Texas mountain laurel—don't bloom yet!
If I could stop it from blooming, I would. I’d hold it up for just four more weeks until the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling so the out-of-towners could see and smell it.
As much as Texas bluebonnets, Sophora secundiflora represents Austin to me. When my husband and I flew from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Austin one early March weekend back in 1994 to house-hunt, I saw the Texas mountain laurel in bloom for the first time and could hardly believe it was real. A small, evergreen tree with glossy, dark-green leaves and twisting, chocolate-colored trunks, its fragrant purple flowers cascade from the ends of its branches like clusters of grapes.
And the fragrance! Like grape Kool-Aid or grape soda—a perfect match for the rich, purple clusters. Heavy and sweet on warm spring days, the fragrance brings back memories of childhood summers. My mountain laurel is still pretty young (they’re slow growers) and a little gangly from being shaded by the now-deceased vitex. I can only hope that it will mature into a tree like the one pictured above, which I spotted outside a movie theater last spring.
The Texas mountain laurels will be finished by the time the Spring Fling attendees arrive. But with a little rain and a little luck, the bluebonnets will be tinging the roadsides blue, and that’s good too.
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Too late! All over town the Texas mountain laurels are dripping with blossom. I don’t remember ever seeing such a spectacular season. Apparently they like more water during the summer than Austin normally provides. I’ll have to check my notes to see if last spring gave a poor showing since the summer of 2006 we were in the middle of a drought.
It does seem to be an excellent year for them. You have one of the biggest Texas mountain laurels I’ve ever seen, MSS. How does it look (and smell!)? —Pam
That is absolutely beautiful! I wonder if they have those here in Tyler? I’ve only lived here for three years. Perhaps I’ve missed them?
Brenda
My guess is you’re too far north for them, Brenda. Bill at Prairie Point tells me that it gets too cold for them near Ft. Worth. Or perhaps the soil is too acidic for them in east Texas. They are right at home on the shallow, alkaline, limestone escarpments here in Austin. —Pam
I’ve been saying the same thing! My mountain laurel is fixing to bloom (hee, I said “fixing to”), and I’m hoping the flowers will be around in two weeks when my Canadian in-laws are in town to admire them.
Yours is fixin’ to bloom? I say that all the time but forget what a Southernism it is. I hope your in-laws get to see them in bloom. —Pam
Magnifique !!!
Vérone
Merci beaucoup, Vérone. Thanks for dropping by. —Pam
Beautiful! They remind me a bit of the Jacaranda flowers that we have growing in our gardens.
Now you’re pulling out the big guns. I absolutely covet a jacaranda tree, but it’s too cold here! —Pam
I saw a mountain laurel at one of the nurseries I was shopping last week. If I’d had a place to put one, it would have come home with me…
I don’t remember seeing Texas mountain laurels in Houston when I lived there, Nancy. Are they a fairly recent introduction, and do they grow well in the deep, acidic soil of southeast Texas? —Pam
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful….can’t wait to see Austin in the spring….
gail
I just wish these would be in bloom for you, Gail. But hopefully the wildflowers will put on a decent show for you guys, despite the lack of rain this winter. —Pam
While we will be missing the Texas laurel, we will be in for a treat with everything else Austin has to offer. Can’t wait to see those bluebonnets again.
Frances at Faire Garden
And I can’t wait to meet you and all the other Spring Flingers, Frances. Only four more weeks! —Pam
What a beautiful tree!
Thanks, Marie. —Pam
That is one beautiful plant! It sounds like it has the same scent as Actaea/Cimicifuga ‘Black Negligee.’ I’ll just have to wait til fall to smell that again.
That’s interesting. I would expect a fragrance a little more sophisticated than grape Kool-Aid for a plant named ‘Black Negligee’ though. 😉 —Pam
That is just beautiful!
Thanks, Nicole. —Pam
MMmmmmm I thought I was smelling something most interesting. I even like grape koolaid or I did
when my kids were young and liked to drink it. Those blossoms are just magnificent. You will
have to give us a close up of the bark. It sounds delicious. The entire plant sounds delicious,
Chocolate and grape koolaid. Yummmmy.
I did describe it in food terms, didn’t I? I’ll try to get you a picture of the bark soon, Lisa. —Pam
What? I’m not going to get to see the mountain laurels in bloom? Or get to smell them?
Oh well, whatever is blooming in Austin will be a treat for us to see and smell, as our northern winter seems to have a firm grip on everything in our gardens right now. I’m sure that will change in a few weeks, but right now, “we ain’t got nothing” in bloom so anything you have in bloom has to be better, at least in early April.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
Well, that’s good. You won’t be feeling torn about coming down, then. 🙂 —Pam
Heavenly! I can’t grow that Sophora but I can grow a different one with yellow flowers. I will have to consider that! That flower cluster is so pretty. Next time please supply the scratch and sniff version! LOL One month and counting. I hope you are leaving a few things to bloom for us out of towners!
I’d love to see your yellow Sophora. I’ve never heard of it! Please show us pics sometime. See you soon. —Pam
Love the first picture of the gorgeous blooming cluster. I’d like the scratch and sniff version too!
Me too! —Pam
I have never seen a Texas mountain laurel before, so I feel the same as you years before : I am amazed. Is that a native plant in Texas? I will have a look at Google, to find out more about it…. it is a beautiful shrub!
Yes, it is a Texas native, but of course Texas is a very large state so it won’t grow everywhere. I believe south and central Texas is its native range. I heard from a Houston blogger that it’s for sale there too, so perhaps it does OK in east Texas’s acidic soil. And I know Pam in coastal South Carolina is growing one, but she had to carry it home with her from Texas on the plane. North Texas is just too cold for these beautiful trees, and I don’t know about west Texas. —Pam
I think it is beautiful too, but I’d really like to smell the blossoms. I don’t have anything which smells like grape kool-aid. I am looking forward to the bluebonnets.~~Dee
I hope they put on a good show this year, but the prediction is for only a so-so wildflower season due to a very dry winter. But the Wildflower Center will be bursting with bluebonnets, you can be sure. —Pam
Oh, what a beauty! And what a pity I can’t grow it here… /Katarina at Roses and stuff
No, but I’m sure Sweden has its own lovely natives too, right? —Pam
What a beautiful tree. It looks like our Golden Chain tree (Laburnum) with purple instead of yellow flowers. The Sophora secundiflora also has a better shape than our Golden Chain tree. I guess they are in the same pea family so that would account for the same basic look.
I always wanted to buy a Sophora japonica, Chinese Scholar Tree or Japanese Pagoda Tree another cousin but I think your tree looks nicer though all but impossible to grow in zone 6…sigh.
It sounds as though you have some good alternatives that are more suitable to your climate. The Golden Chain tree is incredible looking. —Pam
I find it funny that you wish to slow down your blooming time, while we are here in 18 degree temps with snow on the ground waiting for our bloom times to speed up. There is a light at the end of our long winter tunnel: It should hit 50 degrees this weekend! Soon I’ll be able to post pictures of the garden again. Enjoy your flowers, they’re beautiful.
Ironic, isn’t it? Normally I wouldn’t be asking for a slow-down, except that I wish the Spring Flingers could see this tree in bloom. But I’m actually hoping desperately that the roses and bluebonnets will get their act together for a perfect showing on April 5th. What are the odds? 😉 —Pam
The first time I saw a texas mountain laurel – I smelled the flowers and thought ‘grape bubblicious’ – remember that gum? I have one in my South Carolina garden, perhaps the only one in the state – and it is happy and thankfully isn’t blooming yet (since cold temperatures, near freezing, are predicted for the next two nights). Yours looks gorgeous. I think it’s a great little tree, near perfect.
Yes, I remember that gum—yum! I do wonder whether you have the only Texas mountain laurel in the state of SC. I think coastal SC is the only place you could get away with it, but I’m still surprised because I would think your soil would be too acidic. I’m glad it’s doing so well for you. —Pam
My trying on the perfume scent known as Persian Lilac brought back the memory of the delicious blooming Texas Mountain Laurel bushes in my parents’ yard. I have been looking without success to find if lilac bushes and Texas Mountain Laurels are related in any way but have had not any luck to date. Neither has anyone else commented on the similarity of the two odors as far as I know.
I think they are unrelated, Jan. The Texas mountain laurel is in the pea family, interestingly enough. I’ve never smelled a lilac bush, so I can’t comment on their similarity. But the Texas mountain laurel’s grapey fragrance is one of the considerable pleasures of an Austin spring. —Pam
Very True…….Mountain Laurels are beautiful…..But only last about 3 weeks. Just wondering how do you propagate? I have the pods..but now what????
Good question, Norma. I haven’t tried. You might want to check out Jill Nokes’s excellent reference How to Grow Native Plants of Texas and the Southwest. —Pam