Narrow (Columnar Trees) for Any Size Landscape

Don’t let a lack of space keep you from growing trees in your landscape.  Consider planting columnar trees in containers and narrow spaces. 

You may hear the terms narrow, columnar, and fastigiate when people talk about skinny trees.  Those with a single trunk and shorter uniform branches are classed as columnar, while those with multiple trunks or branches that grow upright and close together are more correctly called fastigiate.

Whatever you call them their unique growth habit makes them great for screening narrow areas, using in containers on patios and decks, and growing in confined planting spaces.

And keep in mind a fastigiate form of larger trees like oaks can still get pretty wide like the Crimson Spire with a 30 feet spread.

And don’t overlook the evergreens. Narrow varieties of these can provide year round greenery and screening.

And be sure to select the narrow tree best suited to your growing conditions.

A bit more information:  Here are a few narrow evergreens that can provide year round beauty for small space:  

• Iseli Fastigiate blue spruce (Picea pungens ‘Iseli Fastigiate’) grows about 10-15 feet tall and only 5 feet wide
• Upright Eastern white pine (Pinus strobus ‘Fastigata’) at  30-50’ tall and 10-15 wide
• Skyrocket Rocky Mountain juniper that is a narrow 2 to 3 feet wide and 12 to 18 feet tall tree

Some upright deciduous trees include:

• Upright European beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Fastigiata’) at 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide
• Dakota Pinnacle Asian white birch (Betula platyphylla ‘Fargo’) grows 30’ tall x 8’ wide
• Upright European aspen (Populus tremula ‘Erecta’) 30’ tall x 8’ wide
• Spire Hillier’s cherry (Prunus x hillieri ‘Spire’) 20’ tall x 8’ wide
• Adirondack crabapple (Malus ‘Adoirondack) 12’ tall x 6’ wide

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trees design spruce pine european-beech beech

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