too many growing wild around my area to really want to put them in my garden.

I have a bunch in my yard and was going to get rid of them until I read that it takes a really long time for them to get so big. I would feel guilty for getting rid of them now. Just wondering if people do like them.

Hi Laura,

The creosote is a native plant that thrives here with virtually no maintenance. I have planted five of them in my yard to tie in with my desert landscape and I am very happy with how they look. They can be trimmed if needed to keep them from being too straggly and their fragrance after the rain is wonderful. If your landscape is desert, it would be a shame to remove them.

I was one of those people who moved to AZ and kept asking what that smell was. Then I finally figured out it was these bushes. My yard is pretty desert based. I will keep them as it would be terrible for something to grow for years and then be killed on a whim.

Personally, I love them! So much so that I dug up several babies from the desert and transplanted them into the narrow strip between the sidewalk and street, where nothing else would grow. They're thriving, starting to block the ugly views across the street, plus I love their smell when it rains (I admit it's an acquired smell). In spring, house finches spend hours in them, eating the seeds.

We live in an early 70's neighborhood -- Mexican palms, Italian cypress, Bermuda grass, olive trees. I'm the first kid on the block with creosote bushes and get frequent compliments. If you water them every now and again, they'll bloom and become much more lush than what you normally see growing wild.

I'm with Violet. Creosote a very common bush here, to such an extent that it has attained weed status. I'd say plant around them until you start running out of room.

If I had native creosote bushes in my yard, I'd keep them too. Anything that doesn't need attention and water gets my vote.
Recently I started to appreciate a volunteer desert broom that sprouted in my back yard (actually two- I had to get rid of the female one because of the copious seeds.) It's like a low-maintenance boxwood. I keep it clipped and it's dark green and happy!

Have them, love them. Extremely hardy, low water use and native. And they smell wonderful after a rain.

I lightly prune them to keep them out of paths, but it's only needed every couple of years.

Here's why I am not in a hurry to plant it in my yard. A lot of that (over my back wall is creosote, along with mesquite, sage, Apache broom, and well, scrub and shrubs--at least until it's developed.

This is in NM/TX, not Arizona, though -- I'm an interloper in this forum, so if you don't have it around you, it might be worth planting. I personally don't think it's a very pretty bush but with the recent rains we've got lots of little yellow flowers on 'em.

{{gwi:415642}}

Fun discussion! I find creosote to be just a bit boring, but that being said, I'd never remove one from my garden if mine came with one. I do love the scent, and have planted one in my garden and its done really well. It's just large enough to start making that wonderful "desert" scent when it's humid or rainy. They can be sort of neat looking when mature and gnarled, can't they?

They are icons of the desert, so I wanted to have at least one in my garden, despite the fact I sort of find them a bit boring, hah. Different strokes for different folks though, and it's fun to discuss these, and other, plants. Happy gardening all!

Ours bloom several times a year and the bees love the blossoms. The quail love the seeds.

I tried extracting the stems in alcohol to make scented shower gel with ... DON'T!!!! We got the lovely smell, but it's apparently a small molecule because you can taste it immediately. YUCK as well as potentially toxic.

It does make a nice liquid to use in the reed holders.

Lazygardens, I love your ideas about extracting scents. I am not sure about creosote smell, to me it smells like cigarette smoke.

If Laura81's property is anything like mine, space is at a premium, hence my comment about planting around it until running out of room. In my area, I have one of the few homes with any backyard at all. We're on hillsides here, some folks even have a pool in their front yards because there is no other option. Also, in my part of FH, we are required to maintain 1/3 of our property as natural desert. That is where all my Creosote bushes are.

GermanStar, I took a bit of a peek around the North Heights area. What a great area! Loads of different plants. I have never been over there and was surprised by the amount of large rocks, hills and mountain views. I have a fair sized lot over 1/2 acre and no rules about what I plant. The ground is fairly flat for FH. No need for ropes and rock climbing gear.

Yeah, we're all about the views and maintaining the desert here. If you drove past a house with 100 Agaves out front that might pass for the FH Desert Botanical Garden, that would be mine :-0.

Did you know that there really is a FH DBG? It's laughable really, but that's what they call it. There's a little tiny parking lot (holds 4 cars, I think) off Fountain Hills Blvd. Check it out after it cools off. It's just a short little desert hike where they put some signs in front of the native flora.

I saw a lot of agaves but I don't think I saw one with that many. If I had I might have popped out of the car and had a closer look. See how they respond to my plant whispering. I saw there was a DBG here and was hoping it was a smaller version of the big one. I noticed the parking lot was very tiny.

Hey, I could use a good Agave whisperer! You know, there's a place about 20 minutes from here that may cause you to ooh and ahh almost as much as the DBG, and you can bring the plants home with you! P&M Nursery probably does have more cacti than the DBG. It's about a mile off 87 just this side of the 202. The place is pretty big, it might take about an hour to walk all the way through.

sorry for the slight topic derail, but you guys can't see the pic I posted anymore, right?

Photobucket got so many views from posting here (and my other pics) they want me to buy bandwidth I guess? This has never happened to me before. FAIL!

Nope your picture is gone. It was up for a few days before it went missing. Now what? You have to pay to post?

I guess. that's pretty sucky -- I'll have to look into it. thanks.

Violet, if you click on the place where the picture was the picture does come up. But you have to click on it. Weird!