UC Master Gardeners, Santa Clara County, CA
University of California
UC Master Gardeners, Santa Clara County, CA

Water Wise Plants

Punica granatum

Pronunciation
PU-ni-kuh grah-NAT-um
Common Name
Pomegranate
Plant Type
Shrub
Mature Size
15 ft. to 20 ft. tall and wide, but can prune smaller
Water Requirements
Low: water every three weeks until the root ball is wet
Sun/Shade Requirements
Full sun
Wildlife
Flower Color
Orange-red flowers with ornamental yellow, orange, or red fruit
Maintenance- Design- Planting Tips

Pomegranates are a small, well-behaved shrub for the perennial garden. The plant flowers in the early summer and has an attractive golden leaf color in the late fall. The fruit, which forms in the mid-fall, adds color to the fall garden. One drawback is pomegranates lose all their leaves in the winter and don't have a particularly attractive branching structure.

Sunset's Western Garden Book recommends regular water, but says pomegranates tolerate considerable drought. A bonus of a low water regime is the tree grows more slowly and requires less frequent pruning.

PADG Notes: Pomegranates in the Demonstration Garden do quite well with deep and infrequent watering. They are pruned in the late winter to maintain them as shrubs. Since pomegranates can grow to be quite large, some gardeners may choose to prune off the bottom branches of the shrub to give the plant a pleasing tree-like form.

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