I would bet so. There is a chocolate one that is one of the most unique things I have seen.

They're invasive here though so I do not own one. Not sure about in Texas, be careful.

yes, it is Albizia julibrissin

Very invasive in AL.

I bought the chocolate one two years ago. It is stunning. But before I planted it, I rechecked the tag and discovered it was only marginally hardy to the KC area, so I returned it. I was so disappointed, but my pal who works at the garden center said I was being too careful. He had planted one at his home and told me he'd report on its progress the following spring.

His didn't make it through winter.

Albizia julibrissin has become a significant environmental problem here in Tennessee. The Tennessee EPPC classifies it as a "Severe Threat" (their worst rating). I can only imagine how bad it must be in Texas. I would no sooner buy and plant one of them than I would kudzu or tree of heaven hell.

Here is a link that might be useful: TexasInvasives.org Listing

This post was edited by brandon7 on Sun, Oct 27, 13 at 21:32

In east Texas, not as bad as the tallow tree, but still evasive. You should be seeing little pop ups all over the yard starting in spring through summer. I just mow over them, but in flower gardens, they can be a pain in rear. They can be a pain to pull up. You have to think about the neighbors too. They are more brittle than any tree I have come across. They grow extremly fast, horrible litter, ugly fall color. Id say the one in my parents yard puts on about 6+ ft of new growth a year. On the positive side, the are very drought tolerant and you cant kill them. I use my bare hands when i want to snap the branches (very large) to put them in the garbage.

I have a question. (I haven't been in gardenweb in quite a while and couldn't remember how to post a question, so I just came to a thread and logged in. LOL

anyway, I have a marigold that I saved last October and kept it growing and flowering on and off all winter in a sunny window. Now it's almost the end of April and it's still alive and still flowering. Does anyone know if it'll be able to go back outside this summer and still bloom all summer? I thought that marigolds were annuals but this one seems to think it's a perennial. Thanks for any feedback. Btw, the pic is of a mimosa tree that I've had growing in Maine for almost 21 years. I keep it in the garage over the winter. It's not at all invasive here.

How in the world do you get that back into the garage every year? Looks way big.

I have it growing in the ground and just dig it up in the late fall, saving as much of the root ball as I can. I have several other mimosas ..the Ernest Wilson variety actually growing in the ground, They can be seen in the background. The one I dig up is actually only about 4 and a half feet tall. It's not difficult at all to dig it up. I'll try to post a pic of one of the Ernest Wilsons in bloom..

davealju, your trees are gorgeous. I'm amazed and impressed that you dig that one up every year. If you had a blog or another post with photos of the process, I'm probably not the only one who'd enjoy it. Anyway, kudos on the effort and the result! I'd do the same if I had an unheated garage to store such a beautiful specimen.

Good for dave. As with all chemicals (which are everything in the world besides the vacuum of space, for those of you who think you eat "chemical free" food) the dose makes the poison. And in the case of Albizia, they _are_ pretty, even if they are invasive in warm areas.

I go back to what I've said about some other invasives though. I've never seen Albizia in an undisturbed area in the DC/Baltimore/Philly corridor. They only invade urban landscapes, railway embankments, highway verges, etc. Areas already disturbed by human activity.

Thank you for the compliments about the mimosas. They are quite a sight here in a zone where they aren't supposed to be growing....the Ernest Wilson hardy ones I mean. That one that I dig up each fall is really easy to get out of the ground because it's planted in a raised flowerbed, so digging it up is really easy.

"I've never seen Albizia in an undisturbed area in the DC/Baltimore/Philly corridor. They only invade urban landscapes, railway embankments, highway verges, etc. Areas already disturbed by human activity."

You could substitute any number of other species commonly described as "invasive" for Albizzia in that paragraph.

I have a couple of seed-grown E.H. Wilsons currently growing in my yard. The largest (about three feet tall) got knocked down to a couple of inches during last year's harsh winter. I doubt anyone will have to worry about invasiveness here. And it's likely that disease risk will be much lower as well.

Now if I could just do something about the effing Ailanthus and multiflora roses...