There's no perfect tree, this Tucson tree grower says. But we can start by planting native flora

There are a number of efforts around the Valley to plant more trees — both as a way to help cool the air and to provide more shade. And Stephanie Vickers said certain types of trees are better for certain locations and to perform certain functions. But she says some growers also use the process of selection to try to almost create a better desert tree.

Vickers is the sales and marketing manager at Civano Growers in Tucson. The Show spoke with her and asked what kind of work she and her colleagues are doing to develop new kinds of trees that are perhaps better adapted to the Sonoran Desert.

Full conversation

STEPHANIE VICKERS: No, you're absolutely right. There is a need for it, and I'll explain why. We have been very blessed to have such a diverse climate. What happens when you have that? Well, let's talk about microclimates. A lot of places like, oh, now take Phoenix. Phoenix is probably the most prime example. With the expansion of Phoenix, what's going on over there? You have this sort of mentality that there's grass in every commercial parking lot. You have these very lush trees. It's very green.

And don't get me wrong, you're trying to paint town green, but water becomes an issue. You know, plants that were brought in to an environment that they weren't meant to be here. And we just kind of just babied them along for the last 40, 50 years. Well, now it becomes this need where it's like, you know what? Let's take a step back and let's start looking at the native flora.

What and how does a native flora benefit our landscape? Well, you have plants like the Desert Willow, for example. Desert Willow is a fantastic one. You can find them. The riparian ones growing in the washes, and they've really done well on the less than 10 inches of rainfall that we've seen, and it's decreasing. So now you've got a tree that's riparian, that's growing out there, that's seedy, that it's kind of wild.

Well, the front landscape, a manicured landscape is not going to call always for a seedy, wild desert willow. They really like, you know, a very formed shape, very upright, maybe a bigger flower. Let's bring in the hummingbirds. I don't want thorns that my children are going to step on. I want to be able to clean them up because I have a gravel front yard. Well, there's this demand now for all these different things. And how do we do that? Well, then that's where we come in.

MARK BRODIE: Well, so are you finding that you are looking to create trees that maybe are different than what we have for like esthetic or convenience reasons? Is it more for, you know, trying to provide more shade or use less water, things like that?

VICKERS: Not necessarily. It's actually just more of an improvement. So If you take on, I'll use a desert willow example again, you have your riparian desert willow, and then you have like the sweet bubba seedless, both are going to have the exact same requirements, sunlight, water, everything.

But now it's the well manicured look. It's without having to do the pruning. It's the artiness level, the flowering level, the rooting structure. Is the tree going to be better rooted? So it just becomes on what attributes will the tree provide that are better for urban environment?

BRODIE: When you talk about trees performing and maybe especially, you know, in commercial areas not falling over, how does their ability to deal with those extreme temperatures fall into that? And is that something you can kind of try to work into this selection process to maybe make trees more heat tolerant?

VICKERS: So you can't make them more heat tolerant. The idea is to select trees that we know that are already pretty tough as nails in an environment. So I would never say let's a tipu tree, tipuana tipu. It's a very lush tree. Really good. So for us, our focus isn't looking at a tree that maybe is a, we'll say maybe like an Asian native. Let's look at the Southwest natives.

We really are focusing on cultivating native plants and taking what we know is proven to do so well here and just finding the ones that are going to be above the rest. Let's find that valedictorian of that type of tree.

BRODIE: Are there nurseries or growers that you're aware of that are trying to sort of develop the perfect desert tree?

And I guess maybe perfect is not really the right word, but a tree that, for example, does not require a lot of water that can tolerate extreme heat and maybe even as a side benefit provides a lot of shade. Like, is that is that something that folks are trying to do?

VICKERS: It's something that we've been working on for 20 years. I've been here myself for almost 13 years, and it has been the goal to provide a tree that can't fit.

But is there a perfect tree to fit everybody's perfect parameters? No, there isn't. And I'll tell you why. Because I like the color red, and Mark, you have at the color blue. It's going to be something different. Everyone's going to like something a little bit different.

BRODIE: Well, how important is it when you're looking at all the various attributes that you might want in, you know, if not the perfect tree, a, an improved tree, maybe, let's say, like how, how much are the sort of the environmental factors a consideration as opposed to the color of it or the size of the flower or the maintenance, you know, for a homeowner, something like that.

VICKERS: Things like color of the flower, inviting wildlife like birds and hummingbirds, that's the cherry on top. That is absolutely the cherry on top. You pick that beautiful red '65 Mustang fastback. Why? Because you want the color red. You pick that red for that reason, but you know it's going to perform well.

So then it comes back to performance when you know that the tree is going to be reliable and be able to do what it needs to do and be the size that it needs to be. If I'm going to call for a oak to grow 25 to 30 feet, that tree needs to grow that big.

So as far as creating a tree, when I say creating a tree, when you're selecting a tree, we don't create, there's no mad scientist working on here. This is literally just observation. We're looking at plants that do well in our environment and that are going to be top performers and the attributes that we want of them. Do we want something with more color? Do we want something that gets a little bit wider? Is it faster growing? Does it have less thorns on it? Is it going to require less water?

Once you take all these different attributes, because not every tree is going to do everything you want. So there is no perfect tree, but each tree will begin to offer something special to the environment.

BRODIE: So it's all about sort of figuring out what is important to, I guess, to the planter or the homeowner or whoever is. going to be ultimately responsible for this tree and determining, OK, it's important to me that it is drought tolerant and doesn't use a lot of water. It is important to me that it is a particular color. It is important to me that it doesn't drop a lot of leaves, for example.

You have to sort of pick what is important to you and then see which tree can match as much of that as possible.

VICKERS: Essentially, yes, because if I had five children, I'm not going to go pick the two-door Porsche. I'm gonna go pick that nice SUV. What's going to be sustainable and what's going to be idealistic for the situation? You know, we keep our palette simple for a good reason.

The more that we continue to develop these sort of cultivated natives, we're taking a plant that has performed and grown in this wild and is native in the Southwest. Well, how can you make that plant better so that that ratty looking desert willow or that ratty looking, any sort of native shrub that you find growing right here on the side of the road's like, that looks kind of funny. What if that, you know, hey, that one's blooming a little bit better. It's a little shorter and denser.

You know what, I've noticed that plant's really hardy even when it comes to a good freeze, let's take it and let's run with it. You know, we're not going to solve the world's problems with the handful of selected natives that we have, but we're going to do our best part, do our part in this little corner of the world, you know, at least in Arizona, for that matter.