19 Dwarf Ornamental Trees to Grow | Ornamental Dwarf Evergreen Trees

Suyash is a Master Gardener and the Editorial and Strategy Director at BalconyGardenWeb.com. With a focus on houseplant care, he combines over a decade of hands-on horticultural experience with editorial expertise to guide and educate plant enthusiasts.
Learn About Our Editorial Policy

2-Minute Read

Perfect for driveways and containers, growing Dwarf Ornamental Trees is one of the best ways to add an appeal to the architectural design of your home!

If you are looking forward to adding color and accent with a bold statement indoors, then growing Dwarf Ornamental Trees in containers is going to do the trick! Not only they enhance the indoor look, but they bring the best of nature with greenery and their dense foliage! Here are some of the best varieties that you can go for!

Checkout Our Article on Best Ornamental Grasses for Containers Here! 


1. Jack Dwarf Pear

Dwarf Ornamental Trees

Botanical Name: Pyrus calleryana ‘Jaczam’

Height: 10-15 feet

Jack dwarf pear is an ornamental tree, with beautiful white flowers. The glossy leaves come with a hint of yellow, orange, and red. This tree has an upright oval shape, ideal for close-packed spaces and its tight branching structure requires minimal pruning as well.

2. Firebird Crabapple

Botanical Name: Malus sargentii ‘Select A’

Height: 6-8 Feet

Firebird Dwarf Crabapple trees are ideal for both small and large gardens. The tree produces a cluster of fragrant white flowers during mid-spring. This disease-tolerant tree offers fruits persistently. They grow well in full sun and well-drained soil.

3. Butterfly Magnolia

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 2

Botanical Name: Magnolia ‘Butterflies’

Height: 10-20 feet

The yellow flowers of ‘Butterfly Magnolia’ when opens fully resemble a flying butterfly, hence the name. The tree is covered with attractive fragrant yellow cup-shaped flowers held at the top of the branches in early spring before the leaves.

4. Crabapple

Botanical Name: Malus X ‘Royal Raindrops’

Height: 15-20 feet

Crabapple tree offers beautiful bright pink flowers with matching, glossy dark purple leaves during the summer. The fall color is a mixture of purple, bronze, and orange. This ornamental tree also produces bright red, tiny fruits in late summer.

5. Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 4

Botanical Name: Amelanchier x Grandiflora

Height: 15-20 feet

This ornamental tree is prized with attractive white flowers in late April or early May. Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry also produces edible June berries that are loved by many birds. The tree is also disease-resistant and does well in part shade.

6. Japanese Maple

Botanical Name: Acer palmatum

Height: 2-25 feet

Japanese Maple is a perfect dwarf ornamental tree. It is a slow grower and offers the foliage in a variety of colors, ranging from purple to green, to red with interesting canopies and shapes. The attractive leaves make this tree a stunning container specimen.

7. Lavender Twist Redbud

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 6

Botanical Name: Cercis canadensis ‘Covey’

Height: 5-15 feet

The lavender twist redbud flowers in rose pea-like blossoms from early spring. It forms green foliage, which turns burgundy in spring. This variety has a show, brown bark, and ornamental fruits. The heart-shaped leaves also attract butterflies!

8. Hydrangea ‘Grandiflora’

Botanical Name: Hydrangea paniculata ‘Grandiflora’

Height: 10-15 feet

This deciduous shrub produces dense, upright panicles of flower heads, having a white shade that turns to pink as the fall approaches. They flower profusely in fall, so much that the tree bends with their weight! Hydrangeas do well in both sun and shade.

9. Kousa Dogwood Heart Throb

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 8

Botanical Name: Cornus kousa

Height: 10-15 feet

Famous for their long-lasting flowers, the Heart Throb is really going to take your breath away with its stunning foliage and splendid, pink flowers! Come June and the tree is going to be full of rose-pink bracts with matching, dark green foliage!

10. Dwarf Korean Lilac

Botanical Name: Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’

Height: 4-5 feet

The dwarf Korean Lilac produces fragrant, tubular pink flowers from purple buds, in early spring. This disease-resistant ornament species is one of the ideal container dwarf ornamental trees. You can grow it as a deciduous hedge as well.

11. Star Magnolia

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 10

Botanical Name: Magnolia stellata

Height: 15-20 feet

Star Magnolia is a rounded small tree or shrub, forming an upright conical crown that spreads with age. The leaves are dark green elliptical, simple, and alternate in shape. It produces fragrant white or pink flowers during spring.

12. Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

Botanical Name: Prunus x cistena

Height: 5-8 feet

Purple leaf sand cherry is a great dwarf ornamental tree for your mini garden! This beautiful tree offers red, maroon or purple foliage. It matures into a curved form that opens from the center of the shrub. During early spring, it produces pink-white flowers.

13. Dwarf Conifers

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 12

Botanical Name: Pinophyta

Height: 6-15 feet

Conifers can be great dwarf ornamental trees. They can be trimmed and trained to keep short, easily. They produce green cones that turn brown while the tree matures. Some varieties bear full-size cones, while the other features small ones.

14. Plumeria

Botanical Name: Plumeria rubra

Height: 8-12 feet

Famous for their attractive flowers, Plumerias can be a beautiful Dwarf Ornamental Tree for your garden! With evergreen foliage and matching creamy fragrant flowers, they continue to add an appeal to wherever you are going to grow them!

15. Hinoki Dwarf Cypress

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 14

Botanical Name: Chamaecyparis obtusa

Height: 4-6 feet

Native to Japan, hinoki cypress has three dwarf cultivars, ‘Nana Gracilis’, ‘Nana Lutea,’ and ‘Nana.’ It features rich green, textured foliage that grows in a conical shape or structure. All three varieties perform best in full to partial sunlight in well-draining, moist soil.

16. Dragon Tree

Botanical Name: Dracaena draco

Height: 8-15 feet

The dragon tree is an evergreen, slow-growing plant from the Canary Islands. This dwarf ornamental tree can survive drought, well. It grows in an umbrella shape when the tree reaches 10-15 years of age; the buds start to produce flowers.

17. Elephant Foot Palm

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 16

Botanical Name: Beaucarnea recurvata

Height: 10-20 feet

Also known as the Ponytail palm, this unique-looking, easy to grow plant is not a true palm but a succulent. This dwarf tree displays domed ‘stump’ that tapers into a thin stem. It forms one or more rosettes of green, leathery leaves that can reach up to 3 feet long.

18. Caribbean Copper Plant

Botanical Name: Euphorbia cotinfolia

Height: 8-10 feet

This winter-hardy, deciduous tropical shrub, is endemic to Mexico and South America. It offers beautiful burgundy-red foliage and small white flowers that are encapsulated by white to creamy bracts. The plant thrives well in full sun to light shade.

19. Royal Poinciana

Dwarf Ornamental Trees 18

Botanical Name: Delonix regia

Height: 10-25 feet

With scarlet flowers adorning and covering up the entire, dense, dark green foliage, this is a tree to plant if you are looking for an added appeal to your driveway! The tree thrives in full sun so choose an area where it gets ample light.

Recent Posts

Join our 3 Million Followers:

[easy-followers hide_title="yes" new_window="yes" nofollow="yes" show_total="no" total_type="text_before" columns="3" template="roundcolor" nospace="no" hide_value="no" hide_text="no"]

Related Articles

7 COMMENTS

  1. The dense canopy of the Camperdown Elm gives the feel of a secret hiding place. This small tree is relatively short and wide, typically growing to a height of 15 to 25 feet and a width of 20 to 30 feet. A lot of seeds get blown around the yard when this tree fruits, so expect some cleaning up.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here