Picking the best Simply Trees plants to order means narrowing a catalogue that runs from tree-form English roses to cold-hardy kumquats. The store covers flowering trees, native shrubs, citrus, perennials and vines, so the useful question is not what is good but what is good for your yard.
These are the standouts by category, with the hardiness zones the listings publish, because a beautiful tree in the wrong zone is an expensive mistake rather than a bargain.
Best flowering trees: the redbud lineup
Four redbud cultivars, four genuinely different results. This is the deepest part of the catalogue and the easiest place to find a focal point tree.
Lavender Twist Redbud is the one most people picture: a graceful weeping form with cascading branches, lavender-pink spring blooms and golden fall colour, aimed at patios, front yards and landscape focal points. Zones 5 to 9.
Vanilla Twist Redbud is the same weeping habit in a different palette, with creamy white spring blooms and golden fall colour. Choose it when a pink-flowering tree would fight with whatever is already planted nearby.
Golden Falls Redbud is the showiest of the weeping three, pairing rosy-pink spring blooms with brilliant golden heart-shaped foliage that carries the tree long after the flowers finish.
Hearts of Gold Redbud takes that golden heart-shaped foliage and grows it upright rather than weeping, with rosy-pink spring blooms. It is the pick for front yards and specimen plantings where you want height rather than a cascade.
Alongside them sits the David Austin The Poet's Wife Rose Tree, a fragrant tree-form English rose with rich golden-yellow blooms, repeat flowering, and a strong fruity fragrance with lemon notes. Tree-form roses are hard to find and this is a proper one. Compare the flowering trees at Simply Trees before you commit to a shape.
Best shrubs: hydrangeas and natives
Shrubs are the lower-risk purchase and the shortest route to a garden that looks finished.
Gatsby Gal Oakleaf Hydrangea is the four-season pick. Large white blooms, brilliant burgundy fall foliage and beautiful exfoliating bark mean it earns its space in winter as well as summer, and it is a native shrub. Zones 5 to 9.
Little Quick Fire Panicle Hydrangea is the compact option that punches above its size. It carries full-sized blooms on a small frame and flowers up to a month earlier than most panicle hydrangeas, with blooms maturing from white to rosy pink.
Fizzy Mizzy Sweetspire is the quiet winner. A compact native with fragrant white flower spikes and brilliant red fall colour, and crucially the listing says it performs in both sun and shade. Anything that genuinely works in shade is worth noting, because most flowering shrubs do not. Zones 5 to 9, pollinator friendly.
Best citrus trees for home orchards and patios
Five citrus trees, and the right one depends almost entirely on where you live.
Shiranui Mandarin is the headline. It is the citrus variety behind Sumo Citrus, producing exceptionally sweet, seedless, easy-to-peel mandarins, listed for Zones 9 and 10.
Cara Cara Navel Orange gives sweet, seedless oranges with vibrant pink flesh and is described as perfect for home orchards, patios and edible landscapes. Zones 9 to 11.
Bumper Satsuma is the cold-hardy choice, tagged down to Zone 8 and described as highly productive with sweet, easy-to-peel, seedless mandarins. If you are on the edge of citrus country, start here.
Nagami Tart Kumquat is the other cold-hardy option, producing sweet-skinned, tart-fleshed kumquats you eat whole, and explicitly listed for home orchards and patio containers.
Kaffer Lime, also known as the Kieffer Lime and botanically Citrus hystrix, is grown for its fragrant culinary leaves as much as its aromatic fruit. It is the one to buy if you cook Thai food. Zones 9 to 11.
Worth noting: three of the five are described as seedless, and all five are pitched at home orchards, patios or edible landscapes rather than commercial rows. If you are outside the warm zones, that patio framing is the important part, because a container is how these trees survive a real winter. Check the current citrus selection against your own zone before you fall for a photo of an orange.
Best pollinator perennials
The perennial section is mostly Monrovia stock and it is built around pollinator planting. Six picks cover the useful colour and zone range.
- Noble Knight Meadow Sage. Compact purple-blue Salvia, Zones 3 to 9, pollinator friendly, adds early colour to sunny gardens. The coldest-hardy of the sages.
- Apex Blue Meadow Sage. Compact blue-violet Salvia, Zones 4 to 9, heat tolerant, reblooms throughout summer.
- Salute White Meadow Sage. Compact white Salvia, Zones 4 to 9, heat tolerant, attracts pollinators and blooms into fall.
- Picture Purrfect Catmint. Compact, cold-hardy Nepeta with blue-purple flowers for Zones 3 to 8, tagged drought tolerant, with nationwide delivery.
- Serene Frost Catmint. Compact white flowering Nepeta, Zones 4 to 9, heat tolerant and pollinator friendly, ideal for sunny gardens.
- Scabiosa Butterfly Blue. An extended bloom from late spring to early fall, a magnet for butterflies and bees, with a tidy mounded habit that suits small gardens, borders and containers.
If you like the pollinator angle but want something for a windowsill instead, our grow kit picks cover the indoor equivalent.
Best vine: Armandii Snowdrift Clematis
Only one vine really stands out, and it is a good one. Armandii Snowdrift Clematis is an evergreen flowering vine with fragrant white spring blooms, glossy foliage and vigorous climbing growth, sold as a staked vine for trellises, pergolas and fences. Zones 7 to 9.
Evergreen is the operative word. Most clematis vanish in winter and leave you looking at bare wire. This one keeps its foliage, which makes it a genuine screening plant rather than a seasonal one. The glossy leaves also hold up as a backdrop for whatever is planted in front, so it earns its place even in the months it is not flowering.
It arrives as a staked vine, which saves you the first season of training and is a small detail that matters more than it sounds when you are trying to get a pergola covered.
How to choose between them
Check your hardiness zone first and let it delete most of the list for you. If you are Zone 3 or 4, the Noble Knight sage and Picture Purrfect catmint are in and the citrus is out. If you are Zone 9 or warmer, everything here is on the table and the mandarins become the interesting purchase.
Then decide what the plant is for. A focal point means a redbud or the rose tree. A boundary or a screen means the clematis. Filling a border means the sages and catmints. Fruit means citrus in a container unless you are in the warm zones.
Finally, think about the off-season. Gatsby Gal and Fizzy Mizzy both bring strong fall colour, and Golden Falls and Hearts of Gold hold golden foliage long after bloom. Those are the plants that keep working in October. For gifting rather than planting, our plant lover gift guide is the better starting point, and you can compare the full range at Simply Trees whenever you are ready to plant.