Monday, March 23, 2015

Spectacular Sophora Secundiflora

Stunning, spectacular, amazing.  Words commonly used to describe many plants.  Blooms on our native Texas Mountain Laurel are all that and more this year.

Just take a look.  Spring rains have brought on the best blooms in years.






Up the street our neighbor's trees make a striking curve of blooms




Cooler weather has kept the bud-chomping bugs at bay and the light freeze we had recently didn't damage them a bit.  Dripping pendulous grape-scented blooms abound.


At least 30 years old, the Texas Mountain laurel next door is the largest on our street.  Loaded with blooms this year.


Offset by the blue Texas sky



Our view from the front porch.  You can also see the live oaks are dropping their leaves now and there is no way to keep up.


Looking back from the street this view literally stopped a couple of walkers in their tracks last evening.


Planted by the original owners of our house, these trees are now more than twenty years old.


Did I mention they are native to our area and grow wild along the creek out back?


Lilac blooms are a big deal in the northeast, this display is even better since Texas Mountain Laurel is native to Central Texas.  Commercially grown varieties were rare until recently so these blooms are much the same as those enjoyed by my great-great grandparents more than a century ago.






Yes, there are a lot of photos in this post.  I edited it down from hundreds.


I can't stop looking.  No need for an intervention, the season is fleeting and I will miss them.


I went outside just to inhale the incredible grape kool-aid scent on the evening air last night.  Fragrant and yummy yet not overpowering.



To read more about Sophora secundiflora check out my detailed post here.  I will link this to "My favorite plant" at Danger Garden later this month.

17 comments:

  1. I can just imagine how spectacular that must be in person Shirley, such a great display of blooms!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a beautiful plant! I can totally understand your enthusiasm.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Our little shrub is getting a few blossoms this year! Last year the buds were 'killed' by the early March freeze/ice we had. Love your shots!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a showstopper! Glad you're not in my neighborhood, because I'm sure I would have slammed on my brakes and caused an accident driving by! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh, you Texans! What a wealth of beauty you enjoy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a beautiful sight and smell.

    ReplyDelete
  7. WOW!!! I'd have taken hundreds of photos too. They are indeed spectacular. I looked up the plant after seeing it in a couple of other blog posts but I failed to recognize they could get so big. After another check of my Sunset guide, I do see the dimensions are listed - I guess my eyes must have glazed over that information after looking at the pictures and finding that the plant, which I don't remember ever seeing here in SoCal, is suited to my climate too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Truly a special garden event! I read a bit about these after your last post and think that they like more arid conditions than what we can give them here. We'll just have to admire yours from afar!

    ReplyDelete
  9. The Mt. Laurels are beautiful here in Austin, but yours should be crowned Best of the Best! I've also been taking loads of photos. It must have been tough to pick out your favorites. Enjoy!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wow, those trees are stunning! Definitely a benefit of living in your part of the country! Gorgeous, Shirley! It's another reason to visit San Antonio in March. I think I remember seeing Mountain Laurels on a few other Texas blogs lately, too. Your photos are gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Truly spectacular! I'd stop too if I were walking by. I'm so happy to read that you'll link up to this post for Fridays's end of month favorites, EVERYONE needs to see these photos!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yesterday I walked Pip around the neighborhood and didn't want to go home because of the lovely smell of the mountain laurels. I got more exercise than usual! Nothing says Spring like our beautiful mountain laurels! Thanks for showing them off!

    ReplyDelete
  13. As others have mentioned, the mountain laurels around the Austin area are putting on an extra spectacular showing this year as well. I think the deep purple blooms are even more gorgeous against the light "new leaf" green of surrounding live oaks, don't you? I consider the appearance of Mountain Laurel blossoms a perfect consolation as we watch the blooms on area redbuds fading away.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh I agree these are stunning...like a wisteria met a lilac.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Very nice. I did not realize you had so many around your garden. The Texas mountain laurel will even grow in Dallas. There are some rather large ones around, but they are sometimes damaged in extremely cold winters. I bought a small one a few years ago and ended up giving it away because I decided I was too impatient to plant the slow grower in my garden.

    ReplyDelete
  16. That is so pretty. Love the color. No signs of spring here in N.E. Ohio.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It's surely our most gorgeous tree, and this is the best year for blooms I've ever seen. Your post is a wonderful commemoration of the glory. I've been photographing and sniffing like crazy too.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by. To comment simply open the Name/URL option, put in your name or initials and skip the URL.