Landscaping with Trees & Large Shrubs

October 10, 2026 — Clarinda Schlatter

Dreaming Big

I have always loved trees. As a girl growing up in the mountain forests of northern Thailand, I spent hours climbing trees, making up stories about the secret lives of trees, and enjoying all the tropical fruit they produced.

After moving to the US at 9 years old, I grew to appreciate the large shade trees at the edges of northern Indiana's farms, the evergreens that maintained my favorite color in the winter, and the brilliant autumn leaves that endlessly floated to the frosty ground—or so I thought, since our chores now included raking day after day after day (thank goodness for our trending "leave the leaves").

In 2020, after years migrating around the midwest and southeast, I decided to spend quarantine at my parents' home in northeastern Indiana.

My father is a Purdue-trained Master Gardener and has been developing and maintaining his home landscaping since 2004. He has 55 trees on his 1-acre property from large oaks and bald cypress to dwarf pines and Japanese maples. It is an ever changing botanical garden (without the scientific documentation) that has inspired countless photos, lingering walks through the yard, and hours looking out the window from my home office.

After a few years of posting photos on instagram—and building a unique of like-minded gardeners—I knew it was time to learn more about the plants I loved and share that knowledge and passion to encourage the beautification of our community with all the green lushness our climate (USDA Zone 6a) can offer.

After completing my Master Gardener training in Whitley County, I started working with a group of volunteers who shared my enthusiasm for everything that grows—unless its an undesirable plant showing up where it shouldn't.

And now, with this post, I'm beginning my journey to educate those in our community who are open to building their own woodland landscaping.

I completed my Master Gardener training in Whitley County and started working with a group of volunteers who shared my enthusiasm for everything that grows—unless it's an undesirable plant showing up where it shouldn't.

And now, with this post, I'm beginning my journey to educate those in our community who are open to building their own woodland landscaping, both large and small properties in town and rural areas—that is to say, YOU!

What follows is a list of trees that I love and highly recommend for yards of all sizes and the steps you can take to start planting your own trees—or maintaining the trees you already have. Scroll all the way down for a list of practical resources you can refer to on your woodland journey.

Have a small yard? Look for the arrows ➡️ for helpful hints.

Types of Trees & Shrubs

Start Planning Your Home Landscaping

Key Features of Trees & Shrubs That You'll Want in Your Yard

Next Steps: Purchasing, Planting, and Maintaining Your Trees and Shrubs

Caution: Invasive Species in Indiana

You're Not Alone: Landscaping Resources For More Ideas and Support

Types of Trees & Shrubs

Big Trees

Large trees create microenvironments that support our pollinators. Their trunk and bark give shelter to bats, birds and squirrels. Their shade offers refuge from heat and their roots hold soil against erosion.

Home benefits include:

Summer cooling: can cut nearby buildings' energy use by about 10%
Winter wind protection: lower heating costs - plant evergreens on the west and northwest sides of the house
Air and noise: trees filter dust and pollutants
Property value & your own well-being: mature trees can raise a home's value by up to 10%, and time around trees is linked to lower stress

Native trees are even better—they support far more insects, are adapted to our local soil and climate, and are much easier to maintain! There are 58 native species of large trees in Indiana!

Don't worry, I've done your homework with this smaller list of my favorite natives and non-natives. These trees are a minimum of 40 feet high and spread out up to 100 feet wide.

➡️ If you live in a small yard, there are columnar varieties of many large native species. I recommend the Skinny Genes oak that grows around 45 feet high and only 10 feet wide or the Slender Silhouette Sweetgum with a that matures up to 60+ feet high with a narrow 5-8 feet spread.

Evergreen Conifers

Jack Pine
Norway Spruce
Eastern Hemlock

Deciduous Conifer

American Larch (Tamarack)
Bald Cypress
Dawn Redwood

Deciduous

English Beech
Ginkgo (male varieties)
Gum: Black (Tupelo)
Kentucky Coffeetree
Littleleaf Linden

Red Maple
Oak: Swamp White and Northern Red
Quaking Aspen
Sycamore
Tulip

Mature White and Red Oaks with redbuds and dogwoods below.

View of trees from below a pin oak—from left: River Birch, Weeping Willow and three Bald Cypress trees in the foreground.

Young, future giant trees including red and white oaks, sugar maple, Norway spruce, European Beech, Dawn Redwood, American Larch, and Tulip tree

Young Blackgum tree in October

Medium Trees

This list of large trees includes my favorite trees, minimum 40 feet tall and up to 100 feet wide (white oak!).

If you live in a small yard, there are columnar varieties of many native species. My recommendation is the Skinny Genes oak that grows around 45 feet high and only 10 feet wide!

Birch: River
Dogwood: Cornus Florida (Flowering) and Kousa
Eastern Redbud
Magnolia Jane

Flamingo Boxelder Maple
Sassafras
Serviceberry
Sourwood

Serviceberry 'Princess Diana'

Flowering Dogwood

Redbud 'Forest Pansy'

Magnolia Jane

Small & Dwarf Trees

Black Spruce
Crabapples
Fringe Tree
Japanese Maples
Seven Sons Tree

Sweetbay Magnolia
Weeping European Larch
Weeping Norway Spruce
Yellow Ribbon Arborvitae

Weeping trees: Norway Spruce, European Larch, and Crabapple

Jack Pine 'Skjak Flach'

Japanese Maples

Fringe Tree

Sevon Sons Tree

Crabapple 'Red Jade'

Norway Spruce 'Perry's Gold'

Arborvitae

Large Shrubs

Shrubs can be just as tall as small trees—and much taller than the many ornamental dwarf trees.

American Cranberrybush
Border Forsythia
Bottlebrush Buckeye
Dappled Willow
Flowering Quince

Lilac
Ninebark
Oakleaf Hydrangea
Red-twig Dogwoodt
Smokebush (Smoke Tree)

Staghorn Sumac
Sweet shrub
Viburnum plicatum
Wahoo bush
Winterberry

Sweetshrub

Bottlebrush Buckeye

From left: Rose of Sharon, Korean Lilac 'Miss Kim', Summer Wine Ninebark 'Seward'

Viburnum plicatum 'Summer Snowflake'

Hydrangea paniculata 'Pink Diamond'

On right: Red-twig Dogwood

Beautybush 'Maradco'

Japanese quince 'Scarlet Storm'

Start Planning Your Home Landscaping

Budgeting Your Resources

Ready to add all the features that trees and large shrubs offer?

Planning is the most important step to create sustainable landscapes for you, your community, and future generations of tree huggers. It will save you time, effort, and money—and keep your plants healthy for decades and centuries to come. Bur oak trees in Indiana can live 300 to 400 years!

You'll want to budget the costs of buying trees and hiring expert arborists to help with diseases, pests, and dying trees. If you maintain the trees on your own, you'll need to learn proper techniques and make the time for planting around electric lines, underground utilities and plumbing, trimming branches, watering during droughts, and mulching year after year.

Landscape Design

When you're ready to take on this exciting gardening project, consider the four elements of garden design as shared by Whitley County Master Gardener, Kim Jewell, in our What's Growing On blog.

Start with structure—trees and shrubs will be the foundation to build the rest of your landscaping on. The size and shape (including root spread) will determine the soil, light, water, and the spacing needed for your landscaping beds, lawn turf, and the plants you love.

Texture: bold or soft? Color that catches your eye in all four seasons. Balance that determines whether your home landscape is an inviting space that brings YOU joy.