If your favourite season is spring, then you want to shout it out loud to the world – a bit like these flowering trees! Their blossoms are the biggest, brightest and most eye-catching in town, giving your garden a real wow factor. These aren’t trees to hide away, they’re for taking centre stage in the middle of your front lawn or for announcing a boundary in truly spectacular fashion. With that in mind, we’ve listed some of our favourite flowering trees, including magnolias, crabapples and, of course, cherry blossom trees.

Jump to:

• What is the best flowering tree for aesthetic appeal?
• What is the best flowering tree for wildlife?
• What is the most unusual flowering tree?
• What is the best traditional flowering tree?
• What is the best small flowering tree?
• What is the best evergreen flowering tree?
• What is the best winter-flowering tree?
• What is the best fragrant flowering tree?

What is the best flowering tree for aesthetic appeal?

‘Kanzan’ Cherry Blossom Tree

For sheer, unadulterated visual oomph, it’s hard to look past ‘Kanzan’. This fan favourite is arguably the most spectacular of all cherry blossoms, dazzling with its fluffy chrysanthemum flowers between March and May. Add to that the array of autumnal hues the foliage takes on later in the year and you’re left with a true all-rounder of a tree. Honourable mentions go to a couple of other cherry blossoms, namely Cheal’s weeping cherry blossom and the ‘Flagpole’ cherry blossom, as well as ‘Susan’ magnolia and the foxglove tree.

What is the best flowering tree for wildlife?

‘Evereste’ Crabapple Tree

When it comes to the wildlife appeal of flowering trees, few can hope to rival the crabapple (Malus). ‘Evereste’ is a particularly attractive example, boasting not only the Royal Horticultural Society’s Plants for Pollinators designation, but also its Award of Garden Merit, for stellar performance in British gardens. The bejeweled fruits are popular with all sorts of animals, including voles, mice, blackbirds and thrushes, while the charming white, spring blossoms are a big hit with pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. Honourable mentions go to ‘Paul’s Scarlet’ hawthorn and rowan trees.

What is the most unusual flowering tree?

Foxglove Tree & Judas Tree

There are a few less common flowering trees out there that always pique our interest, notably the foxglove and judas trees. Paulownia tomentosa and Cercis siliquastrum respectively, the former features foxglove-like flowers in the spring that boast a lovely fragrance, as well as broad light green, cordate (heart-shaped) leaves, while the latter stuns with a display of pinkish-purple flowers early in the year that are said to look like tiny hummingbirds! An honourable mention goes to ‘Kilmarnock’ dwarf weeping willow, whose adorable yellow-grey catkins make a fine addition to any balcony or patio.

What is the best traditional flowering tree?

‘Accolade’ Cherry Blossom Tree

More of a traditionalist? We’d recommend going for ‘Accolade’ cherry blossom. An early recipient of the RHS Award of Merit, having received the accolade (pun absolutely intended) in 1961. Other traditional flowering trees include fruiting trees like apples, pears and plums, which have long graced many a bountiful UK orchard, while magnolias, too, have appeared in countless front gardens as statement feature trees throughout the years.

What is the best small flowering tree?

'Hakuro-Nishiki' Flamingo Willow Tree

If you’ve only got a small amount of room with which to play, then we recommend the flamingo willow tree. Now, admittedly, this isn’t so much a flowering tree as much as it is a tree with foliage in a range of cheery, flamboyant hues, but come on – what are we supposed to do… Ignore the flamingo willow?! We thought not. Growing to just a couple of metres tall, this tree offers big impact with a little footprint.

For flowering tree purists, we’ll give ‘Snow Showers’ cherry blossom tree a shout out; with an eventual height of well under two metres, this bloomin’ beautiful tree will look brilliant as a small feature tree, and will even grow nicely in a large pot.

What is the best evergreen flowering tree?

Grafted Patio Lemon Tree & Grafted Patio Orange Tree

For our favourite evergreen flowering trees, we’re actually turning to some fruiting citrus trees, particularly lemon and orange trees. While these tender plants need to overwinter indoors, their luxuriant green foliage look incredible year-round, and serves as a brilliant backdrop against which the fragrant white blossoms and colourful fruits can really come to the fore.

What is the best winter-flowering tree?

'Autumnalis' White Winter Flowering Cherry Tree

If you want your blossoms through the winter months – and why wouldn’t you? – then ‘Autumnalis’ (or its pink sibling ‘Autumnalis Rosea’) is a great pick. Boasting its blossoms right throughout the winter months, this cherry tree will help bring some brightness and jollity to the garden in what is an otherwise bleak, grey and often miserable season.

What is the best fragrant flowering tree?

‘Pink Cascade’ False Acacia Tree

With flowers redolent of the most splendid wisteria vines, ‘Pink Cascade’ makes a fabulous addition to any garden with the space. And while the blooms look spectacular – and they really, really do – it’s made it onto this list thanks to its wonderful fragrance. The sweet, floral perfume radiated by the flowers results in a tree with true multisensory appeal. Honourable mentions in this category go to the evergreen magnolia and Yoshino ornamental cherries.

Final thoughts

So there you have it, our picks for the very best flowering trees. There are so many more amazing flowering trees out there, though, so make sure to give our selection a good browse before you make a decision. Whilst you’re here, why not check out our guide to planting a tree?