Apartment Garden Blues (Blog): Jacaranda Blooms
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- Published on Friday, June 21 2013 17:53
- Written by Alexandra Martin
My favorite tree has to be the jacaranda. The best part about these plants is that they bloom with spectacular tubular purple flowers twice a year (the spring bloom is generally much nicer than the fall bloom). Jacarandas are commonly seen here in California, but they don’t do well in most of the country (except for other warm climates, like Florida). I took a walk through a local park about three years ago and collected a couple seed packets from the jacaranda trees there. Tossed the seeds inside of the hard, dry packet into a plant container, and just waited to see what would happen. It was a little experiment I was doing that led to a whole bunch of trees. (I did this with a few different trees – lemon, peach, avocado, pines, etc.)
I was pleased to see when the seeds sprouted and grew slowly, looking like little mini ferns for the first year or so, and then they grew into teeny tiny trees. I pruned them a bit to make them grow upward and look like a tree, rather than a bush, and some grew tall, and some stayed stunted.
Just today I was watering the plants, and when I was checking out my lemon tree flowers, I noticed some flower buds on one of the small jacaranda trees! I’ll post a picture when (or if ) they bloom.
It’s very exciting to grow a plant that doesn’t flower or produce fruit for several years. Once that day comes when you see a flower bud, it’s like all of your hard work was worth it.
And now I’m dreaming of the day when all of my jacarandas will bloom. Wow!
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Alexandra Martin is a professional writer from Southern California who grows vegetables, herbs, lots of aloe vera and one giant Boston fern in her balcony garden. She also grows dracaena, pothos and English ivy indoors. She loves traveling and birdwatching in addition to gardening.
