There is no question: every garden needs a tree. However, one does not enjoy it for too long if the carefully selected specimen soon dies due to a lack of winter hardiness. Alternatively, you would have to put in a lot of effort every winter to protect the wood from frost damage.
The ginkgo tree is hardy
Native trees survive every winter
You are guaranteed not to go wrong with native deciduous and coniferous trees, because they are perfectly adapted to the prevailing climate and therefore do not require any special protective devices. In addition, native species offer birds, insects and other animals both a habitat and food - an advantage that should not be underestimated, which many exotic species unfortunately do not have. The ubiquitous, exotic cherry laurel, for example, has a lot of properties that are well received by gardeners - from an ecological point of view, however, the shrub is worthless. Instead, choose a house tree from this very varied list of the most common species found in Germany:
- Fruit trees: apples, pears, sweet and sour cherries, plums, greengage and Mirabelle plums, walnuts
- Wild fruit trees: service tree, mountain ash (rowan berry), pear, cornus, wild apple
- Deciduous trees: maple, birch, beech, oak, alder, ash, hornbeam, chestnut, lime, poplar, willow, hawthorn, elm
- Evergreen Deciduous Trees: Holly, Evergreen Oak
- Conifers: yew, spruce, pine, larch, fir, juniper
Hardy exotic species for the home garden
There are also numerous imported tree species, some of which have been successfully cultivated in German gardens for decades or even centuries. Types like
- Sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua)
- Chinese bluebell tree (Paulownia tomentosa)
- Chestnut (Castanea sativa)
- Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)
- European Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)
- Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)
- Japanese maple / fan leaf maple (Acer japonicum)
- Caucasian wingnut (Pterocarya fraxinifolia)
- plane tree (Platanus acerifolia)
- Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia)
- Japanese cord tree (Styphnolobium japonicum)
- Trumpet tree (Catalpa bignonioides)
- Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
Origin provides information about winter hardiness
If you are unsure about the winter hardiness of the selected tree, take a look at the climatic conditions in its homeland: What climatic zone does the species come from? You will not be able to cultivate tropical and subtropical species in the garden in this country, you usually have to keep them in pots and overwinter them frost-free during the winter months. The same applies to trees from the Mediterranean region, for example to almost all citrus species. Only the three-leaf orange (Poncirus trifoliata) tolerates a few degrees below zero for a short time.
tips
The various types of magnolia are usually also quite unproblematic, some of which are also grown tree-like.