This plant blooms almost all the time, but most especially in late winter and then again in late summer. It's a huge vase-shaped shrub. I suspect eventually it will become a small tree.
-Ron-
Calliandra blooming
Here's a closer image of a branch and blooms.
-Ron-
Wow! That's a beauty, Ron. My Calliandra is blooming also:
I love the big red balls of fluff! Mine tends to sprawl too, and I was wondering if I should prune it to make it more compact?
Clare, I like them big and sprawly--if you've got the room. I like that deep red color of yours. I got another one last fall at a nursery that had neglected theirs. It has the pompom shaped blooms of yours only with deep pink and larger leaves. I had to literally pull it out of the ground and clip off roots (it had grown through it's pot). Anyway, it was a huge plant for $10 and I don't think other customers were willing to do what I did to get it out of the ground. When I planted it last fall it lost all its leaves, but now I noticed it has put on new red growth that is starting. I also got a smaller plant last spring from the Huntington sales. It was named Calliandra surratensis. I think it will look similar to the images that I just posted. Another very interesting smaller Calliandra that you can see around sometimes is Calliandra schuetzii (sp?). It only gets a couple of feet tall and is very oriental looking.
Chris (Venezuela) posted some pics of a native tree that was a Mimosa of some kind. Anyway it had beautiful white and pink tipped blooms covering the tree and it was a huge tree. Spectacular! He also recently posted pics of a tree that was blooming in his backyard. It was a glorious Brownea grandiceps (Pride of Venezuela).
He's supposed to be sending me some Cassia moschata seeds sometime soon and also (maybe) some of the Petrea aspera tree seeds.
-Ron-
Hi Ron! That is awesome that you got that huge plant for $10. I would love to see pictures of the flowers when it blooms on that one and the others that you have. I have two of these Calliandra haematocephala planted in the ground with a Calliandra emarginata planted between them. There is not much room to get lanky so I may have to prune a bit.
I saw the pictures that Chris posted, and they were amazing. I couldn't believe the size of that huge tree. Chris posted on that Petrea thread over at GW and said that he had seeds available so I contacted him by email. He said that he would send me some too, and I'm going to send him some Bouvardia seeds in exchange. I thought maybe it was you that told him I was wanting these:-) Have you ever sent seeds to Venezuela? I am wondering if I have to fill out a Customs Declaration Sheet at the Post Office and if I should indicate that they are flower seeds.
Clare, whenever I've offered to send seed, Chris has deferred me from doing so. He's going to be visiting his parents in Carlsbad in May, so you might think about doing a transfer of some sort then.
Yes, I'll post pics when this newest Calliandra starts blooming.
-Ron-
That would work out so much better to send to Carlsbad. I will email him and see if that is acceptable to him. Then I can send him a bunch more seeds than I would otherwise. I was worried about what it would cost to mail to Venezuela, and I hate standing in line at the Post Office! Thanks for this info. I'm sad to report that none of your passiflora seeds germinated, and I reused the soil for something else. Thanks for thinking of me though. I look forward to seeing flowers on yours when you get them.