A superior heat tolerant grama grass. ‘Gila Silver’ is a low-desert native shortgrass prairie selection. Unlike other popular selections that are from a northern provenance, this is a small clumping grass is way better adapted to our low desert landscapes. Although they are small in size these well-behaved grasses are big in personality. Thin blue-green leaves form small clumps with numerous nude stalks rising above the foliage in summer that hold cute eyebrow-shaped seed heads that eventually curl into nearly perfect little circles as they mature. ‘Gila Silver’ is as well-suited to large reclamation projects or roadway stabilization as they are for small urban home landscapes.

Bright yellow blooming winter color! A widely popular, fast growing small to medium sized accent tree, Cacalaco is an excellent option for Snow Bird landscapes, due to their fall and winter blooming. Dark green compound leaves cover these mostly multi-trunked small trees with numerous catclaw-like thorns. Starting in fall the ends of each branch will form long candelabra-like spike of bright yellow blooms, which are followed in spring with dark brown to red seed pods, which are easy to rake up once they have dropped in early summer. Left to form suckers, these plants can form into a large dense, impenetrable shrub. Suckers should be trimmed to easily train into stable tree form.

Bright yellow blooming winter color! A widely popular, fast growing small to medium sized thornless accent tree. Thornless Cacalaco are an excellent option for Snowbird landscapes, due to their fall and winter blooming. Dark green compound leaves cover these mostly multi-trunked small trees that have no thorns. Starting in fall the ends of each branch will form long candelabra-like spike of bright yellow blooms, which are followed in spring with dark brown to red seed pods, which are easy to rake up once they’ve dropped in early summer. Left to form suckers, these plants can form into a large dense, impenetrable shrub. Suckers should be trimmed to easily train into stable tree form.

Big, bright bushy color! Due to its extreme adaptable habit and seemingly unending summer color, Red Birds are one of the most popular evergreens to semi-evergreen shrubs used throughout the frost-free southwest. These are large growing shrubs they are designed with their mature size in mind. They do take some time to root in and develop fully, with heat and humidity being most beneficial. They are tolerant of nutritionally average soils but good drainage is critical. Long lacy green compound leaves cover each branch from the base to the tips, with flowers forming in summer of bright orange edged with yellow. As with other Caesalpinia sp., seed pods develop as flowers fade. Selective pruning to remove these pods will encourage more flowers. Hard annual pruning virtually to the ground can be done in Jan. to Feb. to refresh, large tired looking plants.

The Saguaro defines the Sonoran Desert. They grow slowly from the tissue ant the very top of a wide, ribbed spiny thick column. In the wild, seeds germinate under the shade of shrubs or trees, which are called nurse plants. These nurse plants provide protection from the elements until they are sizeable to grow past their helpful nurses, eventually out competing them for water and space. They bloom at the tops of their arms when mature enough with white funnel-form blooms, usually in clusters. The bat pollinated blooms give way to large, succulent red oval fruits. Some supplemental water is helpful to establish young saguaros during the summer months, but little to no water is needed once mature.

This is a large and robust, cylindrical type cacti with deep ribs that branch typically from the base to form a large candelabra-looking plant. Blue-green waxy flesh with 3-5 distinctive ribs that are protected by short, sharp gray spines. In late spring to early summer, large funnel-shaped fragrant white blooms form along the tops and edges of these ribs, which are followed by large red to pink colored fruits that look like apples, hence their common name. These are durable and adaptable large and sculptural cacti. They perform best in well-drained soils, but they are not fussy, and they can exist with little to no water, but have the fullest and healthiest appearance with periodic deep, watering about once per month from May to Aug.

Blue-green spiny columnar cacti with deep ribs with a lumpy or bumpy irregular appearance. Its limbs are usually 4 in. thick and branch from the base growing as individual vertical columns. Spines are needle-like, nearing 1 inch long, and grow out of areoles spaced about 1 in. apart along the bumpy ribs. These plants grow more slowly than the straight species, but they can eventually grow into a full tree-cacti form, so give them space and avoid crowding them or planting them with any overhead obstructions. They will accept moderate irrigation during warmer months, if they are planted in well-drained soils.

Burgundy blooms with virtually no seed pods. Adaptable and fast growing with no thorns and virtually no seed pods. Not a true willow, but the numerous narrow, shiny green leaves provide a willow-like appearance on these upright growing deciduous trees. These riparian trees are drought tolerant once mature, but moderate to ample water initially helps them to become well-rooted and permanently established. They will go winter dormant, losing their leaves for a short time, before leafing out and resuming their persistent spring and summer flowering. They deserve wider consideration and use in low desert landscapes due to their reliability and ease of care & culture.

Hardy flowering accent tree. These interesting intergeneric hybrids are a cross between Catalpa bignonioides x Chilopsis linearis almost 60 years ago in Uzbekistan. The cross created cold hardy, small flowering multi-trunked trees well suited for dry upland mid to high desert landscapes. Open irregular shaped with long green lanceolate leaves much wider than our native desert willows. ‘Pink Dawn’ was and is the most popular cultivar offered today with large light pink tubular flowers. More rare but equally handsome, ‘Morning Cloud’ is a named selection with pure white blooms. Being crossed with the SE native Catalpa sp., these Chitalpa require more regular and deep watering in the low desert to be happy and their naturally open canopies leave them prone to bark sunscald from late afternoon sun. If you can site them where they only get morning sun with afternoon shade they are much happier trees. In colder upland zones, they make fine flowering accent trees.