Growing Beautiful Flowering Desert Willow

If you are looking for a pretty shrub or small tree for a drought tolerant garden with great big dramatic flowers put Sweet Desert Willow on your planting list. Chilopsis linearis is known for large, unique flowers which bloom in shades from pink, purple, yellow or white. If you really want to stop traffic go for the glowing purple or hot pink shades. The dramatic, fragrant flowers bloom on long clusters with large, tubular 2 inch flowers with contrasting stripes. Birds will eat the seeds and bees and hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers. These plants put on a dramatic show in the spring when they are in full bloom.

Sweet Desert Willow are fast growing shrubs, up to 30 feet tall and up to 20 feet wide. The bushes are pretty even when they are not in bloom. Their dark green, shiny leaves are thin and up to 5 inches long, giving the plant a traditional willow look. Chilopsis can be left as a shrub, or trained into a tree with several trunks. They take well to trimming so they can also be used as hedges. Chilopsis blooms from spring through fall and gets long dangling seed pods with cottony down that can measure up to 8 inches long.

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