Desert Willow: Arizona Native Tree

Chilopsis linearis, commonly called desert willow, is not a willow, but it has vaguely willow-like leaves and is most often found along stream beds in the dry Southwest. To a homesick Easterner, it must have looked enough like a willow to deserve the name.

The desert willow is a small or medium tree, usually 12-30 feet tall with an equal spread. They blossom heavily during the late spring and continue blooming lightly throughout the summer. The bloom color varies from tree to tree, from white through shades of pink and purple, to nearly red-violet, and bi-colored. Named varieties have predictable bloom colors, but nursery seedlings are always a surprise when they bloom. If you are trying to create a color scheme in your garden, buy a named variety or buy one in bloom.

Cultivation characteristics:

• Unlike many desert trees, they are thornless. This makes them better near patios and play areas.
• They are nearly pest-free.
• As established plants they require very little water.
• They provide dappled to medium shade during the summer.
• Leaf drop happens after the first frost, so they make good trees for passive solar energy conservation.
• The flowers are attractive to hummingbirds and carpenter bees (big black bumblebee-looking creatures) but do not attract many honeybees.
• They tolerate heat, even reflected heat from a south or west wall in Phoenix.
• They are frost tolerant, to about 10°F (-12°C), and grow well up to about 5,000 feet in dry climates.
• They do not tolerate poor drainage or soggy soils.

  Caring for a Desert Willow

  Plant desert willows in the spring, so they have a full summer and fall to establish themselves. To establish a newly planted tree, soak it thoroughly ever few days until you see new growth, then soak every week for the rest of the summer. Desert willow will grow as fast as its water supply allows, so give the tree regular deep soakings until it is close to the desired size, then cut the water to the minimum to slow their growth.

  Left alone, desert willow becomes a multi-trunked, scraggly mess. During its formative years, frequent light pruning is needed to encourage it to become a tree. Keep pruning the lower branches off and thinning out the center branches.

  It is deciduous, with the habit of dropping all of its leaves within a very short time after the first frost, which is convenient for the gardener who has to rake them. This apparent sudden death can put beginning gardeners into a panic, or they may decide it needs to be yanked out and replaced. If the twigs are still flexible, it's not dead, it's just sleeping. It will leaf out when the weather warms up.

  That's all the care they need, Isn't it a marvelous tree?

  Sources:
  Sunset Western Garden Book, Sunset Publishing Corporation, 2001
  Native Plants for Southwestern Landscapes, by Judy Mielke, University of Texas Press, 1993