By George Weigel/The Patriot-News
Q: I'm looking for a small tree to give some shade to the northeast corner of my house. It gets sun there from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is fairly damp. Something that goes up instead of out (maybe a maximum 15 feet in canopy) would be perfect. Also something flowering with nice fall color and/or winter berries or interesting bark would be nice...
A: Serviceberry (Amelanchier) is the first thing that comes to my mind. 'Autumn Brilliance' and 'Princess Diana' are two that have especially nice fall color.
Serviceberry is a native that grows slowly to maybe 20 feet tall and 15 feet wide. It has white spring flowers, edible blue June fruits, then rich red fall foliage. It can be grown as a single-trunk or multi-stem tree and is fine in damp soil. If the soil is occasionally soggy, though, improve the drainage, build up the bed and/or redirect runoff (if possible) so the roots never sit in mud. Soggy soil will kill most trees as well as this one.
A second good choice would be sweetbay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana). Also a native, sweetbays get lemon-scented white flowers in May and actually prefer damp soil to dry, open spots. It's a moderate upright grower to maybe 14-by-12 feet in 10 years and can be grown as a single-trunk or multi-stem specimen. Although the glossy leaves are attractive, the fall foliage isn't spectacular like some species. It's not a hugely prolific fruiter, but you can expect some red berries in fall.
And a third choice would be fringetree, either the American (Chionanthus virginicus) or Chinese (Chionanthus retusus) species. These get shaggy white flowers in spring, mature in the 18- to 20-foot range, get yellow fall foliage and the females get blue late-spring to early-summer small fruits. Damp soil is fine, but not soggy.