The 5 Best Flowering Trees for Your Southern California Yard (2024)

One of the keys to a stunning landscape design is creating focal points with strategically placed flowering trees. There are dozens of gorgeous choices, so narrowing down the best flowering trees Southern California has to offer can be difficult.

Pacific Outdoor Living has used dozens of species of flowering trees over the years. After thousands of landscape design projects, we’ve narrowed down our 5 best flowering trees for Southern California properties.

This article is focused on flowering trees. If you’re looking for the best shade trees for Southern California, visit

this post.

Native to Central and South America and the Caribbean, the Jacaranda tree is an excellent choice for your Southern California property. Its latin name is also used as its common name. The definition of Jacaranda is “fragrant”, which can give you a tip of why it’s one of our favorite flowering trees for Southern California.

Glorious displays of purple-blue, fragrant panicles cover the canopy of the Jacaranda tree in late spring. After leaves emerge, a second bloom can sometimes be seen, but in fewer numbers.

Jacaranda trees can reach 30-45 ft in height and width. A knowledgeable landscape designer can help to determine the perfect spot to plant this flowering tree on your Southern California property.

These trees will create a beautiful purple-blue carpet underneath after blossoms fall. Make sure to keep these trees far enough from swimming pools or other objects that could be difficult to clean. Jacarandas love sunny spots with well-drained, fertile soil.

Stunning color and an amazing fragrance make the Jacaranda one of the best flowering trees Southern California has to offer.

Another one of the best flowering trees for Southern California landscapes is the Crape Myrtle. This flowering tree is an extremely versatile choice. Varieties range in size from shrub-like cultivars of only a few feet to vase-shaped trees of 15-25 ft. in height.

Abundant blooms persist for several weeks during the summer months. Cultivars can offer flowers in varying whites, purples, pinks, and reds. However, the Crape Myrtle’s beauty isn’t limited to its blooms. These Southern California flowering trees also provide great fall interest with brightly changing foliage and a unique, year-round display of their colored, mottled trunk bark.

Crape Myrtles are undoubtedly one of the best flowering trees Southern California has to offer. Ask your landscape designer which variety is best for you.

This semi-evergreen flowering tree reaches a height of 20-30 ft. It’s spectacular white blooms are one of the first seen flowering trees in the Southern California new year from January through March.

This tree has been widely used in Southern California due to its suitability as a street tree and is a favorite for parks and lawns. It’s light green, almost leathery leaves are rounded with a pointed tip and become an amazing property feature when changing to a deep crimson in fall.

The Evergreen Pear Tree is one of the best flowering trees for Southern California due to its early bloom time, versatile uses, and amazing autumn foliage color.

Native to southwestern Asia, this tree has many common names around the world. In Southern California, this flowering tree is most often referred to as a Mimosa or Silk Tree. This Southern California flowering tree grows to 15-50 ft. tall, offering dappled shade for areas below.

Flowers vary in color based on the cultivar, but typically combine white, pink, and red in their delicate, silk-like petals. Blooms begin to emerge in late spring and persist into mid-summer.

The Mimosa or Silk Tree gets our pick as one of the best flowering trees for Southern California landscaping due to it’s unique leaf texture and delicate flowers. We feel it’s a great choice for many Los Angeles properties.

Easily grown in a variety of, well-drained soils, this Southern California flowering tree is a great choice for full sun areas. Although native to Asia, the Golden Rain Tree tolerates drought conditions and many air pollutants common to Southern California cities.

This specimen is a flowering shade tree, reaching a height and a width of 30-40 ft. It’s yellow blooms emerge in mid-summer atop its unique, bipinnately compound leaves. Later in the summer, the blooms develop interesting seed capsules which somewhat resemble small Chinese lanterns.

The Golden Rain Tree is one of the best flowering trees Southern California has to offer due to its rare combination of shade provision, unique chartreuse bloom color, and interesting leaves and seed pods.

The “best” of anything can be a subjective term, relative to the specific site conditions, function, and preferences of a Southern California property owner. Even landscape designers vary in their opinions of the best flowering trees Southern California can offer.

In order to figure out which of these trees is the ideal flowering tree for your Southern California home or business, find a landscaping company with an in-house designer that can explain all the features of each tree and potential challenges.

No one flowering tree is perfect. Blooms fall, branches grow, and most plants have some sort of challenges to manage. A caring landscape designer can help you find the tree whose pros outweigh their cons.

If you’re searching for a landscaping company in Southern California to help you choose and install flowering trees on your property, we would love if you would consider Pacific Outdoor Living. Our knowledgeable team will help walk you through the design process. Whether you’re adding just a couple trees, or designing an entire property, we’re here to help.