Pink Flowering Trees That Add Beauty to Your Landscape

Nothing lifts a landscape quite like the soft, cheerful beauty of pink blossoms. Whether you prefer a small ornamental tree that doubles as a large shrub or a towering specimen that steals the show each spring, there’s a pink flowering tree perfect for your space.

Most pink flowering trees bloom in the spring, but many of the trees on this list have other interesting features that make them a wonderful addition to your yard or garden all year round. You can grow a crepe myrtle for its beautiful bark, a horse chestnut tree for its unusual nuts, or a crabapple for its colorful fruit that attracts birds and squirrels to your yard.

Adding a tree with pink flowers to the front yard will create a magical gathering place for birds, bees, and butterflies. In time, as it grows taller, it will also provide some much-needed shade: just add a small bench under the tree and enjoy the delicate fragrance and the buzzing sounds of spring.

Most of the pink and popular flowering trees on this list are North American natives, well-suited to local soils and growing conditions at least somewhere in the continental USA. All of the pink flowering trees on this list are a visual delight that will add value to your home and give you hours of enjoyment. We list each tree by its common name and then by its botanical name.

1. Flowering Almond Tree (Prunus triloba Multiplex)

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If you have driven up the foothills of the Sierras in California or hiked through the Ozarks in late spring, you may have noticed abundant displays of pink flowers covering out-of-place almond trees. These winter-hardy almond trees aren’t the frost-sensitive almond trees grown for their nuts. These sturdy plants are multi-stemmed shrubs that grow to the size of small trees, as much as 15 feet tall and as much as 15 feet wide. You can train them to be 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide to fit a smaller space.

Plant this variety of almond trees where you want a mound of five-petaled pink blossoms at about the same time as your last frost. Its flowers attract the earliest butterflies, and its globe-shaped red fruit is great food for migrating birds and squirrels, although they are toxic to humans.

Flowering almond trees grow best in full sun, although they tolerate part shade. Adapted to moist soil, well-drained, and highly fertile, in USDA Hardiness Zones 3 through 7, this almond is a good choice if your winters are too cold for flowering cherries.

2. Crabapple (Malus Pink Princess)

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Crabapple trees are just apples that happen to bear very small fruit. This crabapple is well suited to small spaces, growing just 6 to 8 feet tall and about as wide. You may be able to find a dwarf variety (grown on dwarfing rootstock) that is even smaller. It is covered with mostly pink and a few white, intensely fragrant blossoms every spring.

Birds (especially hummingbirds), butterflies, bees, and bats all love the blossoms of this flowering crabapple. It produces tiny, not especially tasty fruit that attracts more wildlife in the late summer and early fall. Because it is such a small tree, it doesn’t make much of a mess with falling fruit.

If you want a taller pink-flowering crabapple tree, plant the Robinson variety. It grows about 25 feet tall. Be aware that the Malus sargentii that is so easy to find in nurseries has pink buds, but white flowers.

This pink-flowering crabapple prefers well-watered sandy loam, but it tolerates both acidic and alkaline soils and can even be grown in clay. Once it is established, it is drought-tolerant. Plant in USDA Hardiness Zones 4 through 8 in full sun.

3. Crape Myrtle (Laegerstromia species)

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Crape myrtles grown in full sun put on put on a show of different shades of pink, white, red, or purple blossoms all summer long. Their leaves turn bright red in the fall. Then this deciduous tree displays interesting bark with strips of color all winter.

Crape myrtles grow in hot, dry climates where many other flowering trees do not. They stand up to drought. They are resistant to deer. They grow in alkaline and clay soils.

Just about the only ways to go wrong with crape myrtles are planting them in shade or letting them stand in water. Crape myrtles are winter-tolerant in USDA Hardiness Zones 6 through 9.

4. Pink-Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida var. Rubra)

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This dogwood is one of the best-known native trees of the eastern half of North America. It grows to about 30 feet tall when it reaches full maturity, and bears masses of beautiful flowers, pink blossoms with white centers, followed by bead-like berries in late summer and early fall.

There is also an imported dogwood with the scientific name Cornus kousa that bursts out in pink blossoms every spring, but its fruit is more berry-like. (We will have more to say about this dogwood in the next entry.)

This is the dogwood to plant if you have problems with deer, clay soil, or proximity to black walnut trees. It attracts butterflies in the spring and migrating birds in the summer, fall, and early sometimes through late winter.

Growing 30 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet across, this dogwood prefers acidic, loamy soil under several inches of mulch. Don’t try to grow it if you have had anthracnose problems with other plants in your yard.

Pink flowering dogwood is adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 5 through 9.

5. Japanese Pink Dogwood (Cornus kousa var. Satomi)

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Growing just 15 feet tall, Japanese pink dogwood is a great choice if you don’t have room for a full-sized dogwood tree. It flowers later than other dogwoods, usually in late spring or early summer (late May to early June), so it is useful in planning a succession of blooms.

The kousa dogwood is also a great choice for fall color. Its leaves turn bright red. It is the dogwood to plant if you have a problem with anthracnose, which would possibly kill a native pink-flowering dogwood tree.

If you want pink blossoms, make sure you are planting the Satomi variety. The Madison and Milky Way varieties bloom in white. The Satomi variety spreads out as it gets older, eventually reaching a height of 20 feet and a width of 20 feet.

Plant this variety of dogwood in well-watered, loamy, acidic, sandy soil. Kousa dogwood trees are adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8.

6. Kwanzan Cherry (Prunus serrulata Kwanzan)

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Kwanzan cherries are among the most popular ornamental cherry trees because they have a relatively small footprint. They grow up to 25 feet tall, but they do not spread out like other cherry trees. Their upright habit makes them a good choice for marking the boundaries of your landscape or creating a tall, pink, blooming hedgerow of beautiful spring blooms.

Most landscapers plant Kwanzan cherries for their delightful pink double blossoms, but as soon as the flowers fall, they are followed by distinctive, copper-colored leaves. The only downside to growing the Kwanzan cherry is its relatively short life span. Kwanzan cherries usually die from disease when they are about 25 years old.

Kwanzan cherries are winter-hardy and summer-tolerant in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 through 8. They require full sun, good drainage, and dependable summer moisture.

7. Weeping Higan Cherry (Prunus x subhirtella Pendula)

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The weeping higan cherry has a cascading habit that adds warm-season interest to the yard. It is relatively tall for a pink flowering tree, reaching a height of about 30 feet when it is fully mature. Its spring flower display is nothing short of spectacular, but its glossy green leaves turn yellow in the fall for additional interest.

There are two different varieties of weeping higan cherries. Be sure to check the variety when you plant this tree. Some weeping higan cherries bear white blossoms. Your weeping higan cherry tree needs full sun. It is suited to moist but well-drained soil and regular summer rainfall in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 through 8.

8. Red Horse Chestnut (Aesculus x carnea)

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Red horse chestnut grows into a towering tree as much as 50 feet tall that bears red flowers that fade to pink every spring. Its flower spikes are 6 to 8 inches long, poking out of dark green leaves that have a value of their own for an ornamental tree.

Later in the growing season, the tree bears tan to dark brown globe-shaped nuts, which are poisonous to humans. Edible horse chestnuts have a warty appearance.

Redhorse chestnut prefers moist, acidic soil. It is adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8.

9. Magnolia Jane (Magnolia Jane)

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Magnolia trees of the Jane variety pop out in purplish-pink blossoms every spring. Its leathery leaves turn golden and later bronze before falling off the tree in late fall or early winter.

This showy magnolia tolerates clay soils and air pollution, growing 20 to 25 feet tall and 15 to 20 feet wide in full sun or partial shade. Several magnolia Jane trees together can make a tall, beautiful flowering hedge.

Because the Magnolia Jane tree blooms late, sometimes not until early summer, this plant is less susceptible to frost damage than most other pink flowering trees. It may bloom before it leaves out or wait until early summer to put on its flower show. The blossoms are sometimes fragrant and sometimes not, and can open with petals of white, yellow, and purple, as well as pink.

Magnolia Jane is fussy about its growing conditions. It does not do well in a high-traffic area. It needs protection from wind, but it should not be planted in a southern exposure, so it will not bloom before the last frost. Magnolia Jane needs protection from snails, scales, weevils, and thrips.

This magnolia is adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 8.

Here’s how to plant a Jane magnolia tree.

10. Saucer Magnolia (Magnolia x soulangiana)

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Saucer magnolia bears purplish-pink blossoms with white interiors. Its flowers are fragrant and showy, and keep coming until late spring. You need to be aware of the variety of this southern magnolia you buy, however, because there are varieties with blooms in pink, white, yellow, rose, burgundy, and magenta.

This tree is a larger magnolia for larger yards and gardens. Growing 25 feet tall, it is a better specimen tree than Magnolia Jane.

Plant this magnolia in full sun to partial shade with moist, well-drained soil. This tree is adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 9.

11. Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis)

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The Eastern redbud trees have reddish-pink buds that open into a stunning display of pea-like, purplish-pink blooms on bare limbs in early spring. Their nectar is a favorite of both bees and hummingbirds.

Redbud blossoms stay on the tree for two to three weeks. Since this tree is a legume, the tiny blossoms set fruit that looks something like purple pods of peas. The “beans” inside are a favorite of birds and squirrels.

Redbuds grow 9 to 12 feet tall but 10 to 15 feet wide. They tolerate drought, chalky soils, clay soils, and deer. Redbuds are adapted to USDA Hardiness Zones 4 to 9.

More Trees with Pink Blooms You Might Like

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The list above is just a small sample of the many trees with pink flowers. Here are a few more if you’re still looking:

• Pink trumpet tree
• Desert willows
• Pear trees
• Yoshino cherry
• Prunus mume
• Japanese flowering apricot
• Hong Kong orchid tree
• Okame cherry tree
• Nerium oleander
• Pink weeping cherry tree

More Colorful Trees You’ll Love

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Pink is just one pop of color you can add to your yard and garden. If you have the space to add more, or prefer different shades of color, spend time researching which trees (and their colored blossoms) work best in your zone. There’s no right or wrong color or design to choose as long as you love it!

Other color options to consider:

• White flowering trees
• Yellow flowering trees