Trees
Time to Plant Trees
Enjoy tasty fruit harvests and shade
Landscape trees beautify your home, provide privacy, and make a statement. Choose from a Shade Master, Crape Myrtle, Weeping Willow, Flowering Cherry, or Honey Locust, to name just a few. Shade trees turn a too-sunny area into dappled shade under which you can then plant a variety of plants that love shade/partial shade, besides cutting down on the summer heat over your home. Availability will change throughout the year. See more at our grower: http://www.lecooke.com/99-nursery.html
We have trees for summer shade, and gorgeous fall color-- October Glory Red Maples, Autumn Blaze Maples, Red Sunset Maple, Golden Chain, Quaking Aspen, Common Lilac, and other handsome landscape trees. Many have beautiful limb structure offering eye-catching silhouettes besides beautiful spring flowers and those awesome fall leaves. Don't wait to plant those beautiful evergreen trees, as they are magnificent in any size yard, will live for decades and are so pretty decorated in winter for Christmas! Come and see what we have to offer!
Japanese Maples are also great additions to any garden because many have an amazing trunk and branch form that can be seen when all of the leaves are gone. These trees are spectacular in the fall, and lovely in the winter as their arching branches have so much character. There's one that will thrive in your garden zone!
The Seiryu Japanese Maple, otherwise known as the Acer Palmatum ‘Seiryu’ or Japanese Maple ‘Seiryu’, Acer palmatum var. dissectum ‘Seiryu’, Acer palmatum ‘Seiryû’, Laceleaf Japanese Maple ‘Seiryu’, Cutleaf Japanese Maple ‘Seiryu’, Threadleaf Japanese Maple ‘Seiryu’, is a rather well known shrub plant by gardening enthusiasts around the world. Best known for its low maintenance and slow growth, this shrub will likely liven up your house (or garden) with its green colored leaves.
The 'Bloodgood' cultivar of Japanese maple is an ideal deciduous tree for smaller yards. Most people use them as specimen trees, although they are also used in bonsai. They bloom in spring, and this is when the red in their foliage is often at its brightest. The color darkens in summer to burgundy, or even darker. The leaves can become showier in autumn than in summer, making the foliage attractive for a full three seasons of the year.
'Sango-kaku' coral bark Japanese maple is a deciduous, small to medium-sized tree in the Sapindaceae (soapberry) family, This cultivar is noted for its coral-red bark that is particularly showy in the fall and winter after the leaves drop. Coral bark Japanese maple is a slow- to moderate-growing woody tree. Plant it in full sun to partial shade and in moist, well-drained soil. It tolerates a range of soil types including sand and heavy clay. The foliage will retain a light green-yellow color through spring and summer, and in fall it will turn bright yellow. The color intensifies in cold weather to almost salmon, and although it produces its best color in full sun, new foliage may scorch. This cultivar is drought tolerant.
See our 5-gal trees: European Birch, Cider Gum, Fremont Cottonwood (seedless), Chinese Pistache, Krauter Vesuvius Purple Plum, and some California Bay. We have Crape Myrtle, Golden Chain, Aspen, Buddleia, Elm and a large variety of fruit and nut trees, besides beautiful shade trees.
Two fruit varieties we enjoyed last year included Snow beauty Peach, a white-fleshed, free stone peach that ripens in August with a smooth, melting texture and a fine, sweet flavor -- this is a very vigorous, productive tree; and Pink Pearl, an apple with pink blossoms and fruit that actually has a pink flesh -- a rich, aromatic flavor with a crisp, juicy flesh. Whether you wish to grow berry trees for edible berries or to attract song birds, there's a certain pleasure in noticing the changing seasons among the berry trees. The bright foliage color and berries and the changing flutter of migrating song birds makes growing berry trees worthwhile.
Trees are beautiful any time of year; summertime requires deep watering weekly to keep those roots moist. Fall is the perfect time to plant them with gorgeous shades of foliage, and winter showcases their limbs. The European White birch, dwarf Alberta spruce, and Silver birch trees are always lovely in gardens and good choices for landscaping. Their fall colors are varied and beautiful to see! Trees and shrubs need water during the winter, too. Give them ample water through the fall and then water about once a month during the winter. Watering in the winter is tricky – try to pick a day when temperatures are above freezing, and water early in the day so water can be absorbed before temperatures drop at night. We have fruit trees, nut trees, willows, and Oak, just some of our selections. Our trees are healthy, and strong with good root systems. Prune fruit trees in the spring; Dave Wilson's website has some videos about how and when to prune fruit trees, and answers other questions you may have.
Imagine harvesting a bounty of produce each summer -- plums, apricots, cherries, apples, and figs, right from your own trees; how about pears or juicy peaches? Shop early each season for great plant selections: try something new like figs or pomegranates. We carry Asian, Comice, Red Bartlett, Aristocrat Pear trees, and the popular Gravenstein Apple, producing nice large, crisp and juicy apples! We also have Satsuma Plum, Persimmon and many more! Our 2025 bareroot fruit and nut trees, besides our landscape trees are available to order now!
Shade trees
Though specific directions will change depending on the Shade Trees you purchase, knowing your growing zone is an important first step. After you’ve determined your growing zone, keep sunlight and watering needs in mind for your Shade Trees. Most prefer full sun to partial sun (anywhere from 4 to 8 hours of sunlight per day) and well-drained soil. Your fertilizing and pruning needs will also depend on the Shade Trees you choose, but many of them do not require pruning.
As far as when to plant, we always recommend early spring or fall, before or after the threat of frost. As long as the ground is not frozen, however, your Shade Trees should be fine. From there, the actual planting process is easy. Select an area with well-drained soil, dig a hole large enough to accommodate the tree’s root ball (along with a bit of extra width for mature growth), place your tree and backfill the hole. Finish by watering the surrounding soil and mulching to conserve moisture. Several Shade Trees transition from green to yellow and red as the seasons change, including the October Glory, Autumn Blaze, and Tulip Poplar. Others are Evergreen varieties or may include blooms.
One of the most dazzling shade trees for fall color is the maple. No matter what size yard you have, there's a colorful type of maple tree to fit your needs. In addition to their showy leaves, some types (such as the paperbark maple and coral bark Japanese maple) display intriguing branch color and texture. Other species, such as the red maple, display brightly colored flower clusters.
The extremely pest-resistant ginkgo is the oldest tree on earth. The tree's fan-shape leaves turn yellow in fall and drop all at once. For the easiest maintenance of a ginkgo, it's best to buy only trees labeled as male, since female ginkgos produce messy, stinky (but edible) fruit. Consider the following useful cultivars: 'Autumn Gold'; 'Magyar'; Presidential Gold (Ginkgo biloba 'The President'); Emperor (Ginkgo biloba 'Woodstock'); and 'Princeton Sentry'.
With so many different sizes, colors and leaf shapes, it’s hard to describe a typical Japanese maple, but without exception, these attractive trees with their refined growth habit are an asset to the home landscape. Japanese maples are noted for their lacy, finely-cut leaves, brilliant fall color, and delicate structure. When you are growing Japanese maples, the trees need a location with full sun or partial shade, but planting a Japanese maple in full sun may result in scorched leaf margins on young trees in summer, especially in hot climates.
Growing redbud trees is a great way to add brilliant color to your landscape. In addition, the care of redbud trees is easy. Mauve-pink blossoms greet the spring, lasting for two to three weeks and adding color to any landscape. Leaves are heart-shaped with a long stem. Redbuds are not large trees and will reach between 20 and 30 feet (6-9 m.) in height and 15 to 35 feet (4.5-10.6 m.) in width. The trunk is generally divided close to the ground.
