Australian and New Zealand Gardening: Flowering in April, 0 by cestrum_SEQ

cestrum_SEQ wrote:
Leisa, that does look like a Caesalpinia, possibly the red C. pulcherrima which often looks orange-ish (or perhaps has hybridised and comes in shades of reddish-orange like poincianas). See http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~20.0~Prod... which is where I bought the original seed (although they're not offering pink at the moment). I bought pink, red and yellow. Typically (for me), they got mixed up so I didn't know what colours they were until they flowered. Turned out there were no reds and only about a third were pink; the rest were yellow.

Ebay now has pink seed too, and they germinate readily so long as you soak or nick them before sowing (I think both).

My pink ones have been thru either one or two winters in the ground. They lose their leaves in the frost and there's a bit of dieback at the branch tips too. Sometimes an entire branch will die, but they regrow in spring. I've yet to get seed on these pink ones, perhaps because they flower so late. The yellow ones in contrast have--throughout summer--had their seedpods bursting open with an audible crack that I can hear from inside the house. Here's a pic of the yellow.