Close up of the flowers on my Cry baby tree.
Cry baby tree
Lisa.. is that the one you got from me? I am so jealous as mine has not bloomed now in 3 years.. wonder what I am doing wrong.
What cute blooms. I've never seen one before, but had heard of them. Hope yours blooms soon, Trish.
Talk to me about this plant? Zone hardy to?
Debbie
Is this Erythrina crista-galli? I have one growing in the greenhouse. About 3 feet high, full of thorns, never bloomed, but I am not giving up on it. Think I'll (carefully) repot it this year as it is potbound.
Yes, Trish. It is the one you gave me. It is now about 8 feet tall and full of blooms. It is indeed a Christi galli.
errr, anybody know why it's called cry-baby plant? I could use this in my family bed, in honor of some who shall remain unnamed.....
Cry Baby tree due to the amount of nectar coming from the blooms,
So the tree appears to be "crying" thus, cry baby tree.
This is what I was told anyway.
Jackie
lol I would have thought it was named that because when you got pricked by those thorns you would "cry like a baby"...I would be! I bought one last month and couldn't remember why I bought it-now I know-its so pretty.
It is pretty. And very unusual. I have it in a pot and drag it into the garage each winter, back out in the spring. It does great this way. It is getting rootbound so I will have to transplant it after it stopped blooming. It also roots really easy.
Ok it's called a cry baby tree I believe because it weeps; that is liquid drips from the flowers, although I have not noticed that so much w/ mine ( Cassia Alota (Allota ?) is worse)- there are several cultivars and several colors, the red is the most dramatic. I don't know about you rylaff but I never feel that my camera captures the intensity of the red! It also comes in a pink and possibly white? (not certain of that). I have 2, one is a cross and it doesn't seem to care about anything, just blooms like crazy. The other, which is the native has not bloomed yet, planted both last year and they were about the same size. If any of you ever get to "The Enchanted Forest" in Richmond, TX they have a huge one out front that is not to be believed. They form multi trunk trees, but Enchanted Forest pruned it to a beautiful single trunk specimen!. I made a cutting for my daughter of the one that blooms so readily and she has just left it in the pot, it looks like a stick in dirt, but it's blooming! This is a photo of mine.
April
They form multi trunks? Mine only has one trunk. I have several cuttings rooting now. I just love this plant.
You are lucky, both my varieties have multi trunks...I love it too, I trim and prune to try to get/keep the shape I need.
The color is beyond belief and you can't help but look at it! The 1st big one that I saw made my jaw drop and I began to drool! LOL.
They call them "Bombero" trees here, or fireman's hats.(Bombero is Spanish for fireman)
Debbie, I know they're hardy in Hattiesburg, MS so they should be hardy for you too.
I have heard them called Fireman's Hat here.
pretty cool.
Vossner
Have you been to Enchanted Forest, not Enchanted Garden, although they are somehow related? Both are good sources of lots of cool stuff.
April
Could we be talking about two different Erythrinas here? I am not familiar with the Crista Galli but my Bidwillii has multiple trunks and strongly resembles the picture in April's post. This one is often called Fireman's Hat too.
I've seen Crista galli with multiple trunks and also Bidwillii. There is a nursery here with a beautiful Crista galli with mutiple trunks(which he also called fireman's hat)
Bidwillii to me seems redder than Crista galli, but I could be wrong. There is a nursery in SA that has the most gorgeous Bidwillii I've seen. I have a picture of it somewhere.
Is this the plant? I must admit, I've never heard of it....I've learned something today!
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/56753/index.html
Yes Debbie, that's the one.
I have both Crista Galli and E. Bidwillii; my E. Bidwillii just blooms and blooms it's amazing. So far my Crista galli has not, but I have faith. The trunks of my Crista galli are more substantial and there are only 2; my Bidwilli has more trunks and they are less substantial; both were about the same size when I bought them and both are still about the same size now, maybe the Crista galli is a little bigger.
Cool, rylaff! I bought some seeds to try.
:) Donna
April, I live about 3 mi from Enchanted Gardens. E. Gardens and E. Forest are owned by the Lendermann family. I don't go to the Forest that often but you are not the first to tell me they have great deals, I guess since Betty Lenderman spends her days at the Forest, more happens at that location.
I like them both, but seem the Forest has more unusual stuff.
April if you make a trip to E Gardens, pls let me know. It would take me 3 minutes to meet ya there. I may be sweatie and not very glamorous looking but I don't believe gardeners care too much about that, lol
LOL, too funny, sweatie and not glamorous is the norm for me!!! LOL. Are you home during the week? I need to make a trip, maybe we can figure out a good time!
I have both bidwilli and cristi-galli. The bidwilli is MUCH redder than the cristi-galli is. The herbacea is pretty close to the bidwilli in color, but it only blooms once a year, and the bidwilli blooms constantly all summer long. The herbacea is also not a tree (actually a ditch weed)..no kidding! That's where I got mine.
'Only problem with bidwilli is that it is sterile, and hard as the devil to get to root.
If anybody here has had any luck with rooting them, please share your secret with me.
Here's a pic of herbacea.
Kay
yes, i'm home . sending nyou dmail
I have tried hardwood, softwood, water, soil and everything else under the sun and still can't get a Bidwilii to root. There must be some trick.......
I made a bidiwilii cutting last summer for my daughter. Now I know that I did several and only one survived but man is it hardy. Just did one more for Debbie if she really wants it. I don't do anything special, green to semi-green cutting, rooting hormone, water w/ H2O & Superthrive, rarely mist & try not to keep too wet- that seems to be my biggest problem- it's the monkey on my back. LOL. Will tell you if this one takes. By semi-green I mean that when you stick it in the dirt/potting soil it should be able to stand up on it's own- if that makes sense.
April
I am on my way to try it - again.
Kay yours is gorgeous!
:) Donna
Sure do April...Hey do you need fresh tomatos?
Debbie
need you ask? love tomatoes!!!!