# Shade-Tolerant Blooming Trees
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Blossoms
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Blossoms are trees with a showy display of flower clusters and edible fruit. The fruit on many blossoms are stone fruit, or fruit with a hardened seed in the center of its flesh. Some stone fruit varieties are peach, cherry, plum and apricot. Blossoms grow in orchard farms, but gardeners also plant them as ornamental trees. These trees thrive in full sun, but tolerate partial shade. April and May are the primary blooming months for blossoms. Most blossoms feature pink or white flowers and need pruning on an annual basis to remain productive; spring is the usual season for pruning.
Dwarf
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In horticultural terms, a dwarf tree is the miniature size of a wild tree. Dwarf trees grow shorter than the wild members of the species by limiting the tree's root space through pruning or grafting the tree into the roots of smaller tree species. The flowering dogwood grows in the southeast United States and produces greenish flowers in April and May. Another shade-tolerant dwarf tree is sweetbay magnolia, which features white or cream flowers with a lemon scent. Not only do these trees thrive in the shade, but horticulturalists place dwarf trees in gardens to provide shade for smaller plants.
Hardwood
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Many hardwood trees are angiosperms since they feature water-conducting cells and thick-walled fiber cells not found in gymnosperms, or nonflowering trees. Also, the term hardwood comes from the density of the tree's cells, which usually makes hardwood trees physically heavier than softwood trees. Some shade-tolerant, flowering hardwoods are maples, aspens, willows, birches and elms. Another shade-tolerant hardwood, hophornbeam, grows in the understory of forests in the shade of maples and beeches. Hophornbeam flowers grow in clusters and have a droopy appearance.
Invasive
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Also known as exotic trees, invasive trees are plants growing outside of their native environment. While some species have beautiful displays of flowers, such as mimosa and silk floss tree, invasive trees are harmful to the ecology since they often outcompete native trees for resources. Mimosas, or silk trees, produce pink flowers and grow between 10 to 50 feet when mature. Growing between 40 to 50 feet tall, silk floss trees have five-petaled pink flowers and grayish-green bark with thick thorns. Both the mimosa and silk floss tree are tolerant of shady areas.
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