We’re going to be working all week in Scottsdale for a homeowners association doing mistletoe control. One of the board members found my previous post on mistletoe and started asking questions. One thing lead to another and now we’re going through the washes and N.A.O.S. (natural) areas taking out all the mistletoe we can find. I had to submit a request for a permit from the City of Scottsdale to work in the N.A.O.S. areas and they require a Certified Arborist to do the work.
We came upon this clump of desert mistletoe (Phoradendron californicum et al) in a Palo Verde tree (Cercidium sp.). It was about 3ft long and basically filled a garbage can by itself. The teardrop shape was perfectly uniform and there were no dead spots in it. Although our goal is to take out all the mistletoe in the area, I had to appreciate this plant! It was the most incredible clump of mistletoe I have ever seen!
Beautiful plant?
If you want to see LOTS of Trees with LOTS of Mistletoe you can go to Northern (not totally North) California to Folsom. I do not know if this is the same kind of Mistletoe that we have here in the Sonoran Desert but it was the kind we would buy at Christmas time when I was growing up in St Louis Missouri. We use to live in Folsom very near Folsom Lake and Folsom Dam in a sub-division named Briggs Ranch. This area use to be a horse farm many years prior to the sub-division and had LOTS of BIG Beautiful Trees that had LOTS of very BIG clumps of Mistletoe. Folsom is located at the start of the Sierra Mountains a very wonderful BEAUTIFUL Place to live. We left Folsom almost eleven years ago and I hope some of those Beautiful trees were helped by removing the Mistletoe. Some of the trees that we could see from our yard were on a very large lot that was empty. Shortly before we left a young couple built a home on that lot and were gradually getting their yard in shape, They were both Dentists and had a new Baby too so they had a very big project to do their whole yard. It was like another whole lot to the side of their house and each year we would see more and more mistleloe grow on those lovely BIG OLD TREES. I hope they were able to take better care of those trees as well as Home Owners Association ( A true HOA of the Home Owners NOT like here in the Greater PHX AZ area where Management Company’s sort of do the HOA).the many other Old Trees and all the new Trees that had been planted with each new home that was built. Our lot was one of the last lots available for Production homes and we were not lucky enough to have a Big Old Tree on our lot but we planted lots of Trees and plants. We had a Landscape Archect. do a full plan for us since we were new to CA and did not know anything about Trees, plants and yards in Northern California. It turned out so Beautiful that we felt we were at a resort when we were in the backyard or looking out from our Kitchen, Family Room and Master Bedroom. Our swimming pool had natural big moss rocks around the edge with a big 5 ft waterfall out of the same type of rocks and the pool bottom and sides were a med dark blue and once our plants grew up all around we started having Ducks come and land in our pool thinking it was a nice lake. My husband and I moved here to Chandler Arizona over 6 years ago and we did our back yard in Desert landscape with a pool and waterfall and lots of desert trees, plants, and several garden beds. My husband has a wonderful green thumb. We love it here in Arizona and have just moved again, only a short distance to Gilbert. A smaller energy wise new home with another back yard to do. Now is the time to plant but we have lots of decisions to make. We will do it desert landscape with some garden beds but will try to make it much more low mainteanance. We both are getting older and can not keep up with a lot of yard work. This is the first time I have ever read or written ANY BLOG but I was looking up information for good shade trees and came upon your blog from another blog that I came to to see better pictures of the Sissoo Tree and leaves. We need to put in 3 or 4 good shade trees that will help to shade the whole back of our home which faces west. We want something that has NO thorns and very little clean up, like seasonal not year round clean up type. Any good suggestions for Shade Trees, fruit trees, shrubs and plants for our new yard?. We made a few errors on our first yard in the Sonoran Desert but understand much more about the desert now and hopefullywe will be able to make much better choices this last time around. This is our Pine Box House as my husband said and we intend to enjoy all of our days here. I do not know what made me look at these blogs and then to reply, something I have never done before, but it has been fun. Thanks for your Blog and all your comments Paul. Regards, Karren
Karren,
Thank you for the nice comments! Your previous landscapes sound beautiful! There are several species of mistletoe and the one you had in northern California was likely a different one than we have here – but with the same lifestyle!
Picking a tree is a long-term committment and ought to be done carefully. There aren’t any trees that don’t make a mess! Sissoo trees might be something you would like, they ought to do well in your area. They do lose a lot of leaves which are good-sized and blow around (a real mess near pools!). I would also recommend looking at the Pistache trees – there are several including an evergreen variety and one called “red push” that has new foliage as well as fall foliage that is red. South American hybrid mesquites would be good trees for you, but will have several seasons of “mess” – flowers, beans, and leaves, which may be too much.
We plant trees, so check these recommendations out and let me know if I can quote you on providing/planting them. There are a multitude of ways to mess up a tree that will make it a 5 year investment instead of a lifetime investment. These problems can be caused at the nursery where it is grown, all the way to the time of planting. We pull out trees all the time that were grown or planted incorrectly, so please be careful!