Cassia brewsteri (Leichhardt Bean) from Australia

[Hillizard]

My very small potted Cassia brewsteri (orig. from Australian Native Plants in Ventura, CA) has decided to flower this year for the first time. If it's even a fraction of what a mature tree looks like in full bloom (picture from the Australian Botanic Garden in Mount Annon), I'll be very satisfied. Trees of this species are grown in L.A. County ( https://ucanr.edu/sites/HodelPalmsTrees/files/225309.pdf ), but probably not common in NorCal where I am. I kept mine outdoors through the winter, up against the east-facing sunroom wall but with no overhead protection. I'll repot it after the flowers fall.

[Peter]

Wow-that's hard to believe!  I just planted my small 1g in the ground and figured I'd have to wait about 10 years for flowers-maybe not!

[Hillizard]

45 minutes ago, Peter said:

Wow-that's hard to believe!  I just planted my small 1g in the ground and figured I'd have to wait about 10 years for flowers-maybe not!

Peter: Once your plant forms some woody stems in a year or two, you may get blooms! Fingers crossed! I'll post a picture if/when the flowers open on mine.

[Hillizard]

On 4/23/2021 at 12:07 PM, Hillizard said:

Peter: Once your plant forms some woody stems in a year or two, you may get blooms! Fingers crossed! I'll post a picture if/when the flowers open on mine.

As promised, here's what my C. brewsteri looked like in bloom last year. This year it bloomed again, but not as impressively. I think the cold spell we had in late spring set it back. A nice small tree that will flower when quite young.

[Peter]

What a beauty-I joined the Huntington for the first time in years this year in part so I didn't miss their 50 yr old brewsterii blooming, only to have it take the year off this year, except for a few flowers.  Consolation was the equally old Tomentella got completely covered in yellow blooms.

[Hillizard]

My Cassia brewsteri bloomed well for me this month despite our recent cold, soggy winter. It has been a good performer here in the Sacto suburbs! I still keep it in a pot outdoors, next to an east-facing window. I'll need to move it up to a bigger pot after it's finished blooming. Haven't gotten any blooms from my C. leptophylla after years here in-ground.

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, Hillizard said:

 Haven't gotten any blooms from my C. leptophylla after years here in-ground.

 

🤔 Interesting... Can't be that you're too cold.. Grow / flower in San Francisco.  Grow like weeds / flower & set seed regularly in Santa Cruz  / other spots nearby ( Short but nice specimen in a planter on the N.E. the corner of Airport and Freedom Blvds in Freedom < near Watsonville > )

Some in San Jose as well w/ this one, in front of a former customer's home being the largest i know of..  Used to come into the nursery i worked at to talk about hard to find trees / other zone pushing stuff.. Nice guy, wish i stayed in touch.  Picture is from Aug of last year.   Been in the ground since -at least- 2012.  Kings peeking over the roof are his also.



2 others planted at a church i used to go to in Campbell  ..In the ground since -at least- 2013.  Planted one at my grandparents around the same time i found these but no one bothered to properly water it to get it established after i left CA.


Thornless Ceiba speciosa in front of his house.. Possibly the largest specimen in San Jose.  A neighbor had brought flowers off his tree in to the nursery to identify.. I quickly followed up by finding the tree ( s.. There were two. )  Occurred before the homeowner stopped by the nursery the following spring.  Can see the Gold Medallion in the background on the left.

[Peter]

The 50 year old tree at the Huntington was in flower last week, albeit about a week past prime.  First time for me that I had seen it-was even nicer than the C tomentella that I saw in flower last year at the same location.

[Hillizard]

On 5/30/2023 at 7:18 AM, Peter said:

The 50 year old tree at the Huntington was in flower last week, albeit about a week past prime.  First time for me that I had seen it-was even nicer than the C tomentella that I saw in flower last year at the same location.

Wow! Thanks for sharing. Looks like the winter had little effect on it! I think I'll prune mine to keep it a bit smaller! LOL

[Hillizard]

On 5/29/2023 at 11:22 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

🤔 Interesting... Can't be that you're too cold.. Grow / flower in San Francisco.  Grow like weeds / flower & set seed regularly in Santa Cruz  / other spots nearby ( Short but nice specimen in a planter on the N.E. the corner of Airport and Freedom Blvds in Freedom < near Watsonville > )

Some in San Jose as well w/ this one, in front of a former customer's home being the largest i know of..  Used to come into the nursery i worked at to talk about hard to find trees / other zone pushing stuff.. Nice guy, wish i stayed in touch.  Picture is from Aug of last year.   Been in the ground since -at least- 2012.  Kings peeking over the roof are his also.



2 others planted at a church i used to go to in Campbell  ..In the ground since -at least- 2013.  Planted one at my grandparents around the same time i found these but no one bothered to properly water it to get it established after i left CA.


Thornless Ceiba speciosa in front of his house.. Possibly the largest specimen in San Jose.  A neighbor had brought flowers off his tree in to the nursery to identify.. I quickly followed up by finding the tree ( s.. There were two. )  Occurred before the homeowner stopped by the nursery the following spring.  Can see the Gold Medallion in the background on the left.

 

Nathan: Those are some great-looking trees whose pictures you posted. They must be spectacular in bloom.

The main reason my Cassia leptophylla hasn't flowered yet is probably because I prune it back severely each spring. That's the problem with trying to grow trees, other than palms,  and keeping them inside the fence line in a small backyard. With palms I can just trim any fronds that arch over into the neighbors' yards. With trees, I have to cut back entire branches. The only tree I have that takes severe pruning well and still grows and blooms like crazy is my Caesalpinia mexicana, which also provides great shade for understory palms and other plants.

My in-ground Ceiba speciosa is from seed wild-collected by Yuccado Do staff years ago in some desert area in Mexico. It's probably a lot less cold-tolerant than the horticultural cultivars of that species offered in nurseries here. After a couple of mild winters it may bloom someday, but it'll probably be a narrow-petaled white flower.

[Silas_Sancona]

1 hour ago, Hillizard said:

 

Nathan: Those are some great-looking trees whose pictures you posted. They must be spectacular in bloom.

The main reason my Cassia leptophylla hasn't flowered yet is probably because I prune it back severely each spring. That's the problem with trying to grow trees, other than palms,  and keeping them inside the fence line in a small backyard. With palms I can just trim any fronds that arch over into the neighbors' yards. With trees, I have to cut back entire branches. The only tree I have that takes severe pruning well and still grows and blooms like crazy is my Caesalpinia mexicana, which also provides great shade for understory palms and other plants.

My in-ground Ceiba speciosa is from seed wild-collected by Yuccado Do staff years ago in some desert area in Mexico. It's probably a lot less cold-tolerant than the horticultural cultivars of that species offered in nurseries here. After a couple of mild winters it may bloom someday, but it'll probably be a narrow-petaled white flower.

Apparently they can flower somewhat small, so you shouldn't have to trim much..

A couple i found in a shopping center north of the airport in San Jose. One of the cooler parts of town too ( due to how close to S.F. Bay that side of town is  > Approx. 3mi south of Alviso / S.F. Bay < )  Small, but full of pods ..One on the right esp. 





If it has white flowers / narrower petals, and native to Mex. it is probably a different sp. other than C. speciosa..  Maybe C. aesculifolia ...or it's subsp. . https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/209891-Ceiba-aesculifolia  That sp. is native throughout Mex, right up to our doorstep ..Well, about 95mi. south of Nogales in the foothills / lower slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental.  C. speciosa is strictly S. American. -though grown everywhere of course-.

Very hardy.. At least 2 large ones in Tucson that have survived lower 20s multiple times..  Mine survives my abuse, lol. Leafs out late, ..compared to the rest of the Ceiba i have, right about now though.

[Hillizard]

On 5/31/2023 at 5:57 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

If it has white flowers / narrower petals, and native to Mex. it is probably a different sp. other than C. speciosa..  Maybe C. aesculifolia ...or it's subsp. . https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/209891-Ceiba-aesculifolia  That sp. is native throughout Mex, right up to our doorstep ..Well, about 95mi. south of Nogales in the foothills / lower slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental.  C. speciosa is strictly S. American. -though grown everywhere of course-.

Very hardy.. At least 2 large ones in Tucson that have survived lower 20s multiple times..  Mine survives my abuse, lol. Leafs out late, ..compared to the rest of the Ceiba i have, right about now though.

Nathan: You're most likely correct in terms of the Ceiba species I have. Its origin makes sense via the collecting area of the Yuccado staff at the time. I've now got C. speciosa sprouting, so I'll see if that does better in my area. 😉 Judging by how some of my subtropicals are slow to leaf out this year, I must have had more than a couple of nights in the mid to low twenties!!

[richtrav]

I have a Ceiba chodatii that Yucca-do offered about 10-12 years ago. It was collected in the wild in Argentina, after Carl had moved or was in the process of moving to Salta. Many years ago I also had a Ceiba aesculifolia, which was grown from seed collected in Copper Canyon by a friend. It was extremely late to leaf out and only had leaves on it for a few months out of the year.

[Than]

On 5/30/2023 at 5:18 PM, Peter said:

The 50 year old tree at the Huntington was in flower last week, albeit about a week past prime.  First time for me that I had seen it-was even nicer than the C tomentella that I saw in flower last year at the same location.

Is this a leptophylla? Stunning!

[Silas_Sancona]

27 minutes ago, Than said:

Is this a leptophylla? Stunning!

Gold Medallion Tree( Cassia leptophylla ) :   iNat. Link: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/335464-Cassia-leptophylla

[Hillizard]

My potted Cassia brewsteri is getting ready to bloom again this year. It's probably weeks 'behind' those in SoCal! I'll repot it later, but won't test it in the ground for a couple more years.

 

[Hillizard]

On 5/12/2024 at 2:09 PM, Hillizard said:

My potted Cassia brewsteri is getting ready to bloom again this year. It's probably weeks 'behind' those in SoCal! I'll repot it later, but won't test it in the ground for a couple more years.

 

Here it is now (5.26.24) in bloom. Doesn't last that long, but I enjoy the sight!

[Hillizard]

On 4/7/2024 at 12:53 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

Gold Medallion Tree( Cassia leptophylla ) :   iNat. Link: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/335464-Cassia-leptophylla

Finally, some blooms this year on my Cassia leptophylla here in interior NorCal. It's been in the ground for at least 5 years and defoliates every winter.