Indoor Garden Trees

Cherry Trees

• The beautiful light pink double-blossoms of cherry trees during mid-spring are reason enough for including them in your indoor garden. These need plenty of light, though, so will do well under broad windows or near the wall of the transparent greenhouse structure in which you keep your indoor garden. Some varieties of cherry trees are self-pollinating (such as Stella and Sweetheart), so these are fine for planting singularly --- however, many will need at least one other cherry tree nearby (planted in a separate pot) in order to pollinate and produce flowers and fruit. Cherry trees need a cold winter in order to bear a good crop of fruit in the spring, so these can be removed from the indoor garden (where it may need to be kept warm for other plants) and wintered in a sheltered place outside. Luckily, trees in containers are movable.

Japanese Maples

• Japanese maples are particularly ornamental and are well-known for their display of fiery red color in the fall. There are several varieties and shapes including upright, rounded and weeping. Though these trees can reach heights of more than 30 feet, being kept in a container will keep their size down. The larger container you allow it to grow in, the larger it will grow. Japanese maples aren't only colorful in the fall. According to Eastwoods Nurseries in Washington, Virginia, these trees can also be pink, orange, or red in the spring, and lime to bronze in the summer. These trees must experience four seasons, however, and similarly to the cherry trees, must winter in cooler weather so that they lose their leaves and go dormant until reintroduced to warmer temperatures in the spring. Any pruning of a Japanese maple should be done in late summer or the early autumn.

Citrus Trees

• Most tender fruits such as lemons, grapefruits, oranges, mandarins, and limes originate from subtropical regions where they thrive in a warm, dry environment. For this reason, these trees are particularly suitable for an indoor garden where they will be kept warm and out of inclement weather. Citrus trees are attractive ornamentals, especially when in bloom, and some may provide consistently ripe fruits under the right conditions. Citrus form small, widely branching trees on trunks of 20 to 24 inches in circumference, according to "The American Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Gardening." Limes are the most compact, whereas grapefruits are the largest and most vigorous trees. All citrus species have aromatic leaves and grow best when at a temperature of 58 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bonsai

• The art of growing trees in small pots, training and shaping them to be miniatures of those in nature is known as bonsai. Bonsai, because of their small size, and being potted make for a perfect indoor garden. Some people create entire indoor gardens with bonsai, a garden in miniature, while others use them as one element in the garden. Typically, bonsai do not exceed 28 inches in height, and some are as small as 1 1/2 inches. Bonsai containers with multiple trees planted in a natural arrangement give the look of a forest and can be especially intriguing for an indoor garden, as it is one more way to bring a wild and natural look inside. Any tree can be grown as a bonsai, including the aforementioned types.