Colorado Trees

At one time, commercial cherry growing was big business in Northern Colorado, with over half a million trees in production. Pie cherries like Montmorency were canned and shipped around the country.

Archaeologists suggest that plums may be one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Traces of plums have been found in Neolithic sites as much as 10,000 years old along with olives, grapes, and figs. And no wonder.

The lilac shrub has been a favorite landscape plant in Colorado for over a hundred years. Its bushy habit and fragrant spring flowers make an attractive addition to foundation plantings year-round.

Stroll through Denver’s Washington Park or Capitol Hill neighborhoods in late summer and you’re likely to see a stately tree full of fragrant white flowers interspersed among bright green fern-like leaves.

If you’re one of the many who can’t wait for the end of summer when the Palisade peaches reach the markets from Western Slope orchards, you know that peach trees play an important role in the Colorado economy.

Despite originating in China thousands of years ago, many people consider the apple the all-American fruit. And while the U.S. is the world’s second-largest producer of apples, its 5-million-ton annual harvest pales in comparison to China’s 41 million.

Hawthorns grow naturally as small trees or shrubs and are often found massed along stream bottoms where their thorny branches intertwine, providing sheltered nesting places for birds and other animals.

There are many varieties of oak trees that grow in nearly every temperate part of the world. The bur oak (sometimes spelled burr) is part of the white oak group and is native to much of eastern North America.

The swamp white oak is a North American native that grows naturally in the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley areas of the U.S. and Canada,as well as in isolated pockets as far west as Kansas and as far south as Alabama.

If you want to add a little drama to your landscape, you won’t go wrong with a saucer magnolia. This French hybrid blooms profusely in the spring with large fragrant pink and white flowers prior to the emergence of thick, smooth deep 3-6” green leaves.