree, depending on your area, you can choose a plant with a single trunk or multiple trunks.
USDA zones: 7 to 9 (find your zone)
Water necessity: Moderate
Light requirement: Total sun
Mature size: Up to 25 feet tall and 25 feet wide; pruning retains it much smaller.
Growing hint: In cool coastal climates, mildew often strikes the foliage and flowers. It is best to refrain from planting this tree if you become aware of similar harm in your area.
Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum)
There is no wonder that Japanese maples are amazing, using colorful leaves in spring and autumn, and hot nude trunks in winter (some even have colorful trunks). With so many different forms available, the key is choosing the best one for your terrace. As a rule, the typical green-leaf species (Acer palmatum) tolerates more sun and warmth (which can accumulate on a paved terrace) better than varieties using fancy or colorful leaves; the typical 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 aspect of the afternoon in most regions
Mature size: 15 to 25 feet high and 10 to 25 feet wide, depending on variety
Growing tips: Pick your plant in spring or autumn to acquire the desired foliage colour. Provide well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter. Burned tips of leaves indicate sunburn (provide more shade) or harm from salts in water (flood the root canal with water).
Fern Pine (Podocarpus gracilior)
following is a plant so malleable, so Gumby like this you can put it into all sorts of things: a shrub, a hedge, an espalier, a small tree. As a terrace tree, trained using a single rear and a roundish shirt, it’s delicate, weepy, graceful, deep green and quite simple to grow. It is not actually a fern or a pine; the title stems from the lacy leaves that are so slim, they seem like needles.
USDA zones: 8 to 10
Water necessity: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun to partial shade or almost full color
Mature size: 20 to 30 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide when trained as a shrub
Growing suggestion: Maintain a shrub shape by trimming off branches from the lower back and allowing the top grow bushy (snip off the surface to increase bushiness).
Arbutus ‘Marina’
My daughter just implanted ‘Marina’ in her Mediterannean-style courtyard, since it reminds her of the closely connected Pacific Coast native madrone trees — nearly impossible to grow in the home — that she used to watch summer camp. (And every time I see her tree, I believe of carving a seventh-grade girl’s initials on a madrone back while on a Boy Scout camping trip in another time and place.)
Arbutus ‘Marina’ is far more accepting of garden watering and domestic life in general, but it keeps some of the madrone’s wild beauty — twisted, peely-barked, glossy reddish trunks; little pink blossoms; large leathery evergreen leaves. Not perfectly utilitarian, the shrub is a bit messy and will die back, but sometimes sentimental motives trump everything else.
USDA zones: 7 to 9
Water requirement: Light
Light requirement: Total sun
Mature size: 25 feet tall and wide, but can grow bigger
Growing suggestion: Drainage must be near perfect. Make sure that you add ground bark or other organic matter into the planting hole.
Monrovia
Sweet Bay (Laurus nobilis)
This is the tree that provides us bay leaves for cooking and provided the ancient Greeks with leaves for their personalities’ wreaths — it’s also called Grecian laurel. Left alone, sweet bay can turn into a good-size tree, but trimming and shearing can enforce the right size to get a terrace — in the floor or a huge pot. It is the perfect alternative for a spot close to the grill or kitchen leaves for cooking will be convenient, even though they’re generally used dried, not clean.
USDA zones: 8 to 11
Water necessity: Moderate
Light requirement: Full sun or partial shade
Mature size: Finally around 40 feet tall and wide; pruning generally keeps it smaller.
Growing tip: Clip tip expansion publicly for kitchen usage or to give away. This helps control the dimensions in addition to encourages bushiness along with a round top.
More: Guides to gardening on your climate