Tree · North Texas care guide
Pistacia chinensis
Nursery Pro tip: The best fall color in North Texas, hands down. Tough as nails once established.
The reliable fall-color tree for North Texas: orange to red every November, no matter the weather. Rounded, medium-sized, tough as nails, and it takes our summers and our clay without complaint. Awkward and gangly for the first three years, then a beauty.
Full sun, anywhere with decent drainage. Fits a front yard where a red oak would be too big; keep it 12–15 ft off the house.
Fall is ideal. Wide hole, ball at grade, native soil, Root Stimulator, mulch. Stake the first year — young pistaches lean.
Weekly deep soak the first summer, every other week the second, then only in drought.
Spring tree fertilizer for the first three years. It will grow with nothing after that.
Winter. It needs shaping when young: pick a leader, remove weak-angled branches, and tip back gangly shoots to encourage a rounded head. Well worth doing the first three winters.
Essentially pest-free. Female trees set small red berries the birds take; if you don't want berries look for a male. Verticillium wilt is rare here.
Great street or lawn tree. Combine with Shumard red oak and crape myrtle for color from August through November; underplant with Gulf muhly for a pink-and-orange October.
Written for Rockwall's black clay, heat and winters by the Landscape Source team. Every yard is different — bring a photo by, or ask LS-Ai, and we'll tailor it to your spot.