If you’re looking to enrich your garden, cherries, plums, apples, and other fruit trees are an awesome addition to an edible and lovely landscape.
Fruit trees are amazing in every season. They’re a heartwarming display of aromatic blooms in spring and reward us with a dramatic foliage color in autumn.
In summer, they bear fruit and are sweeter, juicer, and yummier than anything else you could find at the store.
However, what if you have a small garden?-Standard fruit trees can grow quite big in time and mature trees, for example, the apple ones, may spread up to 30 feet! Although smaller, peach and nectarine trees can also grow up to 15 feet in height and width.
On the other hand, dwarf fruit trees are ideal for small gardens. Their small stature is in a range between eight and ten feet in height and width.
These are miniature beauties that will grow an abundance of fruits every season without being a burden to carry for or to manage.
Dwarf Trees Explained
Dwarf trees will stay petite and compact thanks to grafting.
This horticultural technique is an asexual reproduction of joining the parts of two or more, living trees, together. A cut is taken from the upper portion of the parent fruit tree or the scion. This is a branching selection with buds.
It’s joined to the rootstock of another tree.
Most of the rootstock is underground and it also includes the root system of the tree with a short trunk. The lower and upper parts of these two trees are joined where they were cut and they’re callousing together while healing.
Dwarf trees have plenty of benefits; they’re awesome for smaller gardens, they’re easier to care for, they’re easier to reach and get to the fruits, they’re trainable and denser, easy to transport, and customizable.
5 Awesome Dwarf Fruit Trees for Your Garden
- Elberta Peach
This heirloom variety originates from Georgia.
These peaches are yellow and freestone fruits with a blush of reddish-pink. The fruits are big, juicy, and sweet and it’s awesome for eating, canning, freezing, and making jams.
It blossoms in early to mid-spring and the fragrant and pink blossoms are amazing. The season goes on and the fruits appear and ripen. They can be picked up from late July to early August.
To be healthy and bearing, this fruit needs to be pruned every year, as much as 40 percent so that new growth can appear.
It reaches a height and width of eight to ten feet.
- Black tartarian cherry
This is a tender and plum cherry that has a rich flavor. Its one-inch heart-shaped drupes are ideal for fresh consumption because of the smooth pit that divides easily from the flesh.
It’s also great for canning and preserves. The tree puts on a show in early and mid-spring with its white blossoms and sweet fragrance.
Expect ripe cherries ready for harvest in mid-summer. This species isn’t self-fertile and will need a second cherry species so that it can bear fruit.
Plant it near similar types like Ranier and Stella. It grows between eight and 14 feet in height and width.
- Washington navel orange
These oranges are free of seeds, easily peeled, and extremely delicious. It’s half the standard size, but you can also prune it to get a petite, 3-feet high tree.
It’s evergreen and its lovely elliptical leaves provide a stunning fragrance throughout the year. Expect waxy and white blossoms in spring.
It prefers warmth and plenty of sunlight. If you live in northern climates, grow it in containers and make sure you bring it inside when the temperatures drop below 55 F. It’s self-fertile and grows between six and eight feet in height and width.
- Celeste Fig
Figs are native to the warm and temperate Mediterranean and they thrive in USDA zones 8 to 10.
It’s a hardier cultivar that can also be planted outdoors in zone 6. At the cooler end, it needs a sheltered location as well as deep mulching to survive the winter temperatures lower than 15 F.
It’s also good for containers. Its multi-branched tree has a silver-grey bark and lobed leaves. Its small and green flowers in spring are beautiful, although not as accented as with other trees.
But, expect plenty of figs in late summer. They’re bronzy-purplish and they taste sweet and rich. This dwarf tree grows between seven and 10 feet in height and width.
- Red delicious apple
This popular apple variety has pinkish-white flowers in mid-spring and autumn brings juicy apples awesome for eating and cooking.
Its apples can be kept in the fridge for up to six months. It’s not self-pollinating so there’s a need for a second dwarf apple of a different variety for fruit-bearing.
Opt for Gala, Honeycrisp, or Golden Delicious. This variety grows between 10 feet in height and width.
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