Not familiar with Palo Verde care, but on general principle, prune out the dead (dry, brittle) wood, keep the rest. Resin

Hi Chandlergardner, Palo Verde beetles emerge during our summer monsoon season and can be a frightening sight on warm evenings. The larvae, which are a huge 3" whiteish grub, live inside the roots of trees for several years before maturing into the black adult beetle. The holes they leave in the ground are about the size of a quarter in diameter. They seem especially attracted to the imported Mexican Palo Verde tree, but will munch on nearly any non-native tree or shrub species including Mulberry and Ash. Another insect that active during the monsoon season is the cicada. They produces the loud buzzing you hear in trees this time of year leave 1 inch diameter holes in the ground. Female cicadas lay their eggs on branch tips which causes die-back. The best management for these insects is to keep your trees as healthy as possible. Deep, infrequent watering and minimal pruning will enable plants to resist attack by these pests. Here is a link that might be useful: Palo Verde Borer Beetle

Hey you- I have one of the Emeralds. It's really growing great, but of course, it's been getting flood irrigation every two weeks since last Feb They are known to be fast growers, so it's probably not just the flood... I wish I could find the picture of it in full bloom that AZtreelvr had posted. Definitely incredible. Just remember, though - you'll be cleaning up the spent blooms if you put anything underneath it - I saw one of the Cacti/Succulent folks with a gorgeous yard full of succulents that were all frosted with yellow blooms.... ooops... What I really want to know is how long it'll keep this dark green bark - I have small hopes that it'll be like the Palo Breas (which is another one I'd recommend, if only for it's wonderful trunk shape)but it'll probably turn brown at some point. HTH, Good luck!

Well, I think I'll go with something else. The Palo Verde "desert museum" trees at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens were not as pretty as I thought they would be. Yes, they were thornless and even had a few blooms, but not all the limbs, nor the trunk had retained the green color nor did they exhibit the graceful shape that I expected. I'm not sure they are representative of the best of P.V. 'desert museum' but since the variety is not readily available anyway (thanks to Jolana for finding one a couple of hours away. That woman is a phenomenal 'finder' ... :-) and as much as I love trying something different, I'll probably go with a tried and true Arroya sweetwood which loves alkaline soil, grows fast, is drought tolerant, smells wonderful all times of the year, and IS available. Thanks for reading and any considerations of checking nurseries for me. Here it is growing at the SABG ... Here is a link that might be useful: Palo Verde desert museum images ....