Larry Smith and the Riverside Gardens team talk all things pots, plants and pruning in their weekly gardening column.
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So many times, when customers are shopping for small shade trees or feature trees, they overlook the large, beautiful range of standardised and weeping plants available in the Garden Centre.
Most of these plants are low-growing plants that have been grafted on to long, straight stems to lift them up off the ground to form a tree or upright large shrub.
Some of these plants are grafted twice: once joining the straight stem to a reliable root stock, then again to put the featured variety on top of the straight stem once it is mature enough to graft on to.
So, you can see that a lot of work goes into producing these plants, but the result is well worth it in the long run and worth considering for your garden.
Great examples of these, which are in full flower in the Garden Centre now, are the standardised crepe myrtles.
Weeping crepe myrtles.
We have two semi-weeping varieties, and both are looking stunning, one variety is bright pink and the other is a soft mauve.
Lagerstromia indica World Fair is the bright pink one with glossy olive-green leaves and Lagerstromia indica New Orleans is the soft mauve with bronze new growth.
Both have been flowering for weeks and will continue until well into autumn before they put on a brilliant display of autumn foliage of fiery reds and oranges.
Grafted on to 1.2m stems, they will develop a compact semi-pendulous head about 1m across, and love an open sunny spot.
Albizia julibrissin Chocolate Fountain.
An addition to our range a few years ago was Albizia julibrissin Chocolate Fountain.
This is a grafted weeping silk tree with rich burgundy foliage and a unique cascading habit.
It flowers in early summer with showy pink, silky-soft pompom flowers that contrast perfectly to the ferny bronze-green to chocolate-coloured leaves.
Albizia julibrissin Chocolate Fountain.
Grafted at 1.4m high they make a beautiful feature either in the garden or in a large planter.
Betula Pendula Youngii is a grafted weeping birch. While they still get the nice silvery white trunks of the silver birch, they grow much shorter with a very pendulous habit.
They are usually grafted at 1.8m high or a shorter version at 1.2m, and will develop a further 1.5m of branch structure above the graft, spreading out to about 4m wide and cascading all the way to the ground.
The cascading branches can be trimmed to reveal the silver trunk and allow for under planting, making a great feature.
While most people know of weeping cherries and their spectacular blossom displays in spring, very few know of weeping apricots, Prunus Mume Pendula.
Weeping apricots flower a lot earlier than the weeping cherries, often starting around mid-June and continuing for several weeks if the weather is favourable.
Their semi-double, soft pink blossoms are individually spaced out along the branches, appearing at the top of the tree first before extending down along the weeping branches to make a delicate-looking display.
From the same family as the Forrest Pansy, Cercis canadensis ‘Covey’ Lavender Twist is a small, deciduous, weeping tree with heart-shaped green leaves that turn a burnt yellow colour in autumn.
They have a lavender pink floral display that hugs tightly to the bare branches before the leaves appear in spring.
Grafted on to a 1.5m stem, they will grow to about 2.5m high and wide with a dense cover of foliage.
Acer platanoides Globosum is an upright standard Norway maple with large bold green leaves.
They have a compact, naturally symmetrical, globe-shaped canopy that required little to no pruning to keep in shape.
Grafted on to a 1.8m trunk, they will grow to about 4m to 5m high and wide, making a formal-looking tidy shade tree.
They have a slow to moderate growth rate, but are well worth the wait in the long run.
A smaller standardised maple is Acer palmatum red globe. This is a compact form of Japanese maple grown on a 1.5m stem.
In spring, it has bright red new growth that matures to a soft green over the summer months and finishes with a display of vivid autumn colour.
Having a tight compact spherical canopy of only 1.5m round, they can be used as a small feature plant in the garden or a beautiful specimen in a large planter.
Very different in appearance to the classic weeping maple.
Weeping elm.
There are numerous varieties of standardised and weeping trees you might consider for your garden from small tub plants right up to the majestic weeping elms, it just requires thinking outside the square when planning a garden.
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