Category: trees in desert gardens

3 trees for Fall color in desert, but beware

With the limited color range in gardens in hot, dry desert climates–usually shades of brown and muted greens–having a tree outside your window that blazes with reds, yellows and oranges in Fall is a happy choice.

(I have a warning for you about leaves turning yellow at other times of year…but more about that later.)

First, let’s look at 2 big, beautiful, drought-tolerant trees and a small one that signal the change of seasons with their leaves.

These drought-tolerant Chinese Pistache (Pistacia chinensis) trees are still young. When mature, they are excellent shade trees at 40 feet tall and about 30 feet wide. Every Fall their leaves on the male trees turn from summer green to yellow to gold to blazing red–often with all those colors on the tree at one time as you can see in the photo at the top of this post. The female trees simply turn golden yellow. Strictly ornamental trees, they produce small non-edible red berries.

  • Rio Grande Variety of Fan Tex ash tree

The ‘Rio Grande’ cultivar of Fan-Tex ash (Fraxinus velutina) in this photo is about 14 years old. Not only is it a fast grower, it can be ideal for summer shade and winter warmth, after the leaves fall and the sun shines in. Once established, it is drought tolerant. While there are other ash trees that grow well in hot arid gardens — for example, the very fast growing ‘Modesto’ ash–only the ‘Rio Grande’ Fan-Tex ash leaves turn gorgeous gold in Fall. Click on photo to see it in summer.

And a colorful Fall and Spring tree for smaller gardens

If you do not have space for a very large tree, consider planting a crabapple (Malus) tree in your garden. They grow to about 15 feet wide and 15 feet tall. While needing regular watering, the crabapple flowers beautifully in Spring and the leaves turn a lovely orange/red in Fall. See second photo for spring blooms. If you should decide to buy one be sure to ask what the Springtime blooms look like. Some bloom white, some pink, some almost red and some are single blooms, others doubles. And the fruit is edible as a jam or pickle when cooked properly.

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Beware of some yellow leaves

You may notice that the leaves on one of your shrubs are turning yellow — but the veins stay green–and it isn’t even Fall. This is an indication of plant chlorosis due to problems with soil conditions, specifically iron deficiency. There are commercial treatments you can use, like Kerex or other iron chelates and other spray-on treatments. They work short term. But improving the overall condition and chemical balance in the soil should be your next step after spraying for longer term results.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

Listen to Mother Nature

Mother Nature plants in Fall and so should you. By planting at this time of year when the soil temperature has cooled off, the shrubs and trees have the opportunity to develop deep roots over winter and are, thus, stronger plants when they start to grow above-ground next Spring.

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  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Winterproofing palms to survive climate change

You have probably already seen one: a tall palm tree wrapped in strips of burlap which the owners hope will protect the tree during winter cold. In truth, this burlap bandage going from the ground to where the fronds begin is unlikely to have any impact at all.

There is, however, a proven way to “weatherproof” and protect palm trees in areas where winter temperatures sometimes fall below freezing–places like Palm Springs, Tucson, Las Vegas and London. That’s right–palm trees are now being planted and thriving in London in the U.K., a city that is further north than Seattle.

Climate change is definitely having an impact on gardens worldwide and on which plants will thrive where. While we think of palms as warm climate trees, they are now being planted in areas where cold, freezing winters are normal. And future changes in weather conditions are becoming more unpredictable, except that it looks like extremes of hot and cold will become normal.

The Proven Way to Protect Palms

So here is how to look at the situation: The best way–the proven way–to winterproof palm trees, which thrive in warm to hot weather, is to start off right and plant one of the palms that are also hardy–one that has built-in DNA resistance to winter chill. And you may be surprised at how many palm trees fit this requirement.

Mediterranean Fan palm for identification purposes
This Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamerops humilis) in Las Vegas is shrub-like – not tall and stately.

Let’s start with my London friend’s palm tree which she was told by her local garden center was a “New Zealand palm”. I recognized immediately that New Zealand had nothing to do with it. Her palm was and is a sturdy, hardy multi-trunk Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamerops humilis).

Ideal for small gardens, this short shrub-like palm has survived brief cold spells down to zero F. (-18 C.) And “brief” is the important factor; their survival depends on daytime warming after a night of chill. It has been 14 years since she planted it in a sheltered corner and, growing slowly, it still survives, and recently has even bloomed and produced fruit.

The next on this list of chilly-weather survivors is the Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), a native of the Middle East. It’s the tree you probably think of when someone says “palm tree”. Tall with long pinnate (rather than fan-like) fronds, this 75 foot high giant is very hardy. It has been known to survive and regrow after experiencing temperatures down to 5 F. (-16C.) Dates are, obviously, edible and the difficult-to-find Bahri dates are the very best. Unlike the chewy Medjool dates you buy in a store, Bahri dates are soft, delicious and taste like caramel.

Next is the Date Palm’s cousin, the Canary Island Palm, (Phoenix canariensis). While a few of these palms have reached a mature height of over 130 feet, that is uncommon. But they still are among the tallest palms. It will withstand temperatures to 20 F. (-7 C.) at least for a short time.  After a cold snap the fronds will turn brown and may very slowly regrow.

Tall palm trees native to the West

More common in gardens here in the West are two fan palm trees. The California and Mexican Fan Palms, (Washingtonia filifera and W. robusta), natives of Southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, are also rugged, surviving cold weather as low as 18 F. (-8 C.)

Trimming the “hula skirt” of dead fronds off these trees may make them look a bit more tidy but that “skirt” offers the palms some protection, some insulation from severe weather. The downside of not removing dead fronds is that Mother Nature may do it for you during our fierce Spring and Fall windstorms. And falling palm fronds are very dangerous. The thorns on these fan fronds are also hazardous.

Like the date palms, the Washingtonias can reach heights of 60 to 100 feet, making them not particularly suitable for residential gardens although we see them planted around homes everywhere. After a few years’ growth they are more like architectural columns in a yard than trees.

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Shorter palms for home gardens

A native of Mexico’s rocky Guadalupe Island, the Guadalupe Fan Palm (Brajea edulis) is a distinctive palm with a smooth grayish-brown trunk and silvery fronds. It grows about a foot a year to a mature height of only 25 feet tall, ideal for a residential garden. It flowers in summer from long drooping stems and the blooms are fragrant. Because it is a native to a small island with variable weather conditions, it tolerates heat, wind and drought, and it is one of the hardier palms, to 18 degrees F. (-7.7 C)

Pindo Palm (Butia capitata) , a native of dry South American savannahs, is another short palm, growing only to 20 feet. In Florida where it is popular in home gardens, it is known as the Jelly palm because people make jelly with its fruit. It tolerates temps as low as 5°F (-15 C) In this photo a very young Pindo palm was planted at the same time as the Washingtonia behind it. They have very different growth rates.

Originally found in high altitudes in China, Japan, Myanmar and India, the Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) is a semi-dwarf palm with windmill-shaped fronds. Slow-growing to 15 feet tall, this tree loves our summer heat but will withstand winter temperatures of -10F (-23C).

My favorite fails the chill test

My favorite is the graceful Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) a native of South America commonly planted in Southern California. It does not do well at all in cold weather. While I’ve seen it planted in hot dry Palm Springs, but with the weather uncertainty stemming from climate change, it may not survive there at all, except in a local micro-climate. Nearer the California coast, it grows beautifully and is ideal for home gardens.

And finally…

If a freeze comes and your palm tree ends up with browned fronds, do NOT remove it right away. Give it a few weeks or even a month or two of Springtime weather and it may very well produce green fronds again. And if you have to replace it in the end, choose one of the palms on this list.

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  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

4 desert trees good for the soil and 4 toxic ones

Recently Tucson’s Mayor Romero announced a tree planting goal for the City: one million new trees planted in the next ten years to help combat climate change. (That works out to 274 trees a day!) Homeowners are encouraged to plant one or more trees around their homes. But the number of tree choices for hot dry gardens runs into the dozens. So how to choose?

Trees related to peas?

In the hot dry gardens of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts homeowners should consider the benefits of planting these 4 trees that belong to the pea family. Why pea family trees? Because they take in abundant nitrogen (NH2) from the air and convert it to ammonium nitrogen (NH4) which gets added to the soil via bacteria-filled nodules on the tree roots.

So, not only do these trees do what all good trees do–provide shade and remove carbon dioxide from the air–they also help other plants beneath and nearby to thrive by providing nitrogen to the soil for nutrition.

You see this everywhere in untouched, natural areas, like this photo from the Saguaro National park: cacti and other plants growing right under and up through trees.

Food for the soil and plants nearby

First on the Good-for-the-Soil List: Mesquite (Prosopis). Among the most common varieties of Mesquite are Argentine mesquite (P. alba), Chilean mesquite (P. chilensis), honey mesquite (P. glandulosa), the screwbean mesquite (P. pubescens ) and velvet mesquite (P. velutina). The honey and velvet mesquites produce edible seeds pods that are commonly ground up into a flour for cooking. The screwbean is quite a messy tree. In size, mesquites range from 8 to 10 foot tall shrubs to 40 foot tall trees.

Mesquite tree prosopis
Mesquite alba in Las Vegas

They are super-easy to grow. On my short walk this morning I noticed dozens of young volunteer mesquite trees sprouting along neglected areas next to the street. If they are left alone, within a few years they will become trees with no help from anyone.

Trivia: in Australia and Ethiopia mesquites were introduced a few decades ago and loved the weather and land so much that they are now regarded as invasive pest trees because they are aggressively taking over grazing lands.

palo verde tree at Sunnyland garden
“Palo Verde Tree, Sunnylands, CA 2-22-14” by inkknife_2000 (11.5 million views) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Second on the Good-for-the-Soil list: Palo Verde trees (Parkinsonia florida), the Official Arizona State Tree. In Spanish the name means “green stick” with good reason. It is immediately recognizable by the green color of its trunk and nearly leafless branches. In Spring it bursts into bloom with brilliant yellow flowers and small leaves emerge, only to fade away quickly. While it does not cast much shade, it too helps other plants thrive by fixing nitrogen in the earth. The Foothill Palo Verde, which has a more yellow tinge to the trunk, reaches 20 feet in height. The blue Palo Verde can grow to 40 feet tall.

Acacia in bloom at Los Angeles Arboretum

Third, we have the Acacia tree (Acacia), which some claim should be knick-named the “Allergy Tree”. These fast growing Southwest natives love the heat and bloom with yellow powder-puff flowers in the spring that leave a pretty carpet of yellow pollen and spent blooms beneath them. Some also bloom again in the Fall. The larger varieties will reach 40 feet in heights and provide excellent shade, but there is one smaller variety suitable for courtyards.

Food for the soil and people, too

“Carob tree” by tree-species is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Fourth, and a little harder to find, is the Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). Not only does this Mediterranean native tree add nitrogen in the soil, it has pods that, when ripe, can be ground up and used as a substitute for chocolate. Be sure to read instructions online if you plan to do this.

Growing to a height of 50 feet carob trees cast dark, cooling shade. Unlike the previous three on this list, it needs some water year ’round. It is, however, on the suggested tree list in Tucson. For whatever it is worth, it is one of my favorite trees and Carob ice cream was very popular among the hipsters in San Francisco in the 1960s.

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4 Toxic beauties

But not all trees in the pea family are good. There are some toxic trees in the pea family which are quite beautiful and are planted in hot dry gardens throughout the Southwest–and probably shouldn’t be. While they can fix nitrogen in the soil they are best NOT planted in a family garden because of the dangers they can pose.

The Golden Medallion tree
Golden Medallion tree in Tucson

The striking Golden Chain tree (Laburnum × watereri) is uncommon, temperamental, and all parts are poisonous. The brilliant yellow flowers hang down like long chains of gold, which is where the name comes from.

The Golden Medallion tree (Cassia leptophylla) is similar in appearance to the Golden Chain tree. Its pods are poisonous.

The umbrella-shaped Mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) with its pretty pink-white flowers has poisonous seed pods and a reputation for being invasive.

The small Texas Mountain Laurel (Dermatophyllum secundiflorum) is a shrub-like tree with lovely purple blooms that look like wisteria or lilacs. Its brilliant red seed pods are deadly poisonous.

For more information about trees suitable for hot dry gardens, go to our Leafy Trees for Shade page.

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  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Ask Me Anything and tree planting deception

Sorry, but “Ask Me Anything” has been canceled because there have been too many trolls.

In my Hot Gardens newsletter in the winter of 2006 I suggested that my online gardening friends do just 2 things for the new year: 1) plant a tree and 2) change one lightbulb to LED.

Rio Grande Fax Tex Ash autumn
The large Fan Tex Ash tree thrives i hot dry climates and has gorgeous golden leaves in Fall.

Asking people to change light bulbs seems terribly out of date now–everyone has already done it.
But planting a tree in your own garden is as smart and timely now as it was then. Especially since many ads about tree planting around the world and the U.S. are, as I have recently learned, somewhat misleading.

Deceptive ads about tree planting

We’ve all seen the ads telling us that Nepal or Ethiopia or some other country or a mega-international company has planted millions of trees.

And those claims of tree-planting are true and so inspirational!

But the ads tell only part of the story. As it turns out, some uncounted number of these millions of trees are being planted in ‘tree plantations’ and will be harvested in 10 to 20 years.

In a tree plantation there is no attempt to restore a natural forest which is more complicated than just sticking little trees in the ground lined up in neat rows. Trees in a plantation create a monoculture, rather than a diversified ecosystem. Each tree is like the next one all spaced for optimum growth with no smaller trees or shrubs in between. That means in 10 to 20 years when these more mature trees are cut down and hauled away the benefits of the trees will revert back to zero. Tree plantations are a short-term fix to a long term problem of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide in the air and climate change.

Crape myrtle Lagerstroemia indica hot pink
When most other plants are wearing summer green, the Crape myrtle bursts into colorful bloom. In dry climates it is a relatively small tree.

So I urge you to plant a tree or a few trees or long-lived shrubs in your garden in 2026. Become part of a long-term solution.

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Texas Rangers are the earth’s “Thank You” to the monsoon

In recent weeks TV weathercasters in the desert Southwest have been laughingly referring to the “non-soon” as the annual summer rains got held up in West Texas. And, to make it worse, even fewer clouds came out of the Sea of Cortez. No rainstorms from either direction. Finally in late July one storm dropped enough rain to begin bringing Texas Rangers (Leucophyllum fructescens) into bloom.

Texas Ranger Leucophyllum frutescens in bloom

Since then even record setting temperatures have not slowed the rush to flowering by these heat loving shrubs, native to the Chihuahua desert. They are a visual joy in blue, purple, lavender, and white!

Texas Ranger untrimmed
Thanks to Starbucks in Marana AZ this Texas Ranger has been left untrimmed, although perhaps with too much shade on the plant. It prefers full sun.

Better yet, as SW natives the Texas Ranger thrives in very alkaline soil of .8 to .9 pH. While these 8 foot to 10 foot tall shrubs bloom in concert with the monsoon, they prefer fast draining soil to keep their roots almost dry so be sure to add plenty of organic material when you plant a Texas Ranger. And only irrigate them–lightly, if at all–during the summer months. Stop watering at the end of the monsoon in late September. And as for fertilizer? None needed at all. Fertilizer makes them spindly and weak.

NOW FOR MY RANT: Do not trim Texas Rangers into lollipops! Commercial groundskeepers seem to be the worst offenders of this practice, as you can see in the photo below. Texas Rangers have a beautiful loose shape and should be allowed to keep it. If you feel you absolutely have to cut back a plant, do it in March–one time during the year, only once! Or maybe plant a dwarf “compacta” variety instead. END OF RANT.

improperly trimmed Texas Rangers shrubs
These 4 Texas Rangers in a parking lot have been severely trimmed. Whoever developed the horticulture plan for this commercial area should have chosen the Leucophyllum frutescen ‘compacta’, the low growing variety of the plant.

Amazon Burning- what you can do

The new President of Brazil ran on a platform of developing the Amazon. What we are all seeing now is that landowners, particularly cattle ranchers, took that to give them a greenlight to start burning their way deeper into the life-giving jungle after he took office.

Now we can all be outraged as Presidents Macron and Trudeau have been on Twitter or we can actually do something about it in the real world. Countries like Pakistan, India, China, Senegal, Nigeria and even tiny Nepal have already embarked on programs to plant millions of trees.

While we can have no hope of getting support from the current administration in Washington D.C. for a massive tree planting effort in the U.S. I am confident that local groups, like the Tree People in Los Angeles or the National Forest Foundation, will continue and expand their Plant-A-Tree programs in cities, towns and forests across the country.

Crepe myrtless in bloom

If no organization near you is doing it at the very least plan to add a tree to your garden this fall when planting season begins. If every person in the U.S. planted just one tree we would have 329 million new trees which would help offset the damage being done right now in the Amazon.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

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  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Crepe myrtle, the blooming belle of the South, needs help in a dry climate

On my continuing travels through Louisiana, I have noticed that few homes have anything that resembles a garden with shrubs and flowering plants artfully arranged.  The more common gardening feature is the lawn, a large mowed green area around the home.  Upon taking a closer look, I realized that many “lawns” are simply native grasses and other low growing plants sheared to slightly above ground level.  It is an act of self-defense. Extremely fast-growing native shrubs and trees take over every space that is not regularly cut back in this hot, damp climate.

Crepe myrtle trees Opelousas Louisiana
A garden has been planted around the Oplousas Louisiana courthouse including purple and pink Crepe myrtles.

The exception to this emphasis on lawns, are the Crepe myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia indica) planted by homeowners. They are ubiquitous.

These natives of southern China were introduced into Charleston, South Carolina by plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI, André Michaux, in the mid 1700s.  The name is sometimes spelled Crape myrtle, but Crepe myrtle now seems preferred.  Whatever the spelling, they took the South like wildfire.  People loved them.

hot pink crepe myrtle flowers
This hot pink color seems to be the most popular Crepe myrtle. It is a bright contrast to the green of the South and the brown of the southwest.

And Crepe myrtles loved the heat, lots of sunlight and the slightly acidic soil.

Some newer hybrids have been developed to tolerate chillier winter conditions, including frost.  And–surprisingly–they are somewhat drought tolerant.

Correcting alkaline soil conditions

It’s that “acidic soil” part that is an issue in a hot, dry climate. Most of the soils in the desert Southwest are alkaline, but alkaline soils can be corrected to a soil condition that Crepe myrtles love in two ways:

  • Add 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch and dig it in to a depth of one foot. Within a year or two the soil will become more neutral.  Mulch should be added every year.
  • Add sulphur to the soil and dig it in which will also balance the pH.  While this maybe a faster way to rebalance soil, be very careful with this because too much sulphur can be harmful.

And be sure to deep water your Crepe myrtle tree at least once a month in summer. Drought tolerant doesn’t mean “no-water-required.”

Here are some Crepe myrtles I’ve admired in Louisiana:
plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI André Michaux ink and hot pink crepe myrtles
Two colors of Crepe myrtles planted together. The neighbor, behind, planted a white one which is now at least 25 feet tall.
row of crape myrtle trees
These Crepe myrtles have been carefully pruned to allow an open area beneath them on the University of Louisiana campus. Their broad growth is a characteristic of the hybrid. Some hybrids grow tall and narrow, some broad, and there are dwarf hybrids that are perfect for hedges.
White crepe myrtle tree Lafayette Louisiana
White Crepe myrtle trees are less common than the various shades of pink and purple. This one was ladened with white flowers. This home actually has a small garden planted around it!

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  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Mesquites and flowering trees to plant in your hot, dry garden this Fall

Mesquites seem to have become the Street Tree of choice in some cities in the arid Southwest.  Cities can line the streets with allées of Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) or Velvet Mesquite (Prosopis velutina) knowing full well that maintenance is not going to break the city budget.  As natives these trees thrive in harsh, dry climates with almost zero upkeep. And Fall is the best time to plant them.

Mesquite prosopis
The Mesquite is for all practical purposes a plant-it-and-forget-it tree, but the shade it provides allows other plants thrive.

When you plant keep in mind that  irrigating and fertilizing a mesquite is a mistake and planting one in a lawn that is regularly watered can be a disaster: the roots will be shallow, the tree will become top-heavy and topple over in the Spring and Fall windstorms.

A third native mesquite, the Screwbean (Prosopis pubescens) is more of a tall, thorny shrub and is best planted in an out of the way place.  One Screwbean mesquite I saw not long ago was tucked back in a no-irrigation zone of a large Las Vegas garden where it and a nearby Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) were surrounded by a protective circle of agaves.  A good choice of companion plants!

Desert Willow and agaves
A Desert Willow and a Screwbean Mesquite make good companions to these agaves.

In addition to these three, other mesquites from Chile and Argentina have been introduced into the Southwest and have cross-bred like crazy with the locals. And thorns have turned up unexpectedly on supposedly thornless mesquites.

The problem with these fast growing, very drought tolerant trees is that they don’t give us colorful blooms in our gardens.  Yes, yes — I know they “bloom”–after all, that’s where Trader Joe’s Mesquite Honey comes from–but the blooms are very subtle.  Bees may notice them, but the average person driving along the street won’t.

So here are a few recommendations of trees to plant this fall that will produce colorful blooms in summer.

The first two I have already written about but are worth mentioning again.

chitalpa tree
This Chitalpa tree was planted as a “whip” about 4 years prior to this photograph being taken.

The  Chitalpa tree (Chitalpa x tashkentensis) was especially developed for low water usage gardens — by Russian scientists, no less.  The “tashkent” in its name is the capitol city of Uzbekistan formerly part of the old Soviet Union  where the scientists worked. Why those scientists spent time developing a ornamental garden tree–rather than a practical fruit or nut tree–I will never figure out.  But I thank them.

Anyway…it is definitely a favorite because it blooms in pink, or white, or lavender  for months on end in summer. It needs some watering, grows 2 or 3 feet a year and reaches a height of 25 feet tall. Bonus:  hummingbirds love it.

Crape myrtle
In addition to pink and hot pink, one Crepe Myrtle has showy white flowers in summer.

The Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) can be a glorious blast of color in the summer, although be aware that it does need watering to do its best. A row of them behind our local library did not get irrigated this summer and failed to put on the usual bright show of flowers.

By nature the Crepe Myrtle is a shrub although some plant growers train them to be a small tree or standard.  It tolerates neutral to slightly alkaline soil so be sure to add mulch around it at least once a year.

The Gold Medallion tree (Cassia leptophylla) is a Brazilian native that is now being planted in drought tolerant landscapes in the Southwest after being introduced to the U.S. by the Los Angeles Arboretum in 1958.

Brazilian gold medallion tree
This young Gold Medallion tree will easily grow to twice this height.

It flowers with huge basketball size clusters of yellow flowers at the ends of branches and the hotter the weather the more the blooms.

Happily, it also tolerates mildly cold weather down to 25° F for a short time. The City of San Francisco, of all places, is using it as a street tree and it is chilly there, for sure!  The Gold Medallion tree needs soil that drains well and do not over-irrigate. It’s seeds are poisonous.

Now about Oleander…Yes, it blooms in summer, is drought tolerant, and grows fast. And every bit of the plant is poisonous–leaves, branches, flowers–everything. Seriously, it can kill people.

CLIMATE CHANGE
In the last few days many of us in the Southwest were blessed with rain. It soaked into the earth in some places and in other areas created flash floods. This rainfall came from the remains of Hurricane Sergio.  As the Pacific ocean warms up along the California coast, we can expect more after-effects from hurricanes and, before long, full-fledged hurricanes actually blowing into Southern California and eastward. This year the water temperature off So. Cal. was 78° F. That’s 10° above the historic normal. The weather folks tell us hurricanes need 80° F water temperature for energy–and that’s only 2 degrees away.  I look at the photos of the destruction caused by Hurricane Michael in Florida and hope we do not have to experience that here.

Where to get a free or cheap tree for your home.

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  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
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  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

Is that plant dead? Should I replace it now? Tips for Fall planting

Mother Nature plants in the Fall and so should you.  Instead, however, of simply deciding which trees, shrubs or perennials to add to your arid garden this Fall, you may be looking at which plants you need to replace. The record-breaking heat in the Southwest and California (and Australia!) this last summer baked the leaves on many plants and turned them brown  overnight. On others the leaves simply fell off the branches. The plants appeared dead.

Azalea regrowing after sunburn
After looking as if nearly dead, the cooler weather has brought new growth to this white azalea which thrived for years in a micro-climate backed up against a wall in almost total shade.

But don’t yank these sunburned plants out of your garden yet, especially now that the rains have come. Wait two or three weeks. The roots of dead-looking plants may have survived the heat and be ready to regrow.

If, however, you decide to replace some plants, consider the suitability of the ones you choose for replacements. The heat this last summer will probably be back next year and for many summers to come.  You may want to select more desert-like plants or take steps now to create micro-climates for parts of your garden that suffered most from the heat by adding shade-producing and heat-reducing plants.  And, unlike the Beanstalk of Jack-and-the-Beanstalk fame, the plants to create micro-climates don’t grow sky high overnight. Planting them this Fall–rather than waiting until Spring–will give them a head start on growth over the winter.

Plant now to create micro-climates in your garden

For starters you can help cool off your entire garden by planting a fast-growing hedge in front of a hot wall. This can be effective with both cement block walls around your property and  the stucco walls of your home. The shrubs’ leaves will block the sun from heating up the wall during the day so there will not be as much drying heat to be released after dark.  Overall your garden will feel cooler and a bit less dry.  And a cooler, slightly damper garden is better for all plants — and people.

Two drastically different hedge plants that grow fast are Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) and Japanese privet (Ligustrum japonicum).

pampas grass
Behind this Pampas grass is a dull gray block wall. In one year it was covered up.

Pampas grass is close to being a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk plant. It will shoot up to as tall as 20 feet in one year, and should be cut back to 18 inches high in mid-winter.  But be aware: its blades have rough edges that can cut skin so wear gloves when cutting it back. And it may be very difficult to remove if you change your mind later. It is definitely a statement plant.

Ligustrum japonicum privet hedge in bloom
In Springtime the Japanese Privet hedge bursts into bloom.

The Japanese privet is more ordinary looking–just a basic green hedge.  It grows about two feet a year, however, and is quite drought tolerant. Poor soil conditions do not seem to bother it either. In Spring it is covered with white flowers that look almost like lilac blooms, but don’t smell nearly as nice as lilacs. You can see these and other shrubs for hedges in arid gardens here.

Planting a tree for more shade is another way to create a micro-climate to help other plants in your garden survive in hot weather.

Chitalpa taskentensis flowers in summer Hot Gardens

One rapid growing tree that is suitable for arid gardens is the Chitalpa (Chitalpa tashkentensis) which will grow about 3 feet a year to a maximum height of 25 feet.  It is a hybrid of the Desert Willow and the Catalpa tree that was created specifically to thrive in hot, dry climates.  While it likes balanced soil, slightly alkaline conditions will not impair its growth. I especially like it because it has long-lasting, pretty pink-white blossoms, an open branch structure and provides dappled shade, rather than dark shade. You can see other trees for hot, dry gardens here.

The right way to plant a tree or shrub

The hole for planting should be 2 1/2 times as wide as the root ball, but do not make it deeper than the root ball.  The crown (the part where the roots meet the trunk or main stem) should be at or slightly above ground level–not submerged in the hole.  Be sure to add a lot of rich organic mulch into and around the hole you dig for a new tree or shrub to provide nutrients for growth, especially root growth during winter.  Really soak the soil with water around the planting hole and, once planted, water the tree regularly until the plant is established.

Now here is one last recommendation for coping with our hotter, drier summers and the damage of relentless heat. In my last post I wrote about applying organic mulch around plants, trees,  and in flower beds to help supply nutrition. Another benefit of mulching  is that mulch provides an insulating layer to protect the roots from scorching summer heat and winter cold.  That’s right — winter cold and its potentially damaging effect on plants is right ahead of us now. More about this in an upcoming post.

Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat

How much should you feed and water your garden in scorching summer heat?

For months now in 2018 the daily high air temperature has been above 90 degrees (F)  (32C) which means that plants in hot dry gardens in the Northern Hemisphere have gone into summer dormancy. Even drought-tolerant plants and natives just hunker down and try to survive until Fall when the air and earth cool down. (One of the few summer bloomers is the Crape Myrtle tree, shown above.)

As your garden’s best friend and caretaker, you should water the plants regularly, but do not fertilize the plants in your arid garden in an attempt to make them bloom or grow. They are thirsty at this time of year but not hungry now so deep irrigation is best. They do not want to grow. They do not want to produce seeds. And only a few bloom during summer dormancy phase.

Blooming color in summer

Crape myrtle white and pink
Crape Myrtle blooms in hot pink and white, both shown here. They also have paler shades of pink and even one with lavender blossoms. Best of all they love the heat!

My absolute favorite of the summer bloomers is the hot pink Crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), a native of India and China that thrives all across the southern U.S. in both dry and damp climates.  By nature the Crape Myrtle prefers acidic soil, not the alkaline soils of the American West.  In the South where the soil is acidic and it rains in summer, the Crape myrtle grows to 20+ feet tall. In the very dry hot Southwest, the trees bloom beautifully but rarely reach that height.

If you are planning to plant a Crape Myrtle tree this fall after the weather and earth cool off, be sure to add a lot of organic materials to the soil around it and water the root ball thoroughly–soak it through–before it goes into the ground to encourage good root growth.  It’s a good idea to mulch around the tree every year so it remains happy and blooming every midsummer.

Climate Change Update

During this last month in the summer of 2018, people in Spain, Japan, and countries around the world experienced record-breaking temperatures of 117 degrees (F) (47 Celsius) and higher. Off the coast of La Jolla, California, the usually cool Pacific Ocean temperature was 78 degrees which is 10 degrees above normal. At the southern end of Florida, the water temperature reached 98F (36 C) Some fish, of course, can swim away from uncomfortable temperatures, but underwater plants and slow moving and non-moving animals are stuck and may die out.

Should you plant a palm tree oasis in your back yard?  Maybe…or maybe not

For centuries palm trees have been symbols of comfort and safety whether spied in an oasis from afar in a scorching hot desert or…standing tall as a “land-ho” sign after crossing a vast stretch of ocean or…simply marking the beginning of warm weather country when traveling south in the U.S.

As symbols or signs, palm trees are great. I love seeing them lined up along The Strip in Las Vegas, and Arroyo Parkway in Pasadena and Canon Drive in Beverly Hills. But as for planting a palm tree in a residential garden…I am less enthusiastic.

3 Washingtonia robusta fan palms
Three Mexican fan palms.

Plant a Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia robusta) or a fruitful date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and within a few years you have a tall, round brown column in your front yard. The graceful green fronds will have grown out of sight and cast very little shade.

The Mexican Fan palm has vicious thorns on its fronds and a prick from one thorn can cause an infection. And if your sky-high date palm produces fruit, the dates will drop and make a mess—albeit a tasty mess—in your yard.

But there are two and a half smaller palm trees that are more suitable for home gardens in hot, dry climates.

Pindo palm California fan palm

The Pindo palm (Butia capitate) has long fronds, like the date palm, but grows very slowly to 20 feet tall and about the same width.  It produces a yellow fruit that in some countries is turned into jelly or wine. It is the smaller palm in front in the photo. Behind it is a Mexican fan palm which is growing its way to 60 feet tall. Both planted at the same time.

Mediterranean fan palm Chamaerops humilis

The Mediterranean Fan palm, (Chamaerops humilis) as the name states, has fan-like fronds similar to the Mexican fan palm, but it is essentially a palm shrub, not a palm tree.  Many people trim the lower fronds off the multiple trunks to give this plant a more traditional “palm tree” shape. A slow grower may reach 15 to 20 feet someday. Its small, brown fruit is not edible.

Both these smaller palm trees can survive chilly weather, even a quick light dusting of snow!

sago palm cycad

And now for the “half palm tree”.  It is commonly called a sago palm, but it is not a palm at all. This low growing cycad is closely related to evergreen pine trees. It can be an attractive addition to a palm garden oasis and grows really s-l-o-o-o-w-l-y. Be sure to plant in a backyard; thieves steal them from front yards regularly because they are very expensive plants. Another note about the sago palm: its bright red fruit can be toxic to dogs and other small animals and is not good for humans of any size.

So even though palms like being planted in warm soil and can be planted in warm weather if watered sufficiently, consider how it will look in a few years. In my opinion, it is better to invest your money and time planting a fast growing Chitalpa tree (Chitalpa x tashkentensis).

working after retirement ebook and paperback

Read our 8 most popular newsletters

  1. Hot Days, White Nights, How Design a Moon Garden
  2. Australian Plants for a Desert Garden
  3. Cover up that naked wall
  4. Best and beautiful native shrubs for extreme heat
  5. Five fragrant plants for your garden
  6. Where to get free or cheap trees for your garden
  7. Four desert trees good for soil, 4 toxic ones
  8. Plants that bloom even in mid-summer scorching heat