Bird of Paradise Ornamental Tree

Several years ago I recognized a seedling that came up in my pasture as a summer blooming, water thrifty small tree. I potted it up and waited until I created a good spot in my garden to plant it. About a year ago I figured out where I wanted it. Even though it was a potted plant that had enough time to create a root ball in the pot, the soil was very loose and planting the little tree did not go as smoothly as it should have for a plant in a pot. It did suffer a fair amount of die back but has come out pretty well this year. It even put out blooms that I have been enjoying for most of the summer.

As I was thinking about writing a blog post about this plant, I realized I really did not know much about it other than having seen it in a few locations where its drought tolerance had been touted. I knew a common

name for the tree was Bird of Paradise. I looked for it in the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower plant database and did not find it. This concerned me because I had always guessed it was a native. Since it did come up as a seedling, when I did not see it listed as a native, I was concerned about its status. I then checked the Texas Invasives database and was relieved to see that it was not listed there. TexasSmartScape lists the plant as being good for North Texas and it listed the scientific name, Caesalpinia gilliesii, so I could do some more research on the

ornamental tree. It turns out the tree is a South American native from Argentina. Even though it has been blooming all summer, it has produced less than a handful of seed pods. Just to be on the safe side, I will be removing any pods that do form to make sure my tree does not spread itself in the local ecosystem.

It is a lovely ornamental tree with lacy, mimosa like green foliage and exotic yellow flowers with crazy, red thread like stamens. It does have very low water requirements and I am glad to have it as part of my garden.

Hot, Dry Season Garden Beauties

Do your flowers fade when the days get hot and the rains recede? I have two low water suggestions for you that take the heat and keep on blooming to help you bridge the floral gap between spring and fall during a hot, dry summer.

Frogfruit is native in the southern half of the United States. It is adaptable to a wide range of conditions. If you don't want it to overrun your garden however, I suggest that you don't add ANY supplemental watering once it is established. Lots of small butterflies and bees are attracted to its diminutive flowers. You can see flower clusters of varying ages in the photo. The longer a flower cluster blooms the taller its base becomes as new flowers are added to the top of the older faded ones. Frogfruit is evergreen to deciduous depending on your winters. Mine is usually deciduous because its leaves are frost sensitive. It makes a nice ground cover and will survive and give you some interest in narrow, hot beds adjacent to pavement where many things will not thrive.

Do you need something that makes more of a statement than a ground cover? Hummingbird bush might be just the thing for you. It does not begin to flower until the temps match the multitude of fiery reddish orange flowers that cover this shrub much of the summer. As the common name implies, hummingbirds love this plant as a nectar source, so you might want to plant one where you can enjoy the show from inside your air conditioned home. More info on this deciduous shrub can be found in my Texas Stars facebook photo album.