Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate'

[Alicehunter2000]

Just scored an Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' today.....I'm super stoked...been wanting this tree for probably 10 years. Saw it today at a box store and snatched it up. Not cheaply I might add. For those who are unfamiliar with this cultivar of an ordinary mimosa tree...it is a patented deep purple leaf cultivar that is not supposed to be "true to seed". Therefore, the only way to propagate it is with offsets (I presume). Hence the high price. You can be sure that I will test the claim that it is not true to seed....Well here is a picture from the the parking lot of the store that I got it from...will post another pick when I put it in the ground.

Does anyone else have this cultivar?

[The Silent Seed]

I love these things!! Unfortunately they do not always come back purple after winter - and actually, about 5 to 10% of the seeds are supposed to come up purple, and another 20 to 30 percent will come up "in between" - you definitely should experiment - BUT, they rarely flower. Just a little catch

Offshoots near the base, will come up green, since these are all grafted trees. Be sure to cut off ALL green growth, which will overtake the "purple" before you know it.

I'm surprised they are selling these in Florida - How do they deal with heat?

Because it is purple, it is a very spindly, slow grower in comparison to regular ones - You will want to baby it a little.

Keep us updated!

[Alicehunter2000]

The regular green ones are naturalized here. You see them all over in the ditches etc. May be listed as an invasive...so no problems with heat. I hear planting them in full sun is the trick to keeping the color. Too much shade and they turn green. Thanks for the heads up on babying it and cutting off the green offshoots. Will plant it in a good spot and fertilize....we go plenty of water a couple of feet underground for now.....hope it doesn't turn green.

[The Silent Seed]

Yes, the green ones are very invasive and are basically taking over the South, from Maryland South, and even out to Ohio, down to Texas, and everywhere in between.

They are one of my all-time favorite trees, though, and I always have a bunch of them in pots.

The reason I said to be careful with heat / sun, is because of the color. You need to remember that they are naturally more sensitive in every aspect, over the green ones, for some reason. (For example; they are NOT cold hardy here, whereas the green ones are.) Why? They are the same species - so there's just some odd stuff going on - such as the color not persisting after a winter.

They respond well to frequent watering. You will want to give it every fighting chance you can get. There is a reason they are not everywhere by now, like the green ones. I remember when I saw my first one for sale - I'd have to say maybe 10 years ago, and was floored. It's eye candy for sure!

[Silas_Sancona]

Congrats David, very familiar with this cultivar..

Does flower but not as prolifically as the standard Mimosa.. Individual flowers are sparser, if that's a word, and more off white rather than pink. All specimens we had at the nursery I worked for before moving here also set seed.. Never noticed seedlings beneath the trees though

-Nathan-

[palmsnbananas]

Oh yeah these are really nice, I had 2 but ended up removing them due to bad branching/form etc. They grow very slowly in height and its very difficult to get a traditional tree look but yours already has a decently high straight leader which is rare for this tree so that's good. They kind of sprawl out instead of growing up. I traded mine for the traditional mimosa because i needed a large tree in that spot but I really miss the color!

[MattyB]

I've grown these from seed and none of them came up purple. Cuttings didn't take either.

[Palm crazy]

One of my favorite trees or foliage….Photo is from last summer. This small tree grow wider than it does taller.

[stefano]

There is one at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Not very tall. It is really beautiful and comes up purple every year. I saw a tall tree that has grown spontaneously on the side of a building close to the sidewalk. When I saw it in flower it looked spectacular.

[Alicehunter2000]

Roger that tree is beautiful! Such a nice color.

[Palm crazy]

Thanks David it doesn’t get that dark for me until July thats when the rainy season ends and sunny days seem endless.

I’ve seem them for sale here up to 9’ tall at the box stores and even bigger multi trunks at one garden center years ago.

The foliage is very soft you’ll be glad you got one. LOL! Give weekly watering during dry periods, should do good in your climate.

[Alicehunter2000]

[Geoff]

My tree in TArzana... was 4 years old at this point. Now I live in desert. Have a young tree, but it's shrunk to a shrub (2' tall) and looks like that's as big as it's gonna get here... cold and heat no problem but winds keep cutting it down.