Bauhinia monandra

[ahosey01]

Is this comparable in hardiness to Bauhinia variegata or purperea or blakeana or is it just uber sensitive?

[Tomas]

In my experience much less cold hardy, I never succeeded in getting them through their first winter. Variegata grows like a weed for me.

[mnorell]

Bauhinia monandra is much more tender to cold (and long stretches of cool or chill) than I think all other cultivated members of its genus. Isn't that always the way when they're also the most beautiful...I was never able to grow them in L.A. many years ago and gave up (months of chill in winter and spring there). When I was living in the Florida Keys I finally was able to grow them without issue, and now in the Palm Springs area of California I am able to grow and flower them due to the much shorter cold season compared to the coastal zones here, but even here only in a south-facing winter suntrap.

They tend to lose most if not all leaves by February and may suffer tip dieback when young, but they do flower nicely once they get going, really only after good heat sets in during the late spring. Most people would yank such a plant but I have loved this species for many years and feel it's very much worth its finicky nature. The good thing that you might be able to exploit in south Texas is that they can bloom at a very young age, possibly even in their first year from seed. Aside from the Blue Northers you have good winter averages and you certainly have the heat and rain there to get them off to a great start in spring. So if you have some winter protection like a greenhouse or a very sheltered position you might get it to go for a few years at a time. And it's easy to germinate the seed so not like you can't replace it after a cold winter. But I think best to treat it as a shrub and not as a tree where you are.