We have one and it is a gorgeous tree. Ours is about 8 years old, about 40 feet high with a spread of twenty feet. It gets wonderful yellow flowers and is semi deciduous. That is the leaves stay there unless there is a frost like last winters. It will need heavier water for the first year or two, then we cut it to two emitters and it is doing fine. The only negative is that new growth grows down, so you have to constantly trim new growth so you can walk under it. Good luck.

Terry in Scottsdale

Our Tipu has been in the ground going on three years.It was put in as a fifteen gallon with a trunk the thickness of a pencil. The first monsoon snapped it exactly in half.I though it was toast. I left it in the ground because I figured I'd see if it came back in the spring. Despite its rough start, it came back with new branches,has quadrupled in size and proven itself to be a tough, good looking addition to the back yard. In another year or two it's going to be a gorgeous tree. Water Deeply, and the roots will go deep. This should be the rule for all your trees and plants. Frequent watering is necessary to get things established but a regular deep watering schedule should start as soon as possible.

Thanks to you both for your answers. Advice and information.
jkochan, what size is your tipu tree now that it is 3 years old?

It's about 8' tall and the canopy is about 6 feet across. It grew to this point from a stick, 4' tall with no branches or leaves in two years

jkochan, thanks for the response. What area of AZ is your tipu tree growing in? I live in Chandler. Hot, windy, dry, little rain.
Looking at other questions asked on this site, you respond to many questions & your responses are very good. Are you a AZ Master Gardener? You have great solutions and insights. Thanks for your plant advice and insights.

Naw....that would be heady comapny indeed. I just speak from personal experience and from wisdom gleaned from others, both at this site and another site where I spend most of my time. I am in Chandler also. This site has slowed down some but I and others still pop in to see what is going on, especially in AZ Gardening. There are some very knowledgeable people here. Oops..posted this to the wrong thread.......

Although the Tipuana tipu tree has problems in other parts of the country, in our hot, dry climate of central Arizona it makes a nice shade tree and is not invasive. This tree survives (even flourishes) in parking lot situations, which are the most brutal of locations for trees.

Just follow jochan's advice on watering being sure to move the emitters to the drip line (edge of the canopy) as the tree grows. Deeply but infrequently is the motto of watering trees.

Here's a link to a watering schedule for trees and other plants in the desert regions of central Arizona. Near the bottom of the page is a schedule for newly installed plants.

aztreelvr
certified arborist

Here is a link that might be useful: Landscape watering schedule

I have one of these trees and it has always been one of my favorite trees - at least for the last three years after I first discovered it. It started out with a 1 1/2 inch trunk. it is now about 6 inches wide and last year was georgeous - provided filtered shade to my backyard. It has been rather mess but it has been worth it. My concern is that it is now the end of April and it hasn't leafed out - it is almost bare and I don't see buds yet. I don't know if I have a problem or if I just need to be patient???

Just removed huge palo verde from front yard.(fairly small yard) Redoing yard with variety of cacti. Thinking about the Tipu. I am concerned it is messy like the palo verde. Was between Tipu and Brazilian Pepper. Thoughts?

I bought a Tipu tree at Lowes after attending a wedding of about 150 people in San Bernardino County, CA. The tree at this wedding had a trunk that spanned the width of my spread arms, and the tree shaded the entire wedding reception, with tables of ten. Grass grew under the tree. During the reception, yellow flowers dropped on the tables, but nobody complained. My tree has doubled in height in one year. My garden is very large, and I only have two trees. (The other is an avocado) I'm going to let this tree get very big, and I am willing to deal with the root spread. I did have to spray it for bugs a few months after planting, but it is bug-free now.

We've had our Tipu tree for 25 years. It was planted by a landscaper in our small back yard before we bought our place. It was about 6 feet tall then. It grew to six stories, and the trunk is large enough that you can't begin to get your arms around it. It is a messy tree, dropping leaves, sticks, sap, and a bazillion yellow flowers. To us, the flowers dropping, making a carpet of yellow in our yard, was a season to be looked forward to. This highlight was NOT shared by our neighbor. The Tipu's towering canopy reaches out over our neighbors property, and we were sued for the sticks and leaves and flowers dropping on his property. Ultimately, our only solution was to cut the massive tree down. It grows back its branches aggressively and quickly, so no, we gave up on pruning it back yearly... it was just too costly for us.

Unless you have a large enough property to keep such a huge tree ALL, every little branch and leaf, on YOUR property.... do not plant this tree. Also, ants love its sap, and the Tipu loves to look for water lines and sewer lines.

We have had a tipu tree in our small yard for 7 years now. I have been very disappointed with how messy this tree is and how invasive the roots are. We have a paver patio and the tipu is planted about 2 feet from our built-in bbq. We now have a very uneven paver patio and cracks in our bbq walls and we've had several sprinkler lines break as well. This tree NEVER STOPS shedding pretty much 365 days a year. Depending on the season, it loses twigs, seed pods, branches, leaves, and in the spring- yellow flowers. While it does grow fast and provides a lot of shade quickly, the mess and the invasive roots make this tree not worth it for us. The bigger it grows, the messier it gets. I have someone who is coming to remove it next week.

We bought a house with three Tipus in the yard, one just west of our pool. We soon cut that one down due to constant leaves, twigs and flowers in the pool. The two remaining trees drop, copious amount of leaves, twigs, limbs and flowers, it seems like constantly in the yard and pool. As soon as cooler weather arrives, I will send these filthy monsters to their graves!

We had Tipu trees at work that I thought were so pretty. They were only a few years old so they weren't that big. We planted one in our yard. That was over 30 years ago. Our tree is about 30 ft tall and the same wide. It would be much bigger but we have it cut way back every year. This isn't a problem because we have the tree trimmers once a year anyway to do all our trees and bushes. Make sure you plant the tree far away from your house. Ours is about 20 ft away and at a level about 2 ft lower than the house. After doing a trenching project and seeing how massive the roots are, I am concerned about those roots going under the house. It is a beautiful tree and ours doesn't really shed that much, but I would not plant it again, it is just too big.

aztreelvr

certified arborist

This is Absolutely False Information you are disseminating! I know you commented in 2010 but it's not the Tipus that have changed. Tipus trees are Highly Invasive - above and below ground. I just spent the last 45 minutes writing a very detailed explanation, left the page (which I've done several times tonight and no problem And this is not the first time it's happened on Houzz) returned and my "comment" was blank. I'm now about to cry 😭 way wah, but don't have it in me currently to re-do rn. Please all who are considering, take heed from the voices of commentors who Strongly Oppose these trees and for all the same reasons - they are a prolific and year round littering tree - the mess is nightmare - soooo much work - and costly, especially for the neighbors who have to deal with a choice they didn't make. And the Roots are Indeed HIGHLY INVASIVE and spread far and wide.

aztreelvr

certified arborist

This is Absolutely False Information you are disseminating! I know you commented in 2010 but it's not the Tipus that have changed. Tipus trees are Highly Invasive - above and below ground. I just spent the last 45 minutes writing a very detailed explanation, left the page (which I've done several times tonight and no problem And this is not the first time it's happened on Houzz) returned and my "comment" was blank. I'm now about to cry 😭 way wah, but don't have it in me currently to re-do rn. Please all who are considering, take heed from the voices of commentors who Strongly Oppose these trees and for all the same reasons - they are a prolific and year round littering tree - the mess is nightmare - soooo much work - and costly, especially for the neighbors who have to deal with a choice they didn't make. And the Roots are Indeed HIGHLY INVASIVE and spread far and wide.