Hello Ken,

We live in Las Vegas not to far from you. The chilean Mesquite is a beautiful tree but gets rather large as do most desert trees. The Blue and desert museum palo verdes, the mesquites, the african sumac all untimately get to be wider than twelve feet more like 25-30 feet. Does this matter to you?

Smaller trees are harder to find but we just planted a blackbrush acacia that will be smaller. I think it loses its leaves in the winter but they are small so it won't be bothersome. Also the Pithecellobiums are not as wide. We have a P. texana, P. pallens, and P. mexicana and love them all but they can be hard to find. The chaste tree, Vitex Agnes castes also is smaller again not evergreen but not what I would call messy either.

Happy Gardening, Maria