Palo Verde a Good Choice for Desert Landscapes

Pyracantha Good Choice for Moderate Water Use Landscape

My only comments are that this can be fairly prone to borer problems if put into full, intense desert sunlight so that the sun damages its thin bark. There are definitely some varieties that birds like more (fruit) than others. Some varieties birds (Mockingbirds in particular) just won't touch. There are some varieties where the fruit can be made into pyracantha jelly. Google it. Other varieties have no flavor at all or sweetness and hence birds don't like them. Make sure you get pyracantha that have sweet berries if you want to fight with the birds over who gets them. Try them to see if they are sweet or not.

The colloquial name "firethorn" refers to the stinging sensation you can get when the thorns puncture your skin. It is not poisonous.

The fruit is closer to an apple anatomically (of course a very tiny apple) than a berry.

It can get aphids, spider mites, iron chlorosis and cotton cushion scale. It is in the rose family so it is not a desert plant and does best with wood surface mulches. It will get root rot if the soil is kept too went or the soil does not drain easily.

Carob Tree Under Used in Desert Landscapes

Carob tree is a good shade tree but slow growing for low water use desert landscapes. It will develops "warts" along its branches near where flowers are produced when it gets older. You should not be concerned. It is normal. Some people find the smell coming from male flowers to be offensive.

Watering, Mulching and Fertilizing Desert Landscapes

Q.  I have three questions. How often should I water? Do I need to put mulch around the plants and then cover them with rocks or keep the mulch exposed? Do I need to fertilize plants with a desert-type fertilizer or can I use the same stuff I use on my regular plants and how often?

 

A. How often to water. Winter; once every ten to 14 days. Spring until May 1^st; once a week. May 1 through the summer; twice a week. September 15 to December 1; once a week. These are approximate dates. Adjust with the weather.

Purple leaf plum mulched with wood mulch in a desert landscape of rock mulch. Wood mulch
adds organic matter back to the soil as it decomposes and is needed in soils around
some plants like purple leaf plum.

            Wood mulch is a substitute for rock mulch. Rock mulch will cause problems with some plants. If you want all rock mulch, then make sure the plants used can tolerate rock mulch. Wood mulch is used without rock mulch and should be three to four inches deep around plants.

Ammonium sulfate is a high nitrogen fertilizer containing 21% nitrogen (21-0-0)

            Fertilizers are the same for all plants. If you want growth, use high nitrogen fertilizers. If you want flowers and root growth, use a fertilizer with high phosphorus. Good fertilizers are more expensive than ordinary fertilizers and are frequently worth the money.

Sprint 138 iron contains iron in the chelate EDDHA
form which works very well in our highly alkaline soils

            If you can’t afford good fertilizers then make sure you use a good fertilizer at least once a year and use less expensive fertilizers the remainder. Use them when you can and the first application of the season is usually the best time to use them.

            One application per year is enough for most plants except lawns and plants that you appreciate for their flowers. In those cases four applications are best; Labor Day, Fourth of July, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving. If the plants are tender to winter cold, skip the last two fertilizers of the season.

            Plants that turn yellow are usually iron deficient and will need a GOOD iron fertilizer. Not all iron fertilizers work in our soils.

 

 

Cleveland Sage a Great Choice for Beauty and Fragrance

Q. I am trying to identify this bush/plant. It is in a desert landscape. Poor picture (sorry) but the blooms are blue/purple and seem to grow out of the center of the bloom below. Each bloom is shaped like a pinwheel with small flowers around the edge. Each stem/stalk supports 4 or 5 of the pinwheels, each spaced evenly up the stem. Very interesting and pretty.

Cleveland sage picture submitted by reader

A. The picture is a bit fuzzy which doesn't help with my old eyes but I think what you have is Salvia clevelandii or Cleveland Sage, or Blue Sage. It gets its name from being named in the Cleveland National Forest which is east and north of San Diego.

            I really love the plant for its visual beauty but one extra is the wonderful fragrance of the foliage. Even on warm days with just the lightest of zephyrs the fragrance wafts all around.

Terry Mikel

Here is another shot of Cleveland sage

Desert Plants Dont Like Desert Soils



These ash trees were planted along Aliante Parkway in
North Las Vegas just north of the Aliante Casino heading
toward Horse Drive. When you are driving along here look
at the sizes of the ash trees planted in grass vs those planted
in rock. They were planted at the same time. Those in
rock mulch are much smaller but all in good health.

Q. I often enjoy your pieces in the NLV neighborhood View, and your suggestion of replacing rock mulch with wood chips caught my attention. I have an 18 year-old velvet ash in a small (20' x 20'), red rock covered front yard.  Does this tree do better with rock or wood chips around its trunk?

A. This is where my comments can sometimes be misconstrued. What I am trying to tell people is that for the most part, plants that originate from nondesert or nonarid climates perform best growing in wood mulches in the landscape. They also do better with growing in soils that have been amended at the time of planting with organic materials like compost.

            Plants like Velvet ash (aka Arizona Ash) which is native to the desert and arid Southwest, TOLERATES desert soils and so can be grown more successfully under rock mulch than non-desert plants. Nearly all plants perform better with a higher organic content in the soil but desert plants, like Velvet ash, can TOLERATE rock mulch landscapes.

            This is true of many cacti and succulents as well. You will see them perform better if we amend the soil at the time of planting with some organic matter like compost.

            In the case of your Velvet ash, because it is native to the arid and desert Southwest, it can tolerate rock mulches better than say Japanese privet (native to Japan) which does not tolerate rock mulch very well at all but is frequently placed in rock landscapes here with, over time, very little success.