Caesalpinia Species, Cascalote

We love our cascalotes here in our Arizona backyard. They need some pruning to train them when young, as many suckers try to emerge. Trim...Read Moreming of downward and crossed branches may also be necessary. We’ve had ours for over five years, and they are 10-12 feet tall, vase-shaped, and healthy (even in our nutrient-poor soil). If they start looking haggard in summer, a good soak of water usually re-invigorates them overnight. Their best feature is the yellow flower branches at the tips each winter. Wonderful color when nearly every other plant is going dormant. Spring seed pods are big, heavy, and rather unattractive, so I trim off all the ones I can reach to make room for new growth. We hoping in a few more years to have full-grown 20-25 foot trees. Nice, nice, nice!

Thorny ornamental tree with very pretty flowers in the winter. It is a nice splash of color when many tender perennials in the desert ar...Read Moree looking rather ragged.

Careful with spikes (don't know the proper name, I know they are not thorns). I got poked on the hand, right on a vein, and within second...Read Mores it looked like I had a marble under the skin. Within minutes half the hand got swollen.
That was three days ago. The hand is a little swollen and sore.

I planted 3 5 gallon Cascalotes as part of my xeroscape in Queencreek Arizona. They are 2 years old, multibranched, and 6' tall. Each w...Read Moreinter they were completed defoliated after the first frost. It is now April 1st and there is no sign that they are coming back. It reached 18 degrees one night this winter. The first winter, the lowest temp was 24 degrees. I lost many branches. It is not a cold hardy plant. It was listed as 20 degrees on the pot, but I would not plant in areas that get below 32.