Ohio Fruit Trees, Shade Tree, Flowering Tree, Nut Trees, Seedless Grape Vines, Bamboo Plant and Berry Plants

In Ohio most gardeners would like to grow a fruit tree, berry plant or grapevine that will bear fruit in a hurry, and that usually means either to plant a large tree, or plant a fast growing tree. Planting Ohio fast growing trees can be problematic, because the cell walls are elongated, enlarged and the insulating components, Lignin and Cellulose in the cell walls are deficient in rapid developing tree tissues that may result in plant or tree injury by sudden temperature drops or the tree may be killed in extreme winters. Sometimes it is better to select a slow growing tree that best survives frigid temperature slides.


Planting Ohio Shade trees can cut your power bills to fractions, reduce soil erosion and increase property enjoyment and increase real estate values. For the best shade, the trees should be planted on the East or West side of the office or buildings. Many shade trees like the Weeping Willow tree, Tulip Poplar trees and Red Maple tree are adapted for excellent growing in Ohio. The Ginkgo trees, Elm tree and the Bald or Pond Cypress trees will glow in yellow colors in the fall. Colors of red, yellow and purple cascade in leaf color from the fast growing Sweet Gum tree, brilliant fall leaves of Sour Wood trees, and Oak trees in Ohio forests. The Sassafras tree and the Green Ash trees grow into an enormous size and provide dense shade for your landscape or house. The Sassafras tree has the added bonus of being an excellent yellow OH flowering tree in the summer with aromatic flowers. The Japanese Magnolia tree not only is a good shade tree, but it is loaded with beautiful pink flowers in the spring that are sweetly aromatic. The Magnolia trees, Magnolia grandiflora and the dwarf form, Little Gem Magnolia tree that are evergreen shade trees with white, fragrant flowers the size of a dinner plate beginning in June and lasting until the fall. Lombardy poplar trees are extremely fast growing and sometimes will grow 10 feet per year in the juvenile stage, and are often planted as windbreaks or as a privacy screen. Very few trees show the dramatic leaf coloration and transformation as the Sour Wood tree after the first fall frost occurs.


There are many other outstanding flowering trees in Ohio, the white, red or pink Dogwood tree, the Redbud tree, and flowering crabapple trees that are some of the earliest OH flowering trees, and the Japanese Kwanzan Cherry tree and the Japanese Yoshino flowering cherry trees that bloom in colors of pink and white. The Golden Raintree flowering tree blooms bright yellow in the early summer, and during flower maturity, lantern like ornaments appear that last into the winter.

Ohio gardeners have numerous Fruit trees possibilities to buy and plant in Ohio backyard fruit tree gardens. Temperatures during some winters are quite frigid, and snow and ice can limit fruit tree selections to only cold hardy fruiting cultivars. Apple trees are favorite fruits in Ohio, and Red Delicious apples and Golden Delicious apples still remain favorites. The Arkansas Black apple tree and the Red Rome apple trees are extremely cold hardy in Ohio gardens. Apple cider, fresh apples and apple pies are favorite desserts for every Ohioan gardener. Peach trees and nectarine tree cultivars will grow in Ohio backyard gardens in areas where temperatures remain above minus 15 degrees F. Oriental pear trees, such as the North Korean Giant pear tree is the most cold hardy pear tree to grow in Ohio especially around Cincinnati, OH. Other antique pear trees have reliably produced pears for a century in Ohio. Native plum trees are very productive, and the plums are variable in color and size, but generally the flavor is sweet and tasty. The grafted Superior plum tree and the Green Gage plum trees are cold hardy and productive. The Superior plums are red and the Green Gage plums, of course are green. The best cherry trees to plant in Ohio are sour (tart) cherries, such as the red Montmorency cherry tree and the North Star red cherry, especially for use as a cooking cherry and making cherry pies. Sweet cherries such as the Black Tartarian cherry tree is productive in some parts of Ohio around Cincinnati and the Bing cherries are purple in color and sweet to eat fresh and can be found for fresh eating in grocery stores. Red Mulberry trees have become established as a native Ohio tree, thanks to plantings by birds. New improved grafted Mulberry tree varieties, such as the Persian Black mulberry are cold hardy and heavy producers of sweet high quality mulberries. Many Ohio gardeners have become interested in growing tropical types of fruit trees in greenhouses during winters. Many European fig trees are popular for greenhouses or in-house growing in Ohio, where several crops of figs can be eaten during the year. There are two fig trees that have been proven to be cold hardy even in zone 5 to be planted outside if they are properly mulched, and those are the Chicago Hardy Fig tree that survived the extreme winter of 2014, and the other is the Tennessee Mountain fig trees that have been successfully grown even in N.Y. The Paw Paw tree is a native Ohio fruit tree, and a cluster of Paw Paw fruit tastes like banana custard.

Many Ohio nut trees are native trees, and the American Black walnut nut tree and the American native chestnut nut tree are both improved native Ohio nut trees that produce impressive nut crops reliably each year. The white walnut (Juglans cinera) is the most cold hardy nut tree that is native to Ohio. The white walnut is also called the butternut, and the sweet kernels are delicious. The shagbark hickory tree is native to Ohio forests. The shagbark hickory nuts are tasty and the hickory wood is often used to smoke meats to enhance the flavor. The shagbark hickory nut has been hybridized with the pecan, Carya illinoinensis to produce a nut called the Hican that has a flavor midway between a hickory and a papershell pecan. American filbert is a native nut to the U.S., and is also called a hazelnut. The small nut is tasty and important to use in making candy and many wildlife food plots where the filbert trees are planted. Tests are being done on certain pecan tree cultivars such as the James pecan tree, the Oconee pecan tree and the Pawnee pecan tree for cold hardiness in Ohio gardens and orchards. The Chinese Chestnut tree is very cold hardy and produces at an early age nuts that are delicious, but the American chestnut tree is native to Ohio and new strains of resistant varieties produce very sweet nuts of a large size.

Bunch grapevines mature excellent clusters of grapes in the fall. The Blue Concord grape vine is an old standard that was successfully introduced from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., along with the white Niagara grape, the Catawba grape vines. The Blue Concord Seedless grape is a favorite, along with the white Thompson Seedless grapevine and the Red Flame Seedless Grape Vine. Wine grapes also produce well and are fermented into red wine and white wines.

Berry plants are adaptable to Ohio soil profiles, The red raspberry berry plants is widely planted in Ohio, especially the Heritage red raspberry. In Ohio the red raspberries ripen in late fall and organically grown red raspberry plants can be found at many organic pick-you-own berry orchards. Both red raspberries and black raspberry plants are native to Ohio, but the black raspberry plants have a short shelf life and usually are marketed at roadside berry markets.

Wildlife conservation promotes the establishment of permanent feeding plots for those bird lovers, hunters and animal lovers. The Kieffer pear tree is a slow ripening pear producer, and the hardness of the pears lets them intermittently fall to the ground beneath the trees, giving deer and game birds an extended food source during the fall season when finding wildlife food is difficult. The American persimmon tree is also slow ripening in the fall, and when the Chickasaw plum trees, the crabapple tree and the many varieties of native mulberry trees ripen,that trophy deer will often appear. At the edge of the field there is often a thicket of brambles along the fence row where the thorny blackberry bushes and the dewberry vines offer protection to small birds like quail, dove and pheasant from stalking predators, and there is an added bonus of berries to eat. The autumn olive tree, the strawberry bushes and the elderberry plants also provide a generous supply of berries to eat. The Gobbler oak tree produces a small acorn that the turkey find easy to eat. The white oak tree, like the sawtooth oak tree produces lots of acorns for deer, game animals and birds, and the sawtooth oak tree is a fast growing tree that can begin maturing acorns when only 5 years old.

Surprisingly, two kinds of palm trees can be planted in Northern landscapes like Ohio. The Needle palms are very slow growing palm trees but survive cold temperature of minus 20 degrees F. Windmill palm trees are faster growing palms and look very tropical when planted next door to a patio entrance or at pool plantings. The Windmill palm trees have survived the ice and snows of Canada and tourists even marvel when the visit large Windmill palms that line the edge of the lake. Ohio landscapes are perfect for planting Windmill palm trees. Bamboo plants are excellent privacy fences that are used to block out noisy traffic or to obstruct animals or neighbors from entering your yard. The black bamboo is colorful and fast growing as a tall dense hedge. Other privacy block bamboo fences that can be planted in Ohio would be the Chinese Golden Goddess Bamboo tree, the Blue Henon bamboo plant or the variegated Alphonse Karr Bamboo with its golden striping growing horizontally up and down the bamboo poles.

Ohio bamboo plants flourish from Cleveland to Dayton and they are cold hardy to winter temperatures of below zero, even to minus 20 degrees where they are planted as privacy screens that block out automobile road noises and unwanted intruders. Soil erosion can be stopped by bamboo plants in Ohio landscapes, where it grows to 20 feet in height with culms (stems, poles, stalks) that are beautifully colored with waxy coverings of blue, black or golden skin. Bamboo plants flourish when planted in full sun or partial shade appearing to show a preference of a wet organic-based soil type. Very few plants or trees can offer a noise barrier as effectively as bamboo hedges. You can call Ty Ty Bamboo Nursery (tytyga.com) and get an immediate shipment of bamboo plants any time during the year.

For the gardeners and plant collectors who live in Ohio, agave plants, yucca trees and aloe plants are fascination container plants that are armed with spiny, thorny leaves, thick and fleshy, with a terminal sharp spike at the end. The first aid plant, Aloe vera plant has juices in the leaves that can cure flesh burns, skin wounds and bites from fire ants and wasps. The native American plant, Century Plant, Agave americana 'Marginata' is dramatically variegated with creamy white stripping along the leaf margins, much like the Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard' also outfitted with bright striped variegated leaves. The Agave tequilana contains leaf juice that has a high sugar content that is commercially fermented into the alcoholic drink, tequila. All these desert plants are easily grown in containers without any attention required, fertilization or watering.