Palo Verde

[pablo]

Hey Everyone,

I read an article about some unique trees here in the Mojave Desert, Palo Verde: https://tucson.com/lifestyles/home-...cle_97a067ef-f782-5f1a-9d5d-eead61d81fdf.html. Curious to know if anyone in the area has had any luck with these? These trees are super common in the Vegas are with plenty for sale in either seeds or more developed from nurseries.

 

[The Barber]

Hey Everyone,

I read an article about some unique trees here in the Mojave Desert, Palo Verde: https://tucson.com/lifestyles/home-...cle_97a067ef-f782-5f1a-9d5d-eead61d81fdf.html. Curious to know if anyone in the area has had any luck with these? These trees are super common in the Vegas are with plenty for sale in either seeds or more developed from nurseries.

Reminds me of my Shishigashira JM with different foliage. Interesting.

 

[cishepard]

@dbonsaiw is trying to grow them from seed in NY!

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/palo-verde-unique-deciduous.63256/

 

[pablo]

@dbonsaiw is trying to grow them from seed in NY!

https://www.bonsainut.com/threads/palo-verde-unique-deciduous.63256/

Thanks for sharing! Yes, there is limited information on these guys. Just trying to figure out how they are being sourced in our area.

 

[dbonsaiw]

Just saw this. I picked seeds off a tree on a trip to Arizona earlier in the year. Germination was easy enough - just a little clip of the seed and soaked in boiling water for a day. I had a high success rate with germination and ruined a bunch trying to manually remove the seed coat from the seedlings (don't do that). Three made it. They seem to be loving life in my indoor grow tent and are almost 2 feet tall and lanky. Just started getting some secondary branching. Once the weather gets nicer here I will bring them out. Driving around in Arizona, there were plenty of nurseries selling larger palo verde - if I wasn't getting on a plane home I would have purchased one. Not sure how they will do in NY, but they should do great in Vegas. As a bonsai subject, I do not know enough about it yet to make a decision. They grow long, wispy branches and, of course, they may be leafless for much of the year by you. I don't know yet how they respond to pruning. They seem to easily grow multiple trunks. Definitely worth playing around with.

 

[pablo]

Just saw this. I picked seeds off a tree on a trip to Arizona earlier in the year. Germination was easy enough - just a little clip of the seed and soaked in boiling water for a day. I had a high success rate with germination and ruined a bunch trying to manually remove the seed coat from the seedlings (don't do that). Three made it. They seem to be loving life in my indoor grow tent and are almost 2 feet tall and lanky. Just started getting some secondary branching. Once the weather gets nicer here I will bring them out. Driving around in Arizona, there were plenty of nurseries selling larger palo verde - if I wasn't getting on a plane home I would have purchased one. Not sure how they will do in NY, but they should do great in Vegas. As a bonsai subject, I do not know enough about it yet to make a decision. They grow long, wispy branches and, of course, they may be leafless for much of the year by you. I don't know yet how they respond to pruning. They seem to easily grow multiple trunks. Definitely worth playing around with.

Nice! Thanks for sharing. Yes there are plenty of options for getting from nurseries even yamadori, lol. I’ll get my hands on something here soon and post some pictures. I read that there is a problem with branches going dead if not cut a certain way. I’ll follow up on this string as well with my experiences.

 

[dbonsaiw]

I read that there is a problem with branches going dead if not cut a certain way.

Didn't know that.

 

[pablo]

Didn't know that.

Yeah here is a snip from the article that I read about some folks growing these in AZ:

Bonsai takes on a desert twist in Tucson

Tucsonans experiment with native and other arid plants as Bonsai canvases.

tucson.com

"Noseck, president of the Tucson Bonsai Society and a grower for nine years, is partial to palo verde because of its green trunk and branches. “They’re so beautiful,” he says.


But because the tree grows differently from, say, a Japanese maple, growing it as a bonsai requires a bit of adjustment.
As it matures, a palo verde grows a long taproot that runs deep into the ground. The maple’s roots tend to remain close to the surface.

In season, a palo verde quickly grows branches and leaves, which then require a lot of pruning. If pruned in the wrong season or incorrectly, the tree will make the cut branch die off. Maples grow more slowly and better tolerate pruning.

These differences cause constant problems when trying to shape the palo verde into its full-size appearance.

“I get terrible dieback,” says Noseck. “The bark is very hard to wire.”
McLean says he’s constantly having to cut back new palo verde growth that shoots straight up from main branches in its attempt to get to its regular size. “They do not like to be in pots,” he says.

But the two keep trying. Noseck pots a palo verde seedling before it can grow much of a taproot.
McLean discovered that if he used a craft knife to cut the branches into points, cutting it the way a critter would when it eats the tree, that seems to make the tree less likely to die back."

 

[dbonsaiw]

“I get terrible dieback,”

Ugh. Well, at least I also took some Texas Ebony seeds. I'm growing the palo verde really for shits and giggles and don't have a great amount of hope that I can be successful with them here in NY. It appears to be a hard bonsai subject in the first place. I really like deciduous trees as well as those in the Fabaceae family and PV combines them both - but I may have bit off more than I can chew with this species. I will use one/two of the PVs as a guinea pig - I will remove the tap root, repot and see what happens. If it dies, I'll try not to do the same things on the next one. Hopefully, I'll have at least one extra to play around with pruning and then one for actual development. If not, it's back to the vachelia caven for me.

 

[pablo]

Ugh. Well, at least I also took some Texas Ebony seeds. I'm growing the palo verde really for shits and giggles and don't have a great amount of hope that I can be successful with them here in NY. It appears to be a hard bonsai subject in the first place. I really like deciduous trees as well as those in the Fabaceae family and PV combines them both - but I may have bit off more than I can chew with this species. I will use one/two of the PVs as a guinea pig - I will remove the tap root, repot and see what happens. If it dies, I'll try not to do the same things on the next one. Hopefully, I'll have at least one extra to play around with pruning and then one for actual development. If not, it's back to the vachelia caven for me.

Nice! Texas Ebony would be very interesting to see as well! Out here there are lots of those and Mesquite. There is also a lot of of Afghan Pine but definitely the PV is the most interesting IMO.