Mimosa Tree: Identification, Growing, Facts and Care

Contents

Mimosa Tree Identification

Mimosa Tree or can be called as Persian silk tree is native to southwestern and eastern Asia. The first time Persian silk was brought to the Middle East and Asia countries, firstly in China, is in 1785 by a famous botanist from French, Andre Michaux.
The first reason he brought it to the Middle East and Asia, it because the tree loves to grow so fast and quickly once it has a Southern Climate. He grew the tree for the first time in his botanic garden in Charleston, South Carolina. With a southern climate, mimosa tree or Persian silk grows into a vase-shaped, flat-topped tree 30 to 40 feet tall.

A Persian silk tree always attracts a lot of beautiful animals and birds, such as butterflies and also hummingbirds. The usual color of Persian silk is flesh pink to white or yellow.

Mimosa Tree Image And Pictures

Mimosa Tree Facts

The fact is nobody knows that the pink color on the Mimosa tree or Persian silk appears only in late spring and early summer, not since the beginning the flowers unfurl. The other fact is the tree rarely grows more than 40 feet or around 12 meters.

The other fact is mimosa tree is difficult to eradicate. Once it controls an area, it’s difficult to move it since the tree will colonize the property. Also, it produce thousands of seeds annually and they can be spread by birds or other wildlife into nature easily so this can cause a disturbing colonize of mimosa trees in any area.

When To Plant Mimosa Tree

The best time to plant Mimosa is by spring or in fall. Mimosa trees (Persian Silk) need a sunny spot and also shelter from the wind.

Where To Grow

For this one, you can easily grow Persian silk in outdoor space like the backyard or put them in a pot, where you can easily put them on your deck, balcony, or terrace. The special thing is once the first flowers from Persian silk are unfurled, you will smell the lovely fragrance from it all over the surrounding area.

How To Grow A Mimosa Tree

Mimosa trees or Persian silk will grow very well in such a small pot or even a large garden. They will grow properly as long as you provide them proper growing conditions. The only thing that needs to be concern about growing a mimosa tree is to not use any pot that sits in a water retention device. This because it needs a drain freely at the bottom of the pot to keep running the water off.

To grow the tree, you have to start with a smaller pot to develop the roots system and make sure that the tree gets enough sunlight because a mimosa tree requires sun to bloom perfectly. Also, the other thing is the tree need to stays sheltered from the wind as well.

To grow a perfect mimosa tree or Persian silk, will takes time. It will take around 3 – 5 years to finally you can report them in a larger pot.

For the soil part, it loves well-drained soil and you have to avoid heavy clay soil as well for it. You can use a mixed soil / well-draining potting blend. This is how you do it :

You have to blend between sand and a half and half flower potting mix and peat.
After that, you can use a few handfuls of compost on the top of the mix
If the pot is too large for the mixed soil you made, the best decision is to not do repotting but you can do the topdress instead for that.

How To Care Mimosa Tree

For this part, watering and fertilizer are two things that all the trees need. Mimosa Tree or Persian Silk, they must get watered very often especially if you put them on the pots because the pots dry up so much faster.

For the watering, very often doesn’t mean you put a lot of water on it every time you watering them. You have to do it regularly for that. For the fertilizer, you have to use a natural fertilizer every two weeks during the spring and summer for the nutrients of the silk.

The other thing is pruning. For this one, once you properly settled for the roots system, you don’t have to take care of that much of your mimosa tree or Persian silk. The only thing you have to take note of is the tree might have a late deep frost once it’s full bloom. If you give a mimosa tree regular care, the pruning will restrain the rapid growth of the tree itself.

How To Trim A Mimosa Tree

To trim a mimosa tree, the best decision to do it is once on the blooming season for the tree itself. There is the reason why the blooming season is the best time, it’s because if you do it in other seasons, you won’t have a single flower from your mimosa tree / Persian silk.

To trim it, you can start with cutting the branches that didn’t grow in the right direction of the property or area. That’s all you need to do.

In a case in winter you see the branches didn’t grow well or broken, you can directly cut them off.