Arboretum Spotlight: Desert peach is a keen low-water shrub

This is one part in a weekly series featuring the UC Davis Arboretum’s “40 Plants You (Probably) Have Never Heard of – But Will Love,” 40 can’t-fail, easy-care, low-water plants well adapted to our region but hard to find.

Desert peach

Prunus andersonii

Size: 3 to 6 feet tall and wide

Bloom season: Pink flowers in spring

Exposure: Full sun

Pruning needs: Train into a pleasing shape while plant is young.

Water needs: Very low water use; once established, only monthly irrigation in summer, if at all.

Snapshot: Native to eastern California and Nevada, this peachy water-saver is more shrub than tree, topping out at 6 feet. But in spring it’s loaded with deep pink flowers like a flowering peach tree – but needs a fraction of the irrigation. Like true peaches, this desert cousin is deciduous. The fuzzy fruit is tiny – under 1/2-inch wide – and tends to be very dry. With its beautiful flower show, it’s a great shrub to try in the ultra-low water garden. Water it deeply for the first summer, then ignore it. A year after planting, it can get by on its own without much, if any, additional irrigation.

For more on “40 Plants,” click on arboretum.ucdavis.edu.

This story was originally published June 12, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Arboretum Spotlight: Desert peach is a keen low-water shrub."