Ladies and gentelmen.....I present one of my absolute favorite shrubs in the Tucson area. Easy to grow. Drought tolerant. Beautiful. Ferny. Lush. And extremely sun friendly. When I first moved to Tucson in the 90's, I fell in love with this plant and today it's still one of my favorites. Two things to remember with the MBOP......it needs full sun or you won't get the brilliant blooms and secondly, it will look scraggly in the winter. Other than that, this plant is extremely easy to grow and can handle a bit of neglect. I added this plant to our fern garden at El Presidio and it makes a nice cluster around a desert fern. This is a fantastic plant for your landscape. There are 3 varieties....the orange and shorter variety, the taller,skinnier and yellow bloomed variety, and the very ferny taller and bushier with unique yellow and orange  blooms variety. Don't worry...the latin names are coming. Again, here is Cathy Biship about this group of plants.

Taken at El Presidio in the Fern Garden

"Visitors and natives alike are always impressed by the profusion of blooms produced by the numerous types of Caesalpinia in the Tucson area. Better known as Red Birds and Mexican Birds to name a couple, it is impossible to go a block without seeing their beautiful blooms. Though we get used to seeing them, visitors to the area seem to be quite in awe, and I’m not surprised. These plants may be one of our very best plants for Tucson landscapes. Though some of the species are a bit frost sensitive, others are not and even the most sensitive pop back up after being knocked back by the worst winter weather. Their best attributes include being very drought tolerant, having an extremely long and brilliant bloom period, they are totally happy in our alkaline soil and they get by on minimal care.  The best spot for these wonderful plants is in full, all day, bright, hot sun. They thrive on heat, truly coming on strong only after the temperatures have reached at least into the 90s and more. Though some believe that they need to be pruned every year, it is actually optional. There are some gorgeous shrubs in medians that rarely get pruned and the result is very large plants with extremely exuberant growth that start blooming as much as two months before their severely pruned counterparts. The reason one would want to prune back their Red Birds, would be to control size. If you need for the plant to remain no more than 4 feet high and wide, then yearly pruning will achieve that end. The best known of these plants is probably Red Bird (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). Sometimes it is mistakenly called Mexican Bird, though this common name rightly belongs to Caesalpinia mexicana, which can grow larger, can handle more cold, is more reliably evergreen in cold weather and is suitable for training into a small tree rather than just a shrub. The flowers of this bird of paradise are a bit smaller, but they are very bright golden yellow which shows up beautifully against the bright green leaves.
There is a gorgeous golden hybrid called the Phoenix Bird (Caesalpinia pulcherrima ‘Phoenix’) that has the exact same characteristics as the Red Bird but with golden flowers. Another yellow species is the Desert Bird (Caesalpinia gillesii) that has soft yellow flower petals with long red stamens that look like floral eyelashes. In addition to these species and hybrids there are also seedling crosses that show just how much genetic diversity can be made from two colors! In the tropics, these seedling plants are very common and give rise to many colors from peach and apricot shades to pinks and corals and even white. No matter which variety you opt for, you can be sure that even with the smallest care, the “Bird” of your choice will bloom and bloom and bloom from the time the weather heats up until the first frosty nights insist that it rest for the winter.
Cathy Bishop, co-owner of Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery, has more than 30 years of gardening experience. E-mail her at weekendplus@tucsoncitizen.com." End of article.  Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2008/07/18/91268-cathy-bishop-red-birds-thrive-in-tucson-s-alkaline-soil-with-minimal-care/

Labels: Caesalpinia Mexicana, caring for Mexican Bird of Paradise in Tucson, growing Mexican Bird of Paradise in Tucson, Mexican Bird of Paradise, shrubs for Tucson

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Taken in El Presidio Gardens last summer

Today it gives me great pleasure to introduce a Tucson favorite....the Orange Jubilee(or a variety of Tecoma Stans) This plant is commonly seen all over town during the hot and sweaty summer.  In fact, it seems to thrive best during our intolerable temps.  This plant is highly recommended and easy to grow.  Plant in full sun and make sure it gets regular watering......and you won't be disappointed.  The only "con" to this plant, if you can call it that, is that is will die back to the ground in winter.  Simply prune back to the ground in March. During the first signs of spring, this plant will rebound back bigger and better as if nothing had happened over the winter.  It's attractive to hummingbirds and the hornworm catepillar.  There are other varieties of Tecoma Stans, but I find the Orange Jubilee variety a much fuller and attractive looking plant over its' sometimes weedy looking siblings.  This plant has grown to a height of 10 feet in the fern garden and produces a lot of lovely orange flowers.  When it doesn't have orange blooms, it creates a lovely and lush green hue in the background.  It survived our freeze here and all I can say is.....get one if you have the space.  These plants make a great specimen plant in your garden or if planted in repetition.  I use this plant as a way to break the plant repetition in the gardens and have them sporadically placed around the El Presidio Gardens. If I had to label this plant, it would be a shrub as are most of the plants featured this week. Once again Cathy Bishop writes about this very low maintenance plant for the Tucson area.

Tecoma "orange jubilee"

Pic taken from the Tucson Citizen

"What is big and lush and flowers most of the year – and loved by hummingbirds? This is an easy riddle: It’s another of our candidates for plants that look great all the time, Tecoma “orange jubilee.”
Tecoma is a small family of plants that includes our native Arizona yellow bells (Tecoma stans angustifolia) and its lush hybrid, gold star Tecoma. They are each beautiful and carefree plants, but the one that has really been impressive since its debut is the orange jubilee.
Perhaps it is the incredible exuberance this plant’s growth exhibits, easily doubling or tripling in size over the course of one summer, that makes it such a winner. The flower show this plant puts on is awesome, with the first coppery-orange trumpets out as soon as the days warm up in early spring. This display continues, reaching a peak along with the summer heat and persisting until repeated frosts finally shut down the show.  For gardeners who appreciate the critters who come as much as the flowers themselves, orange jubilee is the ultimate reward! We can sight a dozen or more hummingbirds working a plant at any time during the day, and the glowing orange trumpets never seem to run out of nectar. Orange jubilee Tecoma is truly a diverse plant. By nature it is a huge, upright shrub, easily reaching 8 feet tall and almost as wide. It makes strong primary stems, which make it an ideal candidate for espalier or trellis as well. A spectacular method for growing orange jubilee is to train it into a tree form. This is a plant that will grow well in most soil types and requires just moderate watering. Regular fertilization will keep it in peak blooming condition, and it is equally content planted in the ground or in a container. The only minor downside to this lovely plant is that, in the coldest areas of town, it might get damaged or partially frozen if winter temperatures dip into the low 20s. But even then, after some pruning, this is a plant that responds vigorously to regain its majestic proportions. Try it. You’ll like it and so will your feathered friends!"  End of article.  Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2006/07/07/17983-orange-jubilee-asks-little-but-puts-on-quite-a-show/

There you have it. Another amazing plant for our Sonoran landscape.  I have one of my absolute favorite plants coming up.......and I think you may agree.  Until tomorrow.......

Labels: Caring for Orange Jubilee esperanza in Tucson, growing Tecoma stans ‘Orange Jubilee’ in Tucson, Orange Jubilee Care in Tucson, shrubs for Tucson, what is that orange flowered bush in Tucson?

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