[Arid_gardener] Re: Bougainvillea Pomegranates, Lemons, AZ Rosewood

[Olin Miller]

----- Original Message ----- From: <yafadance at yahoo.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 4:47 PM
> Dianna Suslo 85022
> How many hours of sun per day do bougenvilla need to grow?
==============================================

I have only ever seen bougainvillea planted with an eastern, southern, or
western exposure.  I believe they might be pretty wimpy with less that half
day's sun but have no experience with that.

> How bif do pomegranates get?

The plant or the shrub? The common 'Wonderful' tops out at about 12 feet.
Can be trained as a tree but easier as a large shrub because it suckers
easily.  The fruit on ours are 3-5 inches dia., 4 inches average.  The dwarf
Nana will grow over 8 feet tall but is pretty easy to keep trimmed to about
4'.  Our Nana fruit is 1-2 inches and is not palatable but it is a very
nice, small ornamental tree.

> What is a good variety of lemon for a NW corner of my yard in N phx?

Depends on how much space you have for it.   A standard Lisbon or Eureka 
tree
will grow to about 15-20 feet canopy and 20 feet tall at maturity.  Lisbon
is thorny and very prolific - one tree suffices for the entire neighborhood.
One usually gets a bit bloody from picking the fruit.  You would need to
thin to prevent branches from breaking due to fruit overload.   Eureka is
thornless, less productive but still bears plenty of fruit.

True dwarfs of both varieties grafted to a Flying Dragon roortsock are also
available.  The dwarfs are about 8 feet tall planted in the ground, less in
containers.  Dwarfs' fruit size is the same as standards'.  Improved Meyer
lemon is also a dwarf.  Not a true lemon, it is a cross between a lemon and
a mandarin.  Flying Dragons are a bit more sensitive to our alkaline soil.

Then there are semi dwarfs, tree size somewhere between true dwarf and
standard but size tends to be quite variable.

> How do you apply horticultural oil?

It is not recommended in the summer time because the oil can burn foliage if
exposed to the hot sun.  In winter, use a sprayer.

> How fast do AZ Rosewoods grow?

Don't know.  I will leave this one for somebody else.