Holiday Landscape Design

10 Mother’s Day Trees with Lasting Beauty

Celebrate Mom with our guide to 10 beautiful Mother's Day trees and flowering shrubs that deliver lasting color and blooms year after year.

May 13, 2017

Branches of pink-and-white apple blossoms and buds backlit by soft golden sunlight, with a blurred green orchard behind.

Many people appreciate the gift of flowers, but their short life span isn’t always the most practical gift.

Many people appreciate the gift of flowers, but their short life span isn’t always the most practical gift. Trees, when properly planted and cared for, live for years to come. They serve a myriad of purposes, whether it's to shade your home, serve as a windbreak, provide food, or simply beautify. Combine the beauty of flowers with the benefits of trees. Spend this Mother’s Day planting a tree with your mother, or in honor of your mother. If you don't have the physical space for trees, considering planting Trees in Celebration in a forest of need. Time spent amongst trees is never time wasted.

Here are 10 gorgeous trees with lasting beauty that will live for years to come.

A potted Tilt-A-Swirl hydrangea covered in mophead blooms shading from lime green to rosy pink, framed by broad green leaves.

Tilt-A-Swirl Hydrangea-Potted

Considered a continuous bloomer, the Tilt-A-Swirl hydrangea produces blossoms that are real show-stoppers. And as the season progresses, the flowers deepen in color and continue to transform throughout the autumn months. You may find the perfect spot for a Tilt-A-Swirl in a container, bed, or border. It also works well as a specimen shrub. Hardiness zones 5-9.

A close-up of deep crimson-pink, trumpet-shaped weigela flowers and buds on a leafy green stem against a pale sky.

Crimson Kisses Weigela

The bright red blooms of the Date Night Crimson Kisses Weigela add a nice burst of color to your landscaping. Its compact form behaves well among other plants, and the shrub avidly reblooms well into the autumn months. This weigela is great for use in beds and borders, containers, and gardens with limited space. Hardiness zones 4-9.

A pale lavender-purple rose of Sharon flower with a deep magenta throat, beside lobed green leaves and a budding stem against a blue sky.

Azurri Satin Rose-of-Sharon

From Proven Winners comes the first ever seedless rose-of-sharon with large, single blue flowers. This easy-to-grow plant adds unusual color to the summer landscape, making an easy-to-maintain hedge, a colorful addition to perennial borders and mixed beds, and a stunning specimen plant in large container gardens. Hardiness zones 5-9.

A Lavalamp Moonrock panicle hydrangea bearing a large cone-shaped cluster of creamy white and chartreuse florets, set among green garden shrubs.

(Amelanchier arborea)

Downy Serviceberry

This tree is an all-season beauty. Early in the spring, beautiful white clusters of blooms set it off against the new green of spring. Vivid red- and gold-hued foliage graces the landscape in the fall. And plump red berries are a favorite of birds in summer. The berries are also popular with the human crowd for pies, preserves and fresh eating. Hardiness zones 4-9.

A cluster of white serviceberry blossoms with slender petals and yellow-tipped stamens against a dark, blurred garden background.

Acer rubrum 'Franksred'

Red sunset maple

Known as one of the best red maple cultivars, this tree delivers on color. Winter buds, clusters of small winter/spring flowers, leaf stems, twigs and winged summer fruits all carry a red hue. And of course, the fall show is breathtaking, with red and orange leaves blending to give a sunset effect. Hardiness zones 4-8.

Looking up through the canopy of a red maple, its branches filled with fiery red and orange autumn leaves against a blue sky.

Camellia sasanqua

Sasanqua Camellia

This lovely evergreen brings an extra punch of color to autumn to southern gardens, with beautiful deep pink flowers standing out from the typical reds, oranges and yellows of the season. While it doesn’t grow in many parts of the U.S., it is cherished by gardeners and landscapers living in Hardiness Zones 7–9.

A camellia shrub dotted with pink blooms above a sunlit lawn carpeted with fallen pink petals.

Quercus coccinea

The Scarlet Oak tree is well named. Its early spring foliage is often red, its inner bark is reddish, and in autumn the leaves are brilliant red or scarlet. The acorns of this tree are a favorite food for gray squirrels, chipmunks, mice and birds, especially blue jays. It is a common tree in the Appalachian Mountains but has become a popular landscape tree throughout the eastern and central United States. Hardiness zones 4-9.

Deeply lobed scarlet oak leaves turning brilliant red and orange, backlit against a soft blue sky.

Viburnum opulus L. var. americanum Aiton

American Cranberrybush Viburnum

This durable, easy-to-grow plant will bring a variety of color to your landscape throughout the seasons. Spring flowers bloom snowy white, and the lustrous green foliage transitions to shades varying from yellow to red-purple in the fall. Bright red fruit also adorns the shrub from September through February. Hardiness zones 2-7.

Clusters of white cranberrybush viburnum flowers — small fertile florets ringed by larger blooms — among bright green maple-like leaves.

Zelkova serrata

Japanese Zelkova

The Japanese zelkova is a handsome tree with showy fall color, attractive exfoliating bark, and a symmetrical, vase-shaped growth habit. It makes a good street tree because of its dense shade, ability to grow in marginal soils and resistance to pests and pollution. Hardiness zones 5-8.