Two of the best

If I had to choose two small trees to line a driveway or beautify a park, I would choose the native white flowering dogwood and the native redbud. These trees are both fringe trees in the wild. They don't grow more than about 30 feet tall and are usually found at the edge of the woods. Neither tree is considered valuable for lumber.

These trees are prized for their ornamental aesthetic appeal around homes, in parks and along side streets in small towns throughout much of the eastern United States. The white bloom on the dogwood is about 5 1/2 inches across, each at the end of a stem. The pink bloom of the redbud is about 1/2-inch long and in clusters along the limbs and sometimes even on the trunk. The two trees compliment each other very well.

The red seeds of the dogwood are food for songbirds such as the summer tanager.