Small trees?

[elemire]

That's a nice shopping list Lulu.

One thing though, you might want to mix the more exotic trees with more native ones. The exotics are nice, but they tend to be less resilient to the freak frost/drought/too much rain, which can get very annoying, if in a bad year you get problems with most of your trees. Replacing trees is 10 times more annoying than replacing the roses, especially if they were already somewhat established. The benefit of hawthorns, sorbus and similar native species is that they normally can weather all the weather fluctuations very well, even though they are somewhat "common".

[Flordel]

Lulu, have you given Albizia julibrissin a thought? I have 2 planted by my terrace, I forgot to mention them. They flower in summer and don't make a dense shade. Just an idea.

[ronymaxwell]

I suppose it's more of a bush though it does grow to 4 metres, but the yellow witch hazel is good. It's flowers are scented and produced in winter and it has bright yellow leaves in the autumn. http://www.ornamental-trees.co.uk/or...mise-tree-p353

[elemire]

oh yeah, witch hazel is lovely, which reminds me there is a whole family of viburnum, ranging from the small trees to bushes, some also blooming in the winter or very early spring. The berries of some of them are also very decorative.

[Lulu-amongst-the-blooms]

I love witch hazel too, and gave some planned for elsewhere, the scent makes them worth while imo. I have a vibernum, no idea what sort, in a huge pot waiting for the garden to be levelled so it can go in. Beautiful thing.