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Bradford non-fruit bearing Pear. Beautiful fluffy white blooms in Spring. Bright red leaves in fall. And NOTHING can kill it - disease, dog urine, being bashed by a car. Oh, rock salt can kill it, so avoid that. I live in NYC, and if a tree can survive here, it can survive anywhere!

Ideas for Arizona? Lol

Beware the Bradford Pear. Its blooms produce a bit of a stink. Some years it's so bad that I have to keep the windows closed.

bradford pear is the bane of most urban existence. there ae so many, and they grow so fast that the wood is very weak. they break quickly and easily during a storm, and are very short lived--not a very good investment (20 years and they start to max out)
Also they are very susceptible to fireblight--nearly all the pears here have it, and it looks terrible, leaving branches that look scorched and are dead, and it spreads fast. It slowly kills the tree over a couple of years. Do NOT plant bradford pears, please!

Portland has an awesome group, Friends of Trees that can help you decide what tree is good for your space.

Keep height and spread in mind if you have power lines nearby. The power companies have legal obligations to keep branches specific distances from the lines and they will send an arborist to cut the tree if they need to. You get some really weird trims that way. I know PG&E has a list of suggestions and guidelines for maximum heights and minimum distances from the lines somewhere.

My folks had a chatalpa tree (no idea if I spelled that right, sorry) that I just loved. It had these beautiful purple horn-shaped flowers all spring long. I miss it.

For Sleepy Dinosaur in Arizona- Yes! Plenty of heat-tolerant, low water trees are available. Check out the "native plants" section of the best nursery near you. A huge YES to Tiamat's CHITALPA. It's also called "Desert Willow" because of its' slender leaves. There are newer hybrid crosses with even bigger flowers.

And a couple of non-native ones as well: a VITEX, or chaste tree, lovely slender spikes of blue flowers, a fairly small tree. POMEGRANATES have fiery orange-red flowers, and heat encourages the fruit.

Thanks, Caiti, for the info. I knew the bradford was fast-growing, and hence planted often around new developments, but I didn't know about the blight. Now I have two reasons not to like the bradford pear. Stink and blight.

Tiamat - isn't it just depressing to see those weird trims? always makes me sigh with sorrow.

Friends of Trees has a link to a PDF with city guidelines specific to Portland...
http://www.friendsoftrees.org/programs/neighborhood-trees.php

It's "catalpa"--and you can have mine and all its dropped leaves, dropped blossoms and dropped pods. Fun to have over a driveway.

Huh? All our Bradfords Pears are extremely leafy and healthy. And all over 20 years old. I guess it really matters who you buy them from.

@sleepydinosaur Google your state and "extension service." Most states have a cooperative extension service and they are chock full of info about what grows well in yoor specific microclimate as well as planting, care, and disease info. Here's a link to the University of Arizona's plants list. http://cals.arizona.edu/gardening/plant-lists.html

Hint for planting trees (or anything, really). Spend as much thought on the hole as you do on the tree. It's all in the prep.

Sleepy Dinosaur & SQ- Sorry, I wasn't entirely correct.

"Chilopsis linearis" is a very pretty flowering SW desert tree, also called "Desert Willow", with long slender leaves.

My new favorite, "Chitalpa taskentensis" is actually a cross between the Desert Willow and the Catalpa, and rated as very drought & cold tolerant, with bigger flowers than either. It does lose its leaves in the fall, but does not have the messy seedpods. Google it and take a peek!

Acer- Thank you! Your Chitalpa suggestion looks much more appealing:)