Native Plants

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Tuesday - April 01, 2014

From: Casa grande, AZ
Region: Southwest
Topic: Non-Natives, Propagation, Trees
Title: Grafting different colors of Tecoma from Casa Grand AZ
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Is it possible to graft different colors of tecoma and if yes, is the process same as process for grafting roses?

ANSWER:

Grafting techniques are a little out of our area of expertise, which is the growth, protection and propagation of plants native not only to North America but to the area in which those plants are being grown; in your case, Pinal County, in south central Arizona.

That, of course, brings us to the plants you have asked about. The only member of the genus Tecoma in our Native Plant Database is Tecoma stans (Yellow bells) which, according to this USDA Plant Profile Map, is native to Pinal County, AZ.

There are other members of this genus, Tecoma, with different color blooms than those of Tecoma stans (Yellow bells). From Wikipedia: "Tecoma is a genus of 14 species of shrubs or small trees in the trumpet vine family, Bignoniaceae. Twelve species are from the Americas, while the other two species are African."

Whether grafting the native Tecoma stans (Yellow bells) onto these other non-native species would result in new colors we could not possibly tell you. From the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, here is an article on Grafting and Budding Nursery Crop Plants.

If you follow this link to Images of Tecoma from Google, you will find that if you click on a picture, you will get the scientific name of that plant. The images below are of the native Tecoma stans (Yellow bells) from our Native Plant Image Gallery.

From the Image Gallery

Yellow bells
Tecoma stans