She does sustain damage in the winter and will probably never bloom , but I just like the remarks I get because of the thorns on the trunk.
Somebody told me I could not grow Silk Floss tree here
That thing looks interesting and a bit scary! Don't turn your back on it while you are out there gardening. LOL
Rylaff, just wrap the trunk if you're going to get a freeze. They grow huge here and the thorns really look neat when the tree is big.
rylaff that is the neatest looking tree I have ever seen. I can see why you are getting so many remarks on it. And probably alot of double takes as well.
It's quite a sight during the fall when it blooms. There are a number of them scattered throughout San Jose. I've noticed that the pink color on the bloom varies from a pale pink to a rich dark pink. Shopping for Chorisia speciosa should probably be done when in bloom so you get the shade you want.
My wife and her friends called this the "Treehugger's tree" when she lived in the Dominican Republic. Chalk me up as another one who grows this just for the thorns, though I have to protect it a bit more.
These are very fast growing.
Though I don't know that you were asking me, I grew mine from seed.
I grew mine from seed also. They start very easily from seeed.
Dstartz(is your name Doris?), there is a place in Harlingen called Grimsels that has those trees. They had a bad fire, but the plants are okay and they are open, but may not answer their phone.
Mine's never bloomed either and I've had it for over 15 years. The trunk near the bottom is about a foot in diameter. I think I might have planted above a huge boulder.
-Ron-
I dont remember where I got the seed from, but I do remember I had almost 100% germination and was very easy to start.
That is so cool!!!
Won't catch me hugging it though, hehe.
That is cool, but while such a soft, fluffy name for a killer tree? It's like name a chiwwa, Spike. Speaking of dogs, I bet that the male dogs stay shy of that sucker!!!! Ouch...
Nancy Lee
I heard that to get them to bloom, you need to give them a dry-ish summer. Our biggest one has never bloomed. It is on the same soaker hose system as a bunch of rose bushes, so it's hard to do the dry summer thing. (Reroute the soaker hoses, you big dummy!) We stole the seeds from the Los Angeles Arboretum. Someone on the next street had one that bloomed, but they cut it down. (What a bunch of barbarians!)
The seedlings/saplings do not have thorns, so don't be disappointed when you see that. Here is a picture of one that is less than an inch in diameter. Yes, it is laying on the porch. When it gets windy, the potted ones fall over and there is no sense in putting them back until the wind is over.
This one is maybe 1 1/2 inches in diameter. We also have a larger one. It looks just like Ron's, so I won't post a picture. BTW, they grow very slowly in pots. Mainly those two are in pots because we don't know where to put them in the yard.
It's called floss silk tree because the seed pods are full of fluffy stuff like milkweed fluff.
Yeah, they aren't uncommon here. Pretty pink flowers, annoyingly poofy seed pods. They look like a super fungus growing on an avocado, or the head of a 6-foot Q-Tip! Sattiva were featured in the San Diego Zoo magazine a couple of years ago. They tell the funny story of how they planted a bunch of these trees a while back, and some visitor ripped them all out because they thought they were Cannabis plants! Five leaves....
Mine flowered after about 10 years or so.
I grew it from seed and planted it about 6 years ago. I am in Tampa, Florida. It has never been damaged by cold, the lowest it has seen is about 26F.
Alan
I started one of these from seed too, and I posted this pic last fall in this forum... it's about 5 or 6 (I think) years old and this was the first bloom, it had two.
The tips of the branches usually freeze back, but it always recovers quickly.
Wow, so pretty.
No seeds from either of the ones it had:-(
I doubt that the fruits/pods would survive over the winter though, unless they mature in two months, which is how long they would've had from flowering to hard freeze.
Does anyone know if fall flowering is the norm for them?
Fall flowering is normal.
I love this tree. I love the look of the thorns and the flowers are beautiful.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
Such great flowers.
Thorns on a two-year old seedling.
