Pink Dawn, Green Stick

Pink Dawn Chitalpa blossoms

4/25/11

     These are descriptive, common names for two trees that grow in my yard.  Pink Dawn is a variety of Chitalpa tree.  I was not familiar with Chitalpa trees until I moved here a year ago.  It is a cross between a Catalpa tree and a Chilopsis (Desert Willow) tree.  My Pink Dawn Chitalpa  is just starting to blossom and will continue to blossom through the fall.  The flowers, a soft pink with a yellow throat, attract butterflies, bees and birds.  The tree has an open limb structure that gives it a lacy look, and it presents a graceful picture.  It is drought tolerant and cold tolerant to minus 15 degrees F, so it does well here in the desert.

Palo Verde blossoms

Palo Verde translated from Spanish means green stick.  The Palo Verde tree's trunk, limbs and branches are green.  My Palo Verde has been blooming for about two weeks.  It will be full of its lemony yellow flowers for a few more weeks.  These trees are breathtaking when grouped together along roadways or parking lots when they are in full bloom.  When their long, thin limbs move slowly and gently in a breeze, it seems like they are dancing to music.  Hummingbirds love to nest in this tree.  It is a most drought tolerant tree, that once established, needs no water.


Palo Verde tree



Chitalpa tree



Backyard Path

3/24/11
     When we had the backyard landscaped from nothing but dirt to rock and desert trees and plants, we had a path put in.  It follows the rectangular shape of the yard all the way around.  It is so much easier to enjoy all plants, bushes and trees by walking near them on this path of crushed granite instead of walking on the rock.  The path is also lined with solar lights, and I enjoy the soft glow from them at night.  Sometimes I take my daily walk on this path instead of around the neighborhood.  Today I checked out my trees, bushes and plants.  The nectarine tree has buds and a few blossoms, all the sissoo trees are growing new leaves that were damaged by frost, and the two chitalpa trees are leafing out.  I found two hibiscus that have a few green leaves, but nothing on the rest of them yet.  And several of the fourteen bougainvilleas are just starting to show leaves at he base.  The weeds have no trouble growing through the rock that is spread as a base all over the yard.  The weeds and rock.  That's desert landscaping.

nectarine

chitalpa

bougainvillea