make life beautiful
Specimen Plants
A specimen tree is a tree chosen for its unique beauty, shape, color, or special characteristics that make it a focal point in a landscape. These trees stand out due to their striking foliage, bark, flowers, or structure and are often used to create visual interest throughout the year.
Incorporating Specimen Trees into Your Landscape
Anchor a Garden: Use a specimen tree as the central feature around which other plants are arranged, creating a cohesive and balanced design. ​
Enhance Small Spaces: Planting a specimen tree in a compact area can introduce visual interest and make the space feel more dynamic without overwhelming it. ​
Create a Memorial Garden: Establish a serene spot by planting a specimen tree alongside a bench or a commemorative marker, offering a place for reflection and remembrance. ​
Add Interest to Rock Gardens: Specimen trees with unique forms or colors can provide contrast and depth when integrated into rock garden settings. ​
Define Outdoor Spaces: Strategically placing specimen trees can help delineate different areas within a landscape, guiding movement and creating distinct zones.
Japanese Maples
Bloodgood
Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’
One of the most popular Japanese maple varieties, deep purple leaves emerge in spring and mature to a deep burgundy all summer. In fall, the palm-shaped leaves turn a brilliant red.
Plant in full sun to part shade. It grows 15 to 20 feet tall and wide.
Crimson Queen
Acer palmatum ‘Crimson Queen’
Height: 8 – 10 feet
Spread: 10 – 12 feet
Light: Full Sun to Part Shade
Zone: 5 – 8
Crimson Queen is a dwarf, rounded tree with a weeping branching habit that adds a graceful texture to the garden. Foliage emerges purple in spring and develops to spectacular shades of red and orange in fall.
Plant in full sun to part shade. It grows 8 to 10 feet tall and 10 to 12 feet wide.
Tamukeyama
Acer palmatum ‘Tamukeyama’
Sporting a mounding and weeping form, lacy foliage emerges a beautiful crimson-red fading to a purple-green in summer, then turning stunning fiery shades of red in fall.
Plant in full sun to part shade. It grows 6 to 8 feet tall and 8 to 12 feet wide.
Katsura
Acer palmatum ‘Katsura’
Palm-like leaves emerge yellow in spring and develop to chartreuse during the season. As fall approaches the leaves turn stunning shades of orange. Even in winter the deep purple younger branches and twigs stand out against the older, gray bark.
Plant in full sun to part shade. It grows 10 to 12 feet tall and wide
Evergreens
Creeping Blue Spruce
Picea pungens ‘ Glauca Procumbens ‘
This spreading groundcover produces a striking effect when planted to drape over a rock wall or slope. The attractive blue form makes an excellent alternative to ground covering junipers.
Plant is full sun. It grows 1 to 2 feet tall and spreads 6 to 8 feet.
Fukuzumi Japanese White Pine
Pinus parviflora ‘Fukuzumi’     Â
Height: Irregular up to 6 feet
Spread: Irregular up to 12 feet
Light: Full Sun to Part Shade
Zone: 4 – 7
A slow growing Japanese pine with a unique 45o branching habit gives a windswept character to the landscape. Short, blue-green, twisted needles are attractive when viewed up close.
Dwarf Hinoki Falsecypress
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’
Height: 3 – 6 feet
Spread: 2 – 4 feet
Light: Full Sun to Part Shade
Zone: 4 – 7
Dwarf Hinoki Falsecypress is a dense multi-stemmed evergreen shrub with a distinctive and refined pyramidal form. Â Its shell-shaped sprays give it a relatively fine texture with almost ferny, delicate foliage that sets it apart from other landscape plants – ideal for detail uses.
