PalmsNorth.com

We've been shopping around for a couple tropical looking trees to plant in our front yard, and my mom suggested a Mimosa tree. I'd never heard of this tree before, but come to find out, many of the older folks around here remember them as being quite common years ago, but you rarely see them this far north nowadays. From what I've read, they are like a weed in the south. I picked up a 5' specimen last week, and plan on planting it in my front yard in the next few days... Does anyone here have experience with mimosa trees? I've seen several around here recently in full bloom, and they are very impressive. Just wondering if anyone else grows these in zone 6 or north, and what kind of experiences/advice you may have. As always, thanks in advance!

PS: Other trees that we are shopping for are empress/paulownia and katsura... any experiences/info on those (as well as any other recommendations on tropical-looking flowering trees for zone 6) would be greatly appreciated!

Eric

We have them all over zones 6, a and b north and south of the Philly Metro Area. They grow really fast and are very easy to grow. They drop seed pods and spread very quickly if you let them. i have seen mine in the back uard grow to ten feet in one year easily. i have also chopped it way back to the ground and it comes back strongly everyyear. Impossible to really get rid of. I like them alot but they always seem to come up in the wrong sopot from birds, squirrels etc... They close their leaves at night to retain moisture. Interesting trees. They do look tropical and have a very nice sweet scented flower. Enjoy your tree if you decide to plant one.
Mike

Eric,
mimosa trees (Albizia julibrissin) are weedy down here. Nurseries don't sell 'em. At my last house, I wanted one so I dug up a stem from a friend. I botched the job and so basically stuck a 10' stem with essentially no roots. Didn't matter. It took off and grew well and looked great.
They do look incredibly tropical so yesterday the W asked me to plant one here, as long as it is away from the pool as they do litter the ground around them.
As for tropical-looking trees, the one I want is Firmiana. I never see it referred to in books on tropical-style gardening or on these forums. However, the local zoo uses them to great effect in their outdoor tropical-themed gardens with needle palms, Sabal minor, Magnolia, Euonymous, pomegranate, etc. They are deciduous but have smooth bark that stays green all winter. They the Tulsa Zoo parent tree drops seeds that grow on their own and the Zoo is always digging them up. I've asked them to give me some of those to try here.
So, you may want to research Firmiana as well.
--Erik

Here are a few pics of the mimos in my yard side of shed...The first p[icture was lastyear , totally got too big and even shopt past my bamboo, I cut that whole tree down last year and now it has resurfaced and the second picture are the flowers...Insane....

They grow with ease around here too they have some serious potential to grow hug in one year like Mike posted. The Empress tree grow just as fast if not faster, I think that one drops a lot of crap on the ground if I recall right.

Eric,
A awesome tree to look into would be a big leaf magnolia I think there great and they bloom nice too. They do fine here some they should be fine I would think in all zone 6.

Umbrella pines are nice too. I think they look better when there smaller though.

Bill

Thanks for the replies everyone! I took a nice drive around the area today and found out that mimosas are much more popular here than what I'd thought, and after seeing some huge specimens (some even bigger than what is described as the maximum size online) I don't really have any worries about mine surviving. Bill, I've heard the same thing about the empress tree dropping lots of stuff onto the ground, but after seeing one of them in person, I think I'd be willing to deal with that, and it's also said to be one of the fastest growing trees available, often growing 8 feet or more a year. Problem with that one is finding a nursery locally that has one to sell me, at this point I've tried all the local places and am going to have to order one. Anyways, I'm going to put the mimosa in the ground tomorrow (waited too long already and forgot to water it for a few days and it looks like crap, hope it survives) and I'll get some pics up of it as soon as it comes back around. Thanks again for all the info folks!

My motto is check everywhere but before you buy check e-bay-

this way you have an idea of what you should pay.

I have always loved these trees,my grandparents in Mississippi had 2 massive ones in
their yard and a giant Magnolia in front-great climbing tree!

They seem to be rather hardy here. Even after the cold winter of last they have a lot of damage, but alive nonetheless. The local form is considered to be the hardiest one can get in our country. Some trees survived -26.3C a few years ago, coldest since 1929 here. Here's one of mine, planted this year. It loves the extra rainy weather we have experienced lastly.