On 03/01/2015 23:36, Emery Davis wrote:
On Sat, 03 Jan 2015 17:44:35 +0000, Pam Moore wrote:

My garden is even smaller. I have 2 trees, one a columnar yew from which
I periodically cut the tallest trunk. I also have a red acer palmatum
which is much admired but now needing the attention of an expert to take
it back a bit.


Another idea is a small snakebark Acer. These are at best 4 season
trees: lovely shiny spring growth, dark summer leaves with red stems,
excellent yellow-orange fall colours, beautiful striped stems in winter.
What's more the stems change throughout the year, in some species going
from red to bright green. You might look at A. micranthum 'Candelabrum',
A. x conspicuum 'Silver Vein' (or 'Phoenix' or 'Mozart'), A. pectinatum
ssp forestii, A. tegmentosum.

I bought a flowering crab about 5 years ago from B & Q at Xmas when they
had slashed their prices to stupid amounts, it cost me around £2.00, no
label but it sat in it's pot for a couple of years till I wanted it to
mark where I had planted a cat.
Since then it's put on around 3ft but it's still only around 7 ft tall
and around 3 ft wide, masses of spring flowers, then fruit by August and
that fruit is still on it now at the start of January, when it comes off
the Blackbirds will have it.
If it starts to get to big then it could be pruned easily without doing
it harm.
David