10 Woody Plants for Pots
Trees, shrubs and evergreens make great specimens in a big pot. Here are 10 of my favorite woody plants that’ll make a great splash in a container:
Weeping red cut-leaf Japanese maple.
1.) Cutleaf weeping Japanese maple. The leaves are lacy, and the habit is umbrella-like. Particularly nice are red-leafed ‘Tamukeyama,’ ‘Garnet’ and ‘Red Feather.’ Figure on 6 to 8 feet tall and wide. Best in wind-protected area.
2.) Purple smokebush. Rounded leaves of purple-burgundy on a multiple-stemmed mini-tree. Gets creamy-white flower “puffs” in late spring. Prune heavily each year spring to maintain about 8 feet tall. Full sun.
3.) Japanese umbrella pine. A slow-growing, pyramidal evergreen with unusual needles that look like fleshy light-green straws spraying out of the branches. Let grow to about 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet around, then prune until ultimately planting in ground. Part shade.
Japanese umbrella pine needles and its cones.
4.) Weeping Serbian spruce ‘Pendula Bruns.’ A little hard to find, but it’s a slow-growing, needled evergreen with a weeping habit and silvery blue needles. Figure on 10 feet tall, 4 feet wide. Full sun.
5.) Dappled willow ‘Hakura Nishiki.’ A part-shade mini-tree with multiple stems and heavily variegated new growth that makes the wispy plant look like it’s almost white. Prune back nearly to the ground at end of winter to maintain 6-by-4-foot shrub, or prune to single-stem mini-tree. Shade to part shade.
6.) Japanese plum yew ‘Fastigiata.’ A deer-resistant, dark-green, soft-needled evergreen that looks like a yew except the needles are bigger and flatter. This one grows into a skinny column of about 8 to 10 feet tall but only 2 feet around. Shears well. Shade or part shade.
7.) Elderberry ‘Black Lace.’ A large, fast-growing shrub that puts out heavily dissected leaves of nearly jet black. Gets pinkish-white flower clusters in late spring. Can grow 8 feet tall and around in single year after heavy end-of-winter cutback. Can be pruned during season to maintain shape and size you like. Sun or part shade.
8.) Tree-type hydrangea. These are hydrangeas that grow upright to 6 or 8 feet and get cone-shaped flowers from mid-summer to early fall. ‘Limelight’ blooms pure white; ‘Vanilla Strawberry’ and ‘Pinky Winky’ are bicolor white and pink. Cut back nearly to ground at end of every winter or prune as a single-stem “lollipop” tree. Sun or part shade.
Sumac 'Tiger Eye.'
9.) Sumac ‘Tiger Eye.’ A 6-foot deer-resistant shrub with heavily dissected leaves of neon gold all season. You’ll either love it or hate it because of its leafy resemblance to tree of Heaven. Very striking in texture and color and turns coppery in fall. Sun or part shade.
10.) Tree peony. A woody type of peony that gets the same, large, rose-like spring flowers as the more familiar herbaceous peonies, only these don’t die back to the ground in winter. Growth habit is like a small, leaf-dropping tree. Easy to maintain at 6 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet around. Sun or part shade.