When we had practically no rain for a couple of years, the desert mimosas fared extremely well.
I purchased 60 seedlings from the Las Vegas State Nursery for Arbor Day in 2014 (I think) to give away at our Gardening Club meeting. I had 20 Mimosas, Arizona Cypress and … I’ll update when I remember.
I had so many trees, had some in pots for a year or more, didn’t know where to plant them anymore. As the gophers had destroyed our “lower garden” and we got the neighbor lot in 2014 for the new orchard garden, I planted about 5 mimosas, all survived and are about 4 ft tall.
8/20/2022 Mimosa and Cholla
Fortunately, the volunteers I hosted several years ago did a great job removing the failed hugulkultur remains, cleaning up, and beautifying the lower garden. Visitors have pitched their tents there as it’s at the bottom of the property, with level ground and more sheltered from our ferocious winds than the up by the orchard.
In the background, you see a little water on the road, another flash flood took my road out for the 3rd time this summer. 4WD access only.
I bought the mimosas because I expected them to have showy pink flowers as I remembered from California. I was so disappointed when I first saw the tiny yellow flowers on my mimosas. They looked like most desert plants, small and yellow.
While I’m sure I watered them when I first transplanted them, I was way too busy with the orchard garden, greenhouse etc. to water in the lower garden. A few times I watered the Arizona Reeds along the fence. but most died anyway. I had moved a few to where they get watered more often.
8/20/2022 Hoophouse Mimosa
The center of the hoophouse is about 12′ tall. Until a year or two ago it had a plastic cover and it was hot as hell in summer. I also rarely watered, the Chinese Apricot in the background finally died this August. I thought I had watered a lot this summer and I hoped the monsoon rains would be enough since I was so busy.
In July 2021 the back of the hoophouse blew out when we finally got some rain again after about 2 years of next to no summer and hardly any winter rains. I’ve been planning on moving the hoophouse to the new lots I got for a demonstration site on how and what to plant in our continually worsening climate.
The Mimosas are definitely one of my top 5 recommend trees for resiliency and drought tolerance.
Mimosas grow fast when watered.
Without water, they won’t grow, but still stay green. Not many plants can survive summer heatwaves with 113F day after day, very low humidity, and no water. The native prickly pear cacti DIED without irrigation.
8/28/2022 Mimosa Seedlings — planted 7/26 after 48 hr soak and scarred.
Since we finally got a little rain again, the natives and the mimosas flowered this year. I found many seedpods in the hoophouse and decided to finally grow mimosas.
The seedpods were so hard, I had to use pliers to get the seeds out, and then I used a nail file to scare the seeds. It’s very time-consuming, but I enjoyed it and made watching Netflix less of a waste of time. I could have added some nutrients like kelp to the water before soaking for 48 hours, but I forgot.
I planted the seeds into one of the hydro tubs into native 1/2″ screened dirt. It’s time to transplant into 1 gal pots and I hope I can make time soon.
In fall they should be planted into the ground.
I’m not going to post about medicinal and culinary uses until I know what EXACTLY I’m growing, have to try to find out from the Nevada State Nursery or find my invoice.
Here is the Pink Mimosa I remember from California:
https://dengarden.com/landscaping/Mimosa-trees-facts-information
The Wiki on Mimosas and HUNDREDS of species:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimosa
Mimosa is a genus of about 420 species of herbs and shrubs, in the mimosoid clade of the legume family Fabaceae. The generic name is derived from the Greek word μῖμος (mimos), an “actor” or “mime”, and the feminine suffix -osa, “resembling”, suggesting its ‘sensitive leaves’ which seem to ‘mimic conscious life’.[1][2]
It’s a legume, a nitrogen fixer, making it especially desirable.
I am NOT concerned about our Mimosa being invasive in our climate.
Not a single seedling has sprouted since 2014, not even in the hoophouse.
I wish I had planted Mimosas into the orchard garden as overstory trees to shade the fruit trees.
For so many years I’ve been looking for a suitable tree that will survive our cold winters (occasionally single digits) and thrive in the heat and wind. Looking at the hoophouse picture, that’s the tree.
Better late than never …
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