The Best Trees for New Mexico Yards (Part 1)
- John Leo Kirkpatrick
- Dec 24, 2024
- 5 min read
Choosing the right tree for your yard is an investment that can enhance your property for generations. In New Mexico's tawny landscape and unique climate, you have the opportunity to grow a variety of exotic and native trees. Drawing from my experience in caring for diverse, mature specimens in my own yard, I’ve put together a list of recommendations.
To help you decide, I’ve categorized these trees based on their key benefits.
Fast Growing Favorites – Fun Exotics – Long Lived Lads
Fast Growing Favorites
Valley Cottonwood
Why It’s Great: This fast-growing river tree of New Mexico is a shade master with its broad leaves and massive stature (80’ tall x 40’ wide). They turn golden in the fall, giving a gorgeous aesthetic to any yard.
Care Tips
Sun | Full sun |
Water | Plenty of water in early years, moderate once established |
Soil Type | Clay, loam, alkaline, well drained |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Relatively short lived and its weak limbs can drop in extreme windy conditions. Older specimens give off a spooky and enchanting look as they lose limbs.
Fun Fact: The seeds look like fluffy white cotton during the summer.
Honey Locust
Why It’s Great: This underrated hardy tree is an excellent choice for shade (60’ tall x 30’ wide), grows like a weed, and is a great choice for an ornamental tree as its color is bright green in the summer and yellow in the fall.
Care Tips
Sun | Full sun |
Water | Low to moderate once established |
Soil Type | Clay, loam, acidic, alkaline, well drained |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Thorny limbs. The seed pods have beans of sweet pulp that attract wildlife.
Fun Fact: Native Americans used the sweet pulp as a sweetening agent and a minor food source. [1]
Afghan Pine
Baby and mature Afghan
Why It’s Great: Afghan Pines are the fastest-growing pine tree in New Mexico (3’ per year), are Kelly Green, and tolerate many soil types. These exotic specimens are used as windbreak trees and typically grown in uniform lines, perfect for a natural wall of shade or lining a driveway. They can reach heights around 40’ and are drought tolerant.
Care Tips
Sun | Full sun |
Water | Very low once established |
Soil Type | Clay, loam, acidic, sand, alkaline, well drained |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Do not tolerate cold and wet climates very well and are best planted in the central to southern part of the state. Placitas is its northern limit. Sorry norteños.
Fun Fact: Often referred to as the “Mondell” pine after Mondell Bennett, a commercial tree grower in New Mexico who popularized the species starting in 1969. [2]
Fun Exotics
Italian Cypress
Why It’s Great: The Italian Cypress’s unique and attractive pencil-like shape makes any landscape pop. This sun-loving dark green tree is a great ornamental option. It can reach heights of 60’.
Care Tips
Sun | Full to moderate sun |
Water | Low once established |
Soil Type | Clay, loam, acidic, sand, alkaline, well drained |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Does not need pruning, however, needs to be washed periodically to keep from getting dusty.
Fun Fact: Native to the Mediterranean. It is the traditional wood used in Italian harpsicords. [3]
Austrian Black Pine
Why It's Great: This is a fast-growing and long-lived evergreen tree that reaches up to 60’ in height and is low-maintenance. The needles grow in stiff bundles that look like candles, making it a very handsome specimen tree.
Sun | Full sun |
Water | Low once established |
Soil Type | Clay, loam, sand |
Planting Type | Late summer preferably, any season |
Worth Noting: Can be susceptible to wind and heavy snow damage. Shake off snow to protect limbs.
Fun Fact: Resilient to salt spray and other chemical pollutants making it a great planting option near streets and roads.
Long Lived Lads
Ponderosa Pine
Why it’s great: This opened-branch tree will survive generations if taken care of. It can reach the spry age of 600 years all while reaching a max height of 150’. Used as a specimen tree. Attractive, long needles grow in bundles.
Care Tips
Sun | Full sun |
Water | Moderate |
Soil Type | Rocky and gravelly sands, clay, loam |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Intolerant to the heat and the wind of the desert. Slow growing. Top limbs break off in the wind giving them a rounded appearance as they age.
Fun Fact: Bark has faint smells of vanilla.
Gambel Oak
Why it’s great: The Gambel Oak is a hardy and drought-tolerant tree with a shrubby, widely spaced growing pattern. The oak is very ecologically important and provides food (via acorns) and shelter for many critters and animals. They can reach up to 30’ tall and can live for several hundred years. It can be grown to screen undesirable views or used as a windbreak.
Care Tips
Sun | Full sun |
Water | Low, especially once established |
Soil Type | Rocky and gravelly sands, alkaline, clay |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Very slow growing. May not be good for a single specimen or street tree. Heavy shade can reduce its growth.
Fun Fact: The leaves of Gambel Oaks can be used to regulate soil temperatures, reduce winds, improve soil water retention, and add nutrients to soil. [4]
Rocky Mountain Juniper
Why it’s great: These fragrant, aesthetic and drought-tolerant evergreens have an iconic tear drop shape that offers great contrast to landscapes and yards. Leaves have colors ranging from green to blue-green. They can reach a maximum height of 66’ and are long-lived (300 years). Some specimens have been recorded to have lived well over a thousand years.
Care Tips
Sun | Moderate sun, intense sun limits it to shrub height. |
Water | Moderate |
Soil Type | Rocky outcrops, alkaline, well drained, clay |
Planting Type | Any season |
Worth Noting: Slow growing. Susceptible to fire in early years (0-50) due to thin bark and high concentrations of oils.
Fun Fact: Is used by many Native American tribes for incense in purification and rituals. [5]
Additional Video Resources
References
[1] USDA NRCS East Texas Plant Materials Center, and R. Alan Shadow. n.d. “Plant Fact Sheet: Honey Locust Gleditisia triacanthos L.” Plants.Usda.Gov. Accessed December 24, 2024. https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/factsheet/pdf/fs_gltr.pdf.
[2] Arizona Christmas Tree Growers’ Association, University of Arizona College of Agriculture, Kennith E. Foster, New Mexico State University Department of Horticulture, and Fred B. Widmoyer. 1984. “Southwest Christmas Tree Industry: Research Needs and Commercial Opportunities.” Web.Archive.Org. Accessed December 24, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20120210104005/http://morasc.nmsu.edu/docs/History%20of%20Pinus%20Eldarica%20in%20the%20United%20States.pdf.
[3] Clavantica.com. 2020. “Harpsichord-making woods for sale: Knot-free Italian cypress (known in Italian as cipresso netto).” Clavantica.Com. December 1, 2020. Accessed December 24, 2024. http://www.claviantica.com/Wood_files/Cypress_prices.htm.
[4] Utah State University. 2023. “Gambel Oak in the Landscape.” USU. December 14, 2023. Accessed December 24, 2024. https://extension.usu.edu/yardandgarden/research/gambel-oak-in-the-landscape.
[5] Stevens, Michelle, M. Cat Anderson, and USDA NRCS. n.d. “Plant Guide: Rocky Mountain Juniper Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.” Plants.Usda.Gov. Accessed December 24, 2024. https://plants.usda.gov/DocumentLibrary/plantguide/pdf/pg_jusc2.pdf.
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