Palo Verde ‘Desert Museum’

Palo Verde ‘Desert Museum’ is a medium-sized deciduous tree that makes a beautiful addition to any landscape, but which will look especially at home in a more xeric-style garden.

‘Desert Museum’ is a thornless cultivar of the native retama. It blooms longer, too, even attracting pollinators into fall.

The striking green bark and wispy leaves of this desert tree give the garden a stunning visual focal point, providing year-round beauty. It grows to about 15’ – 20’, lending light shade to plants below it.

Be sure to plant in an area with extremely good drainage, perhaps even elevating the roots on a berm if your soil has any significant clay content. Give it full sun and water sparingly, if at all, once established.

As with most desert trees, ‘Desert Museum’ has an extreme branching habit and will need to be pruned regularly to keep it in shape. But unlike many other highly-branched desert trees, ‘Desert Museum’ grows mostly upright and tends to stay single-trunked. Start analyzing the branch structure from the very beginning, and then continue to do so at least yearly, which will allow you to direct the trees growth properly and easily.