Orange Jubilee

The Orange Jubilee, scientifically known as Tecoma alata (sometimes sold as Tecoma x ‘Orange Jubilee’), is a dazzling and incredibly heat-loving perennial shrub, celebrated for its spectacular, trumpet-shaped, and brilliantly colored flowers. This vibrant plant is native to tropical America, particularly parts of South America, thriving in hot, sunny conditions and adapting exceptionally well to arid and semi-arid climates with well-drained soils. In Phoenix, Arizona, the Orange Jubilee is an indispensable landscape plant, performing exceptionally well and providing continuous, fiery color through the intense summer heat. As a long-lived perennial, it can persist for many years, often 10-20 years or more, forming a substantial and eye-catching specimen.

Its most distinctive characteristic is its vigorous, upright to spreading growth habit, typically reaching 8-12 feet tall and wide, though it can be pruned to maintain a smaller size or trained as a small, multi-stemmed tree. The leaves are bright to emerald green, pinnately compound (divided into leaflets), providing a lush backdrop to its prolific blooms. The true spectacle of the Orange Jubilee is its abundance of showy, trumpet-shaped flowers that are a brilliant orange to fiery orange-red color. These intensely colored blooms appear in large clusters at the branch tips, often almost continuously from early spring through fall and even into mild winters in warm climates like Phoenix. The vibrant flowers are an absolute magnet for hummingbirds and bees, bringing lively activity and movement to the garden. Following the flowers, long, slender seed pods develop, which can persist on the plant. The Orange Jubilee is exceptionally drought-tolerant once established, requiring minimal water and maintenance, while offering an unparalleled and long-lasting floral display. Its striking color, vigorous growth, and ability to thrive in challenging desert conditions make it an excellent choice for xeriscaping, accent plantings, informal hedges, and as a colorful, low-water addition to any sunny landscape.