I’ve been kinda deep in some projects right now, only one of which is photography-related, so not a lot of chance to get out. There was another ISS transit, this time of the sun, that was supposed to take place today, but we remained resolutely overcast and rainy for the entire day, so scratch that.
Right now, for the sake of it, I’ll just mention this one. For some time now I’ve been wanting to get a mimosa tree established, without any luck. And before I go any further, I need to clarify what I’m talking about, because I’ve just discovered that this is far from the proper name, regardless; the species is, scientifically, Albizia julibrissin, otherwise known as the Persian silk tree or pink silk tree, and while commonly referred to everywhere I’ve been as a mimosa, it’s not a member of the Subfamily Mimoseae, though it does bear a resemblance to those. I’m just going to stick with mimosa, though I’ll always append the Albizia julibrissin bit…
A few years back, I attempted to cultivate a few from the seed pods that I’d found, but nothing occurred. I put this down to squirrels digging up the seeds, apparently finding them a delicacy, but I’ve been told that growing them from seeds is difficult. The Girlfriend also checked to see if one could be purchased from one of our nurseries, but was told that they never carried them because they were a “trash tree.” I have no idea why this might be, since they’re quite nice looking, not prone to overrunning an area nor leaving behind lots of leaf litter or broken branches; loblolly pines are hideous, shedding huge volumes of needles and pinecones constantly, overtake an area within a few years and block out everything else from growing, and drop branches or entire trees in every major storm, constantly causing damage to houses and powerlines and so on – that’s exactly what I’d call a “trash tree,” but far too many people in this state seem inordinately enamored of them. All that said, I still wanted to try and establish a mimosa.
On moving to the new Walkabout Estates, however, I found that I didn’t need to.
This was my first inkling, since the trees leaf out later than others and close up their leaves at night, but the blossom is unmistakable. This was way out on the edge of The Bayou, not even visible from the backyard, and discovered by headlamp one night, though I did eventually return during the day for a few pics.
We had one of these in the front yard when I was growing up in southern New Jersey, and I always found it fun to strip all the fernlike leaves from those little stems that they originated from, bastard that I was then (not like I’m not now – I’m just saying I started early.) But c’mon, they’re cool-looking trees.
Unfortunately, like many trees the flowering season is quite short, though they still retain the bright green leaves throughout the spring and summer, and have a nice, twisty nature to the branches, spreading wider rather than taller. I’m pleased to have one close by, though granted, it’s not routinely visible. We might still try to remedy this.
Also on the list is a honey locust, for semi-scientific reasons, and I’ll go into this in another post, at least after actually locating one.