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What Trees Should I Plant In My Yard?

Consider Planting These Trees In Your Yard

John Eisenhower of Rosie-Certified SavATree, our Saturday morning expert on all things trees, has a great list of favorite small trees to plant in your Arizona yard! We’ve compiled his list and a few tips on each tree to help you plan your landscape!

Mastic Tree

mastic

A small to medium sized evergreen tree, the Mastic tree, can be shaped and manipulated to be what you want it to be! Frequent pruning and training can make it a sculpture for your yard. Be intentional on where you plant this tree as it can take over other trees, fence lines, and exterior walls of your home. Be prepared to train and prune and provide occasional deep watering. Otherwise it is a fairly low maintenance option!

Leather Leaf Acacia

leather leaf a leather leaf b

Considered a large shrub, the Leather Leaf Acacia is a hearty desert choice. Xeric landscape design themes are used primarily as a background or screen plant. Also, with some consistent training it makes a nice multiple trunk small tree for dry patios.The Leather Leaf has small, yellow flowers in the spring and fall, encouraging bees, and produces fruit in the summer for the birds!

Texas Olive

texas olive

The Texas Olive is a diverse plant for both xeriscape and mesic landscape choices, making it a great choice for anyone in the Sonoran Desert. This tree looks a lot like an oleander plant when in bloom, but is not poisonous. It flowers into white blooms that attract hummingbirds and butterflies! Texas olive fruit is said to be edible, and used for medicine in Mexico, but they are definitely NOT TASTY.

Sky Flower

sky flower

Sky flower is an evergreen that grows about 18-20ft tall. It can be grown as a screen, a windbreak or in a container on your patio! The sky flower comes in several varieties from white to purple flowers, and holds them for spring and fall until the first frost! It also produces a beautiful yellow/gold berry that is poisonous, but gives a beautiful display and will bring out your love for LSU! GEAUX TIGERS!!

Mulga

Mulga is a beautiful evergreen that is heat and full-sun loving! It is hardy against our alkaline soils, and the watering required is minimal! It can grow to 30 feet, and requires occasional pruning. In the spring, the tree will develop rod shaped yellow flowers and then fruit in a flat, brown/green pod (inedible).

Texas Ebony

texas ebony

Often mistaken as a small feature, Texas Ebony is an evergreen tree that is slow growing but can eventually get up to 40 ft, and can spread its canopy quite wide. If you have the room this is an excellent shade tree option, but be sure to plant it far enough away from the home to account for the entire canopy. Any closer, you could experience issues with the roots encroaching your foundation and/or penetrating your plumbing. The pruning required is more crown raising, as the tree will grow to the ground if you let it. The tree has beautiful cream colored flowers in early summer, but can flower through the monsoon. The fruit pods are visible and continual and not attractive, but they are the only bad part of this tree! Be sure to get some gloves to work with this tree, as the spines can draw blood.

Cascalote

The Cascalote tree is mostly evergreen, but it may go deciduous in early spring. It grows to roughly 20 ft up and out. It is a little more difficult tree to keep pruned and will become a multi-trunk tree. The large yellow flowers will make an appearance, usually around the fall, and they do have a pod that will go from yellow/green to reddish/brown. Very tolerant to heat and sun and needs infrequent, but deep watering. It can attract hummingbirds, but often blooms too late in the year. This tree does have thorns, so it may not be a great option for shading walk ways or providing climbing for children.

Mexican Bird of Paradise

Bird of paradise

This is a wonderful large accent shrub that shows brightest in early summer when most other Phoenix plants are fading. Its colors attract hummingbirds and unfortunately, white flies. It’s flowers will occasionally reseed and spread root suckers, but it is far from an invasive species. It will grow to approximately 10 feet tall and is tolerant to our sun and heat, but does need a bit more water than most of the other ones we listed here. This is a beautiful addition to any yard!

Whatever tree or shrub you choose, be sure to plan sufficient space, and spread your colors out to when they bloom and for how long so you can have color longer each year!

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Photo Credit

Chris A. Martin, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Horticulture, Arizona State University