I actually know the answer to this one. Do you??

[Greensage45]

Hi Beth,

If you admire the Mimosa then I know of one that you might also like, it is called the Golden Leadball Tree, Leucaena retusa

I enjoy the Mimosa for the bright pink plumes of flowers and the fine feathery leaves. My own Mimosa has been trained to be very tall, but typically Mimosa are a short trunked tree with a nice billowy canopy; however, training them to be tall is not hard at all.

When I first saw the Leadball Tree I swore it was a Mimosa or a Locust, it is a legume and in the same family, but the Golden Leadball puts of a wonderful bright yellow flower/puff and is much rounder and tighter in the bloom. I think you would like it. They also do well here so I imagine the would do well for you too.

Here are some pictures:

here is the distribution chart

I do have some seeds I can offer you.

Ron

 

[journey11]

Just a thought about how not to mow baby trees, unless you have a fantastic memory and are the only one who ever operates the lawn mower... tomato cages, or some other sturdy all enclosing, highly visible barrier! My DH, and occasionally my overly mowing addicted neighbor, have been known to whack the same plants I just showed them. I started caging them until they are big enough to be recognizable as a real plant. I've got some cages that look like survivors of a nuclear attack, but the plants are doing fine. :mow

LOL, my husband is like that....EVERYTHING is a WEED to him! Doesn't matter how many times you've shown him a plant. I have to cage AND surround mine with a "moat" of heavy mulch. When he was living at home, his father preferred that he did not mow the yard or weedeat around the house. He killed hundreds of dollars worth of plants there! And he lets the mower throw out the clippings all over my plants too...... Not much I can do for that but go behind him with a broom.

Mimosas grow quickly around here too, but they also are prone to a disease, so I guess that keeps them at bay. I can't believe how fast they grow. I didn't know that about their root system, vfem(makes sense!) I have to be so careful what I plant since I have a septic system.

 

[PunkinPeep]

Jojo, i like that milk jug idea. I'm all for things that function as well as things that cost money - but don't cost extra money.

Steve, seems like we would've learned from the aussies and their unloved bunny rabbits.

Ron, great tree! Very interesting. I've never seen that one before. P.s. i'm finding more elms, but i think i will have to wait 'til spring to figure out whether they're slippery.

Journey, you need steel cages! :mow

 

[Greensage45]

Steve, seems like we would've learned from the aussies and their unloved bunny rabbits.

What happened to the bunnies? I thought they were called Kangaroos! LOL

 

[StupidBird]

albizia julibrissim is very pretty, very invasive and I planted it on purpose because I liked the flowers. When it got big, it got the vascular fungal infection endemic to this area, fell apart but the roots would not die! 20 years later still fighting sprouts...
I think the roots grow to a 5:1 proportion to the tops, based on the fragments I keep digging up.

and when the kids were toddlers, poison control assured me that the seeds are not toxic.

 

[boggybranch]

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_uWPyYvXoorQ/SvXtAj79HwI/AAAAAAAABsY/XKxhA6VUy34/s800/S6304287.JPG

I don't know if this picture helps at all. But y'all are too smart for me. It's just a baby mimosa. Mimosas are normal and prolific here - but not invasive. Not so normal that i don't treasure them and really want a big one to grow up in my yard.

This is one of the babies that i purposely avoided with the lawn mower last time i mowed (which has been a while). I'm hoping that if i leave it alone, it will really take root and grow gangbusters in the spring. These are uneducated hopes - but hopes.

Mimosas's are so beautiful! And since we have bees in our hopes and dreams, native plants that flower are beneficial and desirable.

Steve, i thought the same thing about the palms. Well, people grow them, but they look funny HERE. I've seen those little growths a lot, but i've never seen them do anything but exactly that....which is why i thought they were some kind of flower that just wasn't blooming.

The palms are a bird poop fluke.

But i Mimosas!

Here's a
picture of a mimosa tree that my wife started from some seeds that we got at the cemetary where her dad is laid to rest, in Chattanooga, TN.

 

[kcsunshine]

Mimosa blooms will bring on the hummingbirds also. I love them.