![]() That swollen-looking trunk is a desert adaptation, serving as an efficient water-storing vessel. on rubbly Sonoran Desert slopes in Arizona and California.ĭespite its limited distribution – it doesn’t endure frost well – the elephant tree ranks among Arizona’s most arresting native plants with its bulbous trunk of peeling bark. ![]() The rare elephant tree, or tortore, is the far northern representative of a family of otherwise mostly tropical shrubs and small trees, reaching the extreme southwestern U.S. They sport their white blooms – Arizona’s state flower – in late spring. Occasionally maturing as a single column, they more typically branch upon reaching 10 or 15 feet in height. Saguaros provide a spectacular addition to native xeric gardenscapes, requiring only a well-drained, sun-drenched spot to flourish. The saguaro is, unsurprisingly, enormously important from an ecological perspective: its fluted trunk providing nesting hollows for elf owls and woodpeckers, its nectar-feeding a host of different pollinators, and its fruit a vital food source – including for such native Sonoran Desert peoples as the Tohono O’odham. Backdropped by craggy purple mountains, these saguaro communities create for many around the world the iconic image of the American Southwest. Saguaros soaring to 40 feet or more in height above paloverde thickets form cactus “forests” on the region’s bajadas and foothill slopes. This titanic columnar cactus symbolizes the Sonoran Desert, though it’s not uniformly found there: it’s primarily a resident of the Sonoran’s Arizona Upland subdivision, which runs from southwestern Arizona east of the Colorado River south down to the vicinity of Altar in Sonora. You may write to Roger Mercer, 6215 Maude St.There’s no more iconic Arizona plant, surely, than the mighty saguaro: the second-tallest of the world’s cacti after the Mexican cardón, and arguably the stateliest. It helps move nutrients into plants' root zones. It encourages the growth of beneficial soil microbes It saturates the upper foot or so of soil. It is a slow-release form of water and weak fertilizer. It removes weak limbs from our trees and shrubs. Plants that will never look good again must be removed.īut in the end, ice is more than a pretty face. Damaged limbs must be cut cleanly back to a larger, stronger lime. There is always some clean-up after heavy ice storms. They are so beautiful that I must have them, even if I have to wait a couple of years to regrow after breaking to a stump. They will recover, but may need some pruning. Old specimens with much sideways growth may lie against the ground when coated heavily with ice. Only the largest forms are affected badly by ice, and I have to have them in the garden for their fragrance and waxy white flowers. Arizona cypresses and most false cypresses will recover well. ![]() 'Skyrocket' can be so badly affected that it must be removed. These and other strongly vertical conifers can have limbs pulled down. Here are a few plants that don't look good or suffer damage during ice storms: They are not as long-lived as the apricots. The trees are about twice as large as most flowering apricots. The color is an out-of-this-world fuchsia-rose. It blooms about the same time but has little fragrance. This is nearly as hearty to cold and just as ice resistant as flowering apricot. They keep their color and sweet fragrance through weeks of freezes in January and February. The flowers are almost as ice-resistant as witch hazels. Ice accents the elegant form of this exceptional form of our native swamp trees. The amazing red berries, as well as the swelling winter flower buds present a sea of sparkles when coated with ice. All hollies except yaupon, and yaupon will survive most of what our ice storms throw at it, unless there is accompanying high wind.ĭogwoods. When the ice is gone, the petals uncurl and waft their sweet fragrance through the winter garden. Thousands of yellow, bronze, rose or red fragrant flowers curl up their long petals on icy days, and the entire mass of color can become encased in ice. Copious, brilliant red berries and red-tinged leaves make a happy, welcoming sight.Ĭhinese witch hazel. Here are the showiest winter plants that are enhanced by a coating of ice and suffer little damage: ![]() The only holly I know of that is susceptible to ice damage is the weeping form of Ilex vomitoria. The difference between good and ordinary winter gardens is a simple matter of plant selection. A 15-foot weeping yaupon holly may break off at the ground when coated with thick ice and subjected to high wind. Gardenias grown in shade will sprawl on the ground, as will the tiny-leaved dwarf forms of Chinese elm Ulmus parvifolia, or yaupon holly. Ice makes a wonderland of any good winter garden.Īnd it doesn't really do harm to most plants. ![]()
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