A Small Flowering Tree for Early Spring
If you live in Illinois, you’ll be seeing an explosion of white flowering trees very soon. They. Are. EVERYWHERE! They’re also the first to bloom in this area. So I’m imploring you, especially if you’re thinking of adding an early-flowering tree to your garden (because who isn’t after a long winter?), to not be seduced by the siren song of the Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana). They’re wickedly invasive. You can read more about the curse of the Callery pear here.
Instead, I’m offering you a better option and something that blooms even earlier than the pear in my garden. It’s Saffron Sentinel Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas). I found it by chance at Home Depot last spring. It had been on my radar but I wasn’t actively hunting. Funny how that happens!
Blooming began in mid March and is still going strong two weeks later. Which is important because it fits right into the succession of flowering trees in my garden which began with the pussy willows (Salix discolor) in early march, followed by my Centennial Blush magnolias. Unfortunately, their flowers were short-lived after being coaxed by February’s 70-degree temps to bloom early then sucker punched with a stretch of bitter cold. So it goes. With the crabapples budding up as well as the Autumn Brilliance serviceberry (Amelanchier grandiflora) and Elizabeth magnolia preparing to pop, the spring show from my flowering trees is plentiful. And Saffron Sentinel is fitting in perfectly with the band.
Sulphur-colored flowers are polarizing for some. You either love them or hate them. Perhaps the fact that they arrive early in the season, when one is desperate for color and signs of spring, makes their garish color more tolerable. I’m not of that opinion as I find the color lovely and a perfect pairing to my early-flowering daffodils and the smattering of deep purple crocus bouquets that appeared in the lawn around the same time the tree flowered.
And because a tree needs to deliver more than just flowers, Saffron Sentinel is ideal. Check out that fall color! And the bark peels as it ages, offering winter interest too. Edible fruit appears in June and July although my tree, being new and young, had no fruit last year. So the birds and I will benefit from this perfect flowering tree. I love making jellies and jams and look forward to someday making a tart Saffron Sentinel jam for my toast. Jam is one of the most wonderful inventions.
Hardy in zones 4-8, Saffron Sentinel Cornelian cherry dogwood is a columnar shaped tree, growing about 20′ tall and 12′ wide at maturity, making it a great choice for small space gardens.
How do you feel about yellow in the garden? Tell me in the comments.
Love cheerful yellow blooms!
Me too! Especially after a long winter!
Love, love, love yellow in the spring garden! It’s so cheerful after the greys and browns of winter.
My first yellows are the snow crocuses in the lawn, followed not too much later by the dainty tete-a-tete daffs in all my garden beds. Makes my heart sing! If I start mentioning all the other early spring bulbs in other colors, we’ll be here all day 🙂 Yay SPRING! I garden in 6b/7a.
Thanks for all the info about cornus mas. I keep hearing about it in various places and it looks to be a winner. The fall color is luscious!
I like that you do a blog as well as YouTube, thanks. Both are well done. Keep up the good work.
I’m with you on yellow and those tete-a-tete daffs are darling! I have clumps of them beneath a crabapple tree that I’m going to have to move because the geranium macrorrhizum is swallowing them up.
Thank you so much for following along on the blog and YouTube! And Happy Spring!!!!
My fav spring yellow is the clove currant shrub-fabulous fragrance, color, and later fruit to nibble as well as an interesting form and craggy-ness to the branches in the winter. A 4 season plant for me
I’m not familiar with it but it sounds lovely. Will have to check it out!
I somehow accidentally discovered this shrub. Can’t remember where. The first couple of years, long after the ID tag fell off the deer were ruthless munching on it. It hung in there and now seems to no longer be of interest to them. It finally.bloomed 2 years ago after a planting six years ago. It was glorious and even better this year. An app identified it to me as I had no idea what it was. I have since had my name on wait list for a second one so I can have fruit .
I’m so glad it hung in there for you! They are hard to come by around here which made it even more special to have in the garden. Hopefully it catches on! Thanks for reading and happy gardening!