Summer Is Unofficially Here. What Trees and Shrubs Can You Still Plant?

Memorial Day has come and gone – and even though the calendar says the start of summer is June 21, for most people, summer is already here.

If you have been putting off planting a few new trees or shrubs, fear not. Your procrastination might actually pay off. Here are some great late-spring trees and shrubs you can still plant with great success.

In many parts of the country, the cooler temperatures, plentiful rain and high humidity make for ideal conditions. Here are some great trees to plant now:

Spring Snow Crabapple

This deciduous small ornamental tree grows up to 20 feet tall and is completely covered with white flowers in the spring. Once the blooms fade, all summer long you’ll enjoy bright green leaves.

Bradford Pear

If you want a fast-growing shade tree with an ornamental beauty, this one is hard to beat. Great for city conditions and poor soil, Bradford Pears grow to 30 feet tall and give you white flowers in spring – and red and gold foliage in the fall.

Ivory Silk Tree Lilac 


This tree is known as a hardy, vigorous tree with a rounded crown. You can brighten your spring garden with its clusters of white flowers. This lilac is perfect for accenting your landscape or planting in groups in the full sun for the best flowering.

Red Select Cherry 


This ornamental small tree offers you two spring months of white flowers and grows to heights of 25 feet when planted in full sun with good drainage. The tree grows in pyramid shape – with light green new growth, and red leaves as they mature.

Toba Hawthorne 


Here is a small, deciduous tree with an upright, rounded habit and no thorns. This hardy tree offers fragrant white blooms that turn pink and are followed by red fruit. Known for a unique twisted trunk, Hawthornes can grow to 15 feet tall and 12 feet wide in full sun.

And here are some shrubs to add beauty and fragrance to your yard:

Miss Kim Lilac

This new hardy dwarf lilac is a compact, deciduous shrub. Fragrant and late-flowering, plant this in full sun for a shrub that will grow up to five feet tall and three feet wide.

Bridal Wreath Spirea


An easy-to-grow shrub that stands up to the elements and offers rich fall foliage. White flowers in spring are a highlight of this shrub that grows to six feet tall and wide. Plant in full sun.

Forsythia

This is a fast-growing, upright shrub with bright yellow flowers covering arching branches. Lynwood Gold Forsythia grows up to 10 feet tall and is perfect for mass plantings in full sun.

Purple Lilac

Fill your yard’s shrub areas with large clusters of fragrant, lavender blooms every spring. These fast-growing shrubs offer give you up to 12 feet tall and wide swaths of foliage.

A few notes. Check the soil drainage before you plant anything. You’ll want to allow for plenty of drainage by planting on berms or raised soil mounds. You can also boost drainage by running perforated drain piping through a gravel-filled underground trench. Make sure you have the drain set about 18 inches deep in the soil.

Dig a wide, shallow planting hole – at least twice the width of a plant’s roots. Give your roots oxygen by creating open spaces between particles of soil.

Don’t overdo the pruning. Unpruned, or lightly pruned trees tend to do better than pruned trees in the first year of re-planting. This is because the roots can keep up with the demand for water if the soil has plenty of moisture. So make sure you water regularly!

Finally, fertilize as needed. Talk to your local garden center professional for tips on your specific soil and climate conditions. It’s most important not to deprive new plantings of nitrogen and other nutrients after planting.

Good luck and have a great year of spring planting!