Pictured above is the mimosa tree that existed in front of the house when i bought the property. It is shaded by the cedar tree that i call the “laundry tree” because it holds one side of the laundry line. Its been completely dug out of the ground by an australian shepherd and replanted once as well as run over by a fedex truck (the reason the gate to the driveway is always closed now…those people are in a hurry and i dont trust their driving skills and depth perception when they are apt to meet a ridiculously impossible quota…just saying). Anyways, the tree has survived regardless of all the things that should have killed it. It is beautiful in the spring when it becomes covered in bright pink balls with yellow points at the end of each tiny fuzzy hair. It also becomes host to some tiny green insects that make great fish bait at some point each year, if anyone doesnt want to buy worms in a cup at walmart. They are beautiful colorful trees that are wildly drought resistant in an otherwise unforgiving landscape. They also don’t grow very quickly. They stay short and stubby and don’t require very many resources. As a result their roots pose less of an immediate threat to nearby structures. The only downside to them is that they’re naturally more bush like than tree shaped. If you want them to grow as a tree you kind of need to trim and shape them constantly during spring and summer.
Every year i go out there with the sheers and trim away all the new growth that has sprung up at the base or in the mid section where it looks awkward. I try to pick larger branches as the parent branches that i will allow others to sprout from and trim all the thinner parent branches in the mid section away. I then trim the tops of the new upper growth so that it looks of even height from left to right. Like the pin oak, the larger mimosa tree is just a serious of smaller trees standing together. However, out here, must trees with full coverage all the way around are. If they’re healthy and happy you leave them there and let them all split the resources because lone trees have a harder time surviving due to the high winds we get at times that could be consistent with a small hurricane but are not part of one. Standing next to one another, in high wind situations they hold each other up and prevent the trunks and branches from bending far enough to snap. Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
So i would love to have more mimosa trees but there are a few factors that have contributed to the death of the young mimosa spawns this tree has put out each year. First of all, when they are newborn trees their roots are very shallow. They lack the drought resistance their parent has achieved and if watered once and never again they will likely perish before they’ve started. The sun can be just as deadly. In super hot Texas, a mimosa sprout has a drastically better chance of making it when it has sprung up in a location shaded by another older tree. Thirdly, these puppies always spring up where i have to mow. When they are shorter than the grass around them, they’re near impossible to purposely mow around in order to keep them. They blend in with the tall grass and they get mowed into oblivion with the lawn mower.
this year all of the elements aligned for 2024 to be the year of the mimosa volunteers. Ive been finding them everywhere! A few of them sprouted in places sheltered by older trees, outside of or on the edge of the areas i mow with the lawn mower, and during a season where it rains once a week. They have now gotten tall enough to stand above the grass when it needs to be mowed and i think these ones are here to stay. We are going to end up with a property covered in little pink trees. Ive gotten to work trimming most of them into a tree like shape but i left the one in the dog run alone as it is growing in pretty significant shade of some adult cedar trees and void of enough sunlight it has become long and unruly, stretching its sparsely decorated bare arms in all directions and leaning on the ground in an attempt to soak up every last drop of sunlight it can get through those cedar branches. I decided it is working hard enough to survive, it needs all its limbs for resource gathering and would not likely be up for a shaping type trim.
With all my oaks and cedars in some stage of disease or death im glad to see something is successfully procreating on my property. It may end up looking like a waste land but it will be a wasteland with little pink decorative balls everywhere. So there you go. Lemonade out of lemons.
The offspring of the mimosa tree pictured above are those trees that are now tall enough to be sticking around come drought or flood, lawn mower or dogs. The ones picture below have potential as they are all located away from the area i mow and beneath an older tree or shrub. However, only time and weather will show if these trees will survive. They’re not tall enough to be certain about their fate yet.
If you want to see the beginning of a mimosa tree, the picture below is what it looks like. Though few survive to adulthood, they procreate much like the cedars. they put out an abundance of seeds and almost all of them sprout. You have to respect the efficiency of the process for these two trees when you’ve got squirrels actually planting oak seeds for it and like 2 acorns out of every 200 the squirrel forgets about actually sprout.
They look somewhat like various desert mesquite plants/trees.
We have mesquite trees too. I do think they look very similar when the mimosas are not in bloom. I got really mad last year because they cleared a field of mesquite trees and wild grape vines to build a middle school that looks like a concrete prison, displacing cows, deer, and wild turkeys. The machines were huge and they sucked the full grown mesquite trees in one side and spit them out the other side as mulch. The song birds had nests in the trees and they dive bombed the big towering machines until there wasnt a single tree left. I took an hour and a half lunch break to sit and watch them. A lot of us did. The most heartbreaking thing was those birds trying to save their eggs. They were obliterated and when the parent birds were exhausted and defeated they went to light on a tree and rest and…there werent any. Not a single tree still stood. The hopeless birds landed in the dirt and sat there resting and exhausted as the towering machines drove very near to them and in some cases ran them over. I wanted to make a post about it but i never could get the words together. It was my nap spot. Right in front of the mesquite trees and wild grape vines. Sometimes id wake up on lunch break to see a cow head staring at me through the window, chewing on something. Im not sure if they were there to eat the grass or the mesquite beans, but they existed in harmony with the deer and the wild turkey that called that field of mesquites home. After everything was raw dirt the turkeys ran into the road. People got out of their cars and took pictures. I was beyond angry. I didnt care about the middle school. I wanted the mesquite trees back, but i had so many bitter words for the over a year long process…i found it best to abandon the task of making it a coherent and pleasant post. Its just one of those topics i cant do justice because im too in the middle of it and angry and bitter about expansion and “progress” and society’s needs and such. I need trees and turkeys and songbirds with nests.