Ornamental trees

When choosing ornamental trees to grow in Melbourne, it's important to balance beauty with hardiness. Here are some of our top picks for ornamental trees to introduce into your landscape:

• Ornamental pear — these soaring trees are absolutely stunning, and will always do well in Melbourne's clay soils and frosty conditions.
• Crabapple — these hardworking trees are related to common apple trees. They bear smaller, tarter fruit and stunning arrays of flowers.
• Flowering Cherry — a key highlight of Japan's northern regions, the Flowering Cherry Blossom tree produces some astounding colours. They look fantastic when planted as pairs.
• Lagerstroemia — the Crepe Myrtle produces gorgeous arrays of deciduous and evergreen foliage in many colours, ranging from white to blood red.
• Gleditsia — the North American Honey Locust is perfect for growing strongly throughout the frosty Melbourne winter.

Ornamental trees require a bit of time and effort to truly flourish. Once the saplings are stable and growing strongly, there shouldn't be any problems. Here are some things to keep in mind when preparing to cultivate your new trees.

• Planting — ensure that your ornamentals are well spaced after planting, giving the roots enough room to extend outwards.
• Watering — ornamentals require strong watering in the first few weeks and months. Afterwards, they will seek out their own water sources with ease.
• Feeding — check your soil content and assess whether your new saplings could benefit from a little extra food after planting.
• Mulching — mulch is an excellent feeder and insulator. As it decomposes around the base of the tree, it feeds the roots and protects them from frost.
• Staking — prop up your fledgling ornamental trees with a few stakes to ensure that they are growing in the right direction.

Pruning promotes stronger growth by removing old and juvenile parts of the plant. By trimming back to the stronger stems, new and stronger growth is encouraged. Here's how to do it:

1. Get ready to prune in the colder months while the plant is dormant. That way, your ornamental will grow strongly from the fresh cuts.
2. Ensure that you remove dead and diseased branches to prevent infection.
3. For the same reason, you should also trim back branches that overlap. Bark rubbing on bark promotes disease.
4. Make sure that you remove branches that obstruct views, paths, and driveways. Always be careful of power lines and other live wire sources.

All Green is proud to offer delivery around Melbourne. For a set cost, we can deliver orders to defined suburbs around our Hoppers Crossing nursery. Outside of these areas, we set the price of delivery based on how far away your landscaping site is from our store.