[Arid_gardener] Re: Care of Citrus, Mexican Bird, Bougainvillea

[Olin Miller]

----- Original Message ----- From: <aerenstein at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 1:05 PM
> Adam Erenstein, 85050
>...
> 1. Citrus -water and fertilizing - I have some orange and lemon trees. The
> orange tree leaves are turning yellow at the tips. The lemon tree has
> turned a pale yellow. I can send pictures if this helps.

Watering: see "AZ1151 Irrigating Citrus Trees" at
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/crops/az1151.pdf

Fertilizing:  see excerpt from  "MC91" at
http://home.att.net/~millero/MC91-FertilizingCitrusChart.pdf

> 2. Mexican Bird of Paradise- pruning and watering? When and how much?

Red Bird (Caesalpinia pulcherrima ), Water: best with regular irrigation;
once per week while blooming; height and growth rate determined by water
supply.  Prune, if needed,  during dormant period.  Dead material should be
removed.  We prune ours down to about 18" each year.

Mexican Bird (Yellow, Caesalpinia mexicana ).  Water Weekly only during
flowering period.  Prune only dead material  Does not recover from pruning
as well as the Red Bird.
>
> 3. Bouganvilla - Recently has wilted back 3/4 - maybe frost? Do I prune?
> Please advise.

Best to wait until you see new spring growth so you can see how much is
frost damage, then prune out the dead material.  It also takes pretty severe
pruning which is often necessary because its rapid thorny growth often tends
to get in the way of traffic.

Olin Miller, Master Gardener Volunteer
U of A Cooperative Extension, Maricopa County AZ