Grow and Care for a Palo Verde Plant

Grow a palo verde in full sun and soil that drains. Palo verde is Parkinsonia, also sold as paloverde. A search for palo verde plant often brings up the Arizona nuclear plant. Palo verde in the garden is the desert tree with green bark.

Give it full sun, soil that drains, and little extra water once it roots

A palo verde wants full sun and well-drained soil. Water a new tree through the first season. Once the roots take, water less often. Extra water and extra fertilizer push soft wood that snaps in wind, and wet ground around the crown leads to rot. [1] The tiny leaves drop in a dry spell. That is normal. The green bark keeps making food while the canopy is leafless, so a bare tree is not a cue to add more water. [2] blue palo verde wants that same drain. Pick the kind on Types of Palo Verde.

Plant at the same depth as the pot, with the flare at grade

Plant in fall or spring, when you can water the first season. Set the flare even with the surrounding soil, or a little above it. Soil piled against the trunk leads to rot. Measure spacing to the mature canopy on the tag — a blue palo verde and a Mexican palo verde do not share one footprint. [3]

1. Plant in fall or spring. A nursery pot is the usual start. Tease circling roots if the pot is bound.
2. Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and a little wider. Set the flare even with the surrounding soil.
3. Backfill with the soil you dug. Do not add a rich amendment that holds water against the trunk.
4. Water in once. Keep the first season watered. Do not skip that because the tree is drought-tolerant later.

Raise low branches in late winter — do not strip the inner wood

Wait until late winter, before the spring flush, so you can see the structure. Raise low branches off walks and doors if people need to pass. Wear gloves. The stems carry thorns. An open-grown tree away from a path can keep its fountain of fine twigs. [4]

1. Wait until late winter, before new growth.
2. Raise low branches so people can pass. Wear gloves.
3. Cut crossing or dead wood. Do not strip the inner branches so all the weight sits at the tips, and do not top the tree into a ball.

Not mesquite — and not acacia

Mesquite is Prosopis. That tree has darker, fissured bark and catkin flowers. A palo verde has green bark and yellow pea flowers, so the two are not interchangeable — see How to Grow Mesquite. Acacia is a different pea-family tree — see How to Grow Acacia. Those puffball flowers are not palo verde.

If the tree sat wet and the wood is spongy, move it onto ground that drains — do not add more water.