Rewilding My Lot

I have a small collection of trees here (I’m limited by space!). There is one evergreen tree (Texas Mountain Laurel), which will retain its leaves through the winter.

The two Live Oaks are semi-evergreen, meaning that old leaves drop when they are pushed out by the new ones growing in spring. The transition only takes a couple of weeks.

And there are five deciduous trees: Desert Willow, Mexican Olive, Mexican Plum, Red Buckeye, Mexican Buckeye.

Different species of deciduous trees drop their leaves at different times, according to how they have evolved to grow. Of mine, the Red Buckeye was the first, months ago. Lately it has put out some new leaves, but I wonder if it has been confused by our warm and late fall. This is a very young tree that I will protect from freezes this winter. I don’t know if the new leaves will endure through the winter or whether the tree will start afresh in the spring. I notice that there are also signs of new shoots at ground level.

The next tree to lose its leaves this year was the Mexican Plum — by mid-December they had all gone. This is a tree that blooms very early in the spring, even before its leaves emerge, so it is perhaps not surprising that it is going to bed early to get ready. This tree hasn’t grown any taller since it was planted, but all the little side branches are new since it arrived, and they are about twice as long as they were last year.

The Desert Willow and Mexican Buckeye have each lost a few leaves so far. I expect them to stay green a few weeks longer, perhaps until it starts to get colder. This is the larger Desert Willow, beginning to thin out…

…and this is the tiny Mexican Buckeye, which I will also protect from freezes this winter.

The Mexican Olive is still completely green, and continues to grow new leaves and blooms. (The photo at the top of this post was taken on Christmas Day 2025.) Past history of this tree suggests that it will keep its leaves until we have a freeze, and then all the leaves and some of the growing tips or whole branches will die. After that I will have to wait weeks, or even months, to see which parts of the tree will survive to grow back in the spring.