Around here, they look about the same in September as they do in warmer months. The leaves stay green until they are dropped, so no fall color on this weak-wooded, invasive species.

They go from green to dead, no in-between.

I have never noticed any fall color on Mimosas, but they sure are ugly during the winter with those big seed pods, and there's thousands of them.

The summer effect is the thing, except for whatever winter interest the branching structure generates. Late to leaf out, quick to shut down in fall it's almost a one note tree.

I agree, no fall color. The leaves turn crispy and fall off. Around here, the seed pods don't hang on the tree in the winter, and open grown specimens provide a nice silhouette IMHO.

I have a seed grown one in a pot, with no plans to plant it in the ground. It flowered for the first time this year (it's third year), with the flowers spread over about 7 weeks. Strangely, not a single pod formed.

Alex

In the high desert of Calf. No fall colour the only saving grace you don't have to rake the leaves.

There's an Albizia julibrissin down the road from me which I noticed for the first time this fall. I was waiting for it to turn some nice color after the end of October, but amazingly it stayed green even when most other trees had dropped their leaves. It finally turned brown the other week. I think it looks nice when there's a bright green deciduous tree in your yard when everything else is yellow, red, or leafless. I have some seedlings that I grew from a favorite A. julibrissin of mine that I got to know in Virginia this summer, so hopefully next fall I'll have some of my own little green trees when everything else is bare.

With that screen name, I would expect that kind of "rah, rah" comment. There are plenty of evergreen trees to choose from, but go ahead and enjoy your extra week of "bright green deciduous" tree if you want but don't expect to have "green trees when everything else is bare" from that tree.

No need to be rude. It's just a tree species that I enjoy. The original poster just asked about what the fall colors are, and I wanted to mention my experience. I thought it was nice to see some green leafy foliage during the cold days up north here. I wasn't suggesting anyone should plant Albizias just to have green fall foliage.

Oh, sorry if you thought I was rude. Sarcastic was more what I was going for.

Here they look to me as though caught by surprise each fall. To get an additional, foliage-based feature out of the species probably better to plant a purple-leaved form.

If you must.

Actually, I have a few pictures I can share (took them last fall). As you'll see, its not much... as other posters mentioned, generally they are green until hard freeze, and then just fall off, more or less, but they're not "completely" colorless.

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Bett julibrissin. I have three mimosas planted here in Portland, Me. One is about 25 feet tall and was covered this summer with flowers and now has the rattling pods on it which I enjoy the sound of on a breezy day. I like the look of them in the winter, with the pods. I would suggest though, that if you plant one you should get the hardier variety, 'ernest wilson' ; I got mine from Forestfarm mail order out in Oregon. They will survive temperatures down to -15F . Don't let the negative comments dissuade you from planting one either, up this far North, they're not going to be invasive for any seeds that do sprout are most likely going to be killed off in winter anyway. Btw, I like your screen name!

Thanks for comment! I've been thinking about how mine will last the winter here. It generally doesn't get too bad out here, so I'm hoping the ones I have will be ok up here in CT. So far I've seen 2 yards with Albizias in them, one family hadn't planted theirs, so they don't know the variety and I haven't talked to the other household. I don't know what variety the tree was that I got my seeds from, so it'll be a surprise whether they make it. If they don't then yeah, I may end up getting one of the cold hardy varieties and I'll keep my other ones as houseplants.

Famartin those are the best foliage pics I have seen!

I politely disagree with your statements about the seedlings. In missouri they are displacing redbuds and dogwoods all over the place. There is quite the colony along I270 in Hazelwood and a couple miles east of it our new Kudzu infestation.

Also why would your forest farm mail order transplant be hardy but not a germinated seed?

because the seedling plants even from the hardy 'ernest wilson' have to be protected for a winter until they get some girth on the trunk.

what type of protection worked?

The protection for my mimosas was wrapping the trunk as far up as possible, without making it too top heavy, with a couple layers or so of newspaper and then pressing aluminum foil over the newspaper, starting at the base of the tree with layer of foil and moving up trunk in sort of a roof-shingle fashion, with another layer of foil, so as to at least keep some of the moisture out. All sounds complicated trying to explain it, but it's not at all difficult to do. And once the tree gets some size to it, (usually by the next summer) it can pretty well winter sub-zero temps..well to a point anyway, I see that you're from Iowa, so the air must be pretty dry and dessicating during the winter, but with the protection, even the dry air shouldn't be a problem. Mine HAVE had some minimal damage, usually no more than an inch or two from the previous year's growth though. Oh, and I do throw snow around them as well for some added insulation. I read all about that protection with the foil from a book entitled: "How to Prune Almost Anything" There was a chapter on albizia and the wrapping with the foil was suggested to get new trees established. Seems to have worked for me. Those trees have been through at least -16F and other nights almost as cold and they've only had just a little damage during the colder winters. I believe the foil must keep the sun from overheating them after a really cold night and thus damaging the bark on the younger trees. Once the wood goes through a couple growing seasons or so, it must get thick enough to protect itself?? Any comments on that one?

That sounds impressive. The Wilson I've had for a few years always dies back. It almost seems worthwhile for me to try protecting it, but I just have too many plants to give special care, so its more like survival of the fittest around here. Maybe when I've gotten all the completely hardy stuff for this location, I'll try protection methods for some of the dieback trees.

lkz5ia, does your mimosa die all the way back to the ground each winter? Just wondering. If it does then I imagine it comes back each year with several sprouts, growing about 3 feet or so?

Thanks, toronado3800 :-)

Hello davealju, you are right, it basically dies to the ground, maybe couple inches above and grows up to about that height each summer. It has been in my nursery for years, so somewhat got crowded in there, so maybe didn't get as much sun it needed. But this spring, I finally moved it to a more permanent spot with lots of sun, so I'll see how it does in that spot.

99% of the time Albizia does nothing, but I do see at least one somewhere every fall that has a little yellow like Famartin's pic. Actually this has been a decent fall season for other, usually nondescript, species. I saw many Chinaberries with bright yellow and even a few pecan.

uploading these since my links above are dead, for rubyhum's benefit

uploading these since my links above are dead, for rubyhum's benefit

uploading these since my links above are dead, for rubyhum's benefit

Yours in NV has tints of orange red. Very nice. Thanks!!

Thats actually pretty decent.

Mine is a Wilson too. Planted bare root spring of 2013 as a 4ft or so single trunk. Died to the ground after our awesome winter in Chicago (no winter protection), but came back pretty well. Starting to color a little, but it seems like it's almost still growing with the rain and cooler temps we've been having. I seem to remember it turning yellow last year about the same time the Ginkgo did.

Thanks rubyhum, but they are neither mine nor in Nevada. The yellower one was along PA Route 33 near Allentown, Pennsylvania. The first reddish one was along a road in rural Hopewell Township, New Jersey while the second reddish one was in a suburban development near my parents' home in Ewing, New Jersey.

This post was edited by famartin on Thu, Oct 16, 14 at 19:44

Oh, and all 4 photos were taken in late October and early November back in 2009.

I really enjoy seeing photos of Julibrissin trees. This is my favorite tree, a real rarity in my area. Thanks again for taking the time to post them.