IN THE GARDEN PLANTING BEST TREES FOR THE HIGH DESERT.Byline: JOSHUA SISKIN Q: My daughter is building a house in California City, in the upper Antelope Valley. The area has a high-desert climate. I would like to give her about six trees to start her landscaping. These should include fruit trees, ornamental trees and windbreak windbreak a physical obstruction to the passage of the wind, usually in the form of a line or copse of tall bushes or low trees or a porous fence. Of very great importance in temperate climates and periods of cold, wet, windy weather. trees. Can you give me ideas for hardy trees suitable for her area? - Barbara Allshouse A: Zone 11, which includes Palmdale, Lancaster, Mojave, Barstow, Twentynine Palms and Las Vegas, provides a favorable climate for many deciduous fruit trees, including plum, peach, apricot, cherry, apple, pear and pomegranate pomegranate (pŏm`grănĭt, pŏm`ə–), handsome deciduous and somewhat thorny large shrub or small tree (Punica granatum , as well as grape vines, olive, loquat loquat (lō`kwŏt), small ornamental evergreen tree (Eriobotrya japonica) and its fruit. It belongs to the family Rosaceae (rose family) and is probably indigenous to China. and pistachio pistachio (pĭstăsh`ēō, pĭstä`shēō), tree or shrub (of the genus Pistacia) of the family Anacardiaceae (sumac family). The species that yields the pistachio nut of commerce is P. trees. Make sure you select varieties of each type of fruit tree that are compatible with your zone. As far as ornamental trees are concerned, you really should consider the flowering peaches, plums, almonds and crab apples. Other flowering trees that would grow well in your area include the strawberry tree (Arbutus arbutus Any of about 14 species (genus Arbutus) of broad-leaved evergreen shrubs or trees, in the heath family. Native to southern Europe and western North America, they are characterized by loosely clustered white or pink flowers and red or orange berries. A. unedo) with urn-shaped white flowers and bumpy yellow and red fruit; the desert willow (Chilopsis linearis) with fragrant pink trumpet flowers; the silk tree (Albizia julibrissin) with feathery pink flower puffs; and the southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) with large, strong-scented, chaliced white blooms. When it comes to windbreak trees, poplars are usually at the top of the list. When it comes to keeping the wind out, no trees do it better than these. The problem is their roots. Make sure your poplars are far from water lines and paved surfaces. I have seen adventitious ADVENTITIOUS, adventitius. From advenio; what comes incidentally; us adventitia bona, goods that, fall to a man otherwise than by inheritance; or adventitia dos, a dowry or portion given by some other friend beside the parent. shoots growing 100 feet away from the base of a poplar tree. Other windbreak trees to consider for the Antelope Valley include Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica); California cedar (Calocedrus decurrens), whose bright green and pleasant-scented pyramidal dome never needs pruning; southern live oak (Quercus virginiana); and 'Fan West' and 'Rio Grande' ash (Fraxinus varieties). |
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