a crepe myrtle! Anyone here actually get to grow one and have it survive? How about a Mimosa? I have seen a couple of mimosas here in the Denver Metro, but I can't find anyone locally who sells them and mine didn't make the spring this year (it was doing OK until we had that freak cold snap in April .. it had already started to green up & everything then BOOM!).
Thanks everyone! :)
We have mimosa trees around town but we're a zone colder than you are. I think zone six is about as cold as you can reliably grow them but the USDA is supposed to revise the hardiness zone map soon. Those late spring/early fall cold snaps are the bane of mountain gardeners everywhere!
I almost forgot, try arborday.org. They have lots of info about where various trees will grow and a neat animation about how hardiness zones are changing due to global warming.
The thing you have to always bear in mind about the front range is the wacky weather that can just blow in out there on the unprotected plains. A lot of plants just can not deal with the sudden, if only short term changes
Skiekitty,
Are you sure the trees you saw were Crape Myrtle, (Lagerstroemia)? Sunset Garden Book says they really don't grow in anything less than a Sunset Zone-7. Denver is a Zone-2B. Brrrrrrr! LOL!
Mimosa or Acacia baileyana is a Sunset Zone-8. None of the acacias grow in the Denver area.
You may want to try this link for the Fort Collins Wholesale Nursery for a list of trees that grow in the area http://www.ftcollinswholesalenursery.com/ or you could check Colorado Tree Farm Nursery in Colorado Springs, they are close enough to make a pleasant day trip to look at all the trees. Maybe you can ID your mystery trees. http://www.coloradotreefarmnursery.com/ They should be having some sales here pretty quick!
Arbor Day Society has a search filter that may help you figure out what the pretty trees out in Denver really are. http://www.arborday.org/
Good luck! Keep us posted as I am always looking for nice trees to plant around the house.
OK, I can't answer your question at all, but I love your squirrel pic!
I have seen a couple of crepe myrtles in Santa Fe which has a similar climate to Denver -- but I don't think it gets quite the dramatic lows that Denver gets. I have not seen any mimosas in the west, though.
I can't grow a CM here, but am trying a Seven Son tree/shrub instead as they are supposed to look very similar to a CM, only are supposed to be more cold hardy. You might want to check them out if you can't find a CM or mimosa.
Thanks to everyone.. guess my question wasn't overly clear. I've seen Mimosas here in the D-metro but have never seen a CM. I'd really love a purple tree.. so I'm guessing that I'm gonna have to go with a purple robe locust. :)
Purple leaf sand cherry is a nice small one (Prunus x cistena)
I have a purple leaf plum which I like. It even has plums. Pink blossoms in the spring and purple leaves the rest of the year. Very pretty, grows well here. And our climate is virtually the same as yours. It has pink flowers in the spring and purple leaves all summer. The red tree in the attached photo is my purple leaf plum in the fall when it is red.
Actually, though if you have a spirit of adventure, why not plant a crepe myrtle? Somebody has to test things to see if they work. You might find out from some of the people at Denver Botanic Gardens if they think a crepe myrtle would work in your area.
I now 100% realize that I'm a dork and expect everyone to read my mind in what I'm wanting! LOL!
Anyways, what I'm actually looking for is a purple FLOWERING tree. There! :) I have a purple sand cherry shrub already, and a purple plum tree.. but I'm wanting a tree like a Royal Paulownia Tree, but that is not supposed to survive here. Anyone have a clue? I sure don't! :)
Okay, now I get it. Here is a website on Paulonia Trees.
http://www.paulowniasupply.com/paulownia_growing_zones.htm
They say they grow in zones 5-11, but they sell them. I would check out some other sources to see if that is true. Plant files only lists them as growing only in zones 8-11 and I know that isn't true because I have one on my farm in Mississippi that is zone 7b. They aren't commonly grown out west, but we don't tend to grow every thing we can grow here.
I think that the DBG has this growing there at the entrance to the Victorian Secret Garden. But I think they cut it to the ground every season (or it dies to the ground), so that would probably defeat the purpose of you getting flowers. I might have a photo but that would be on my broken computer. I hope this helps.
They cut it to the ground so that they can achieve the huge leaf size.
eastern redbud blooms a beautiful purple here.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/217/
I planted one of those in my yard 3 years ago. It lives ok, but dies back every winter, so then has to start back anew. Mine never gets very big and looks more like an overgrown squash! But I'm zone 3/4. I will be moving it this fall to my mother's as she is zone 4/5, and I am hoping it will do better there. On any given day, they are about 15-20 degrees warmer than we are. But I would try one if I were you. If I can keep one alive here, you really should have no problems! I'm going to try a magnolia tree instead. (Gotta love a challenge!) I really want a small tree, and since the pawlonia dies back so much, I just don't think it will ever grow big enough here. I say "Go for it!"
Magnolias need too much water for me sigh. Pics please skellogg when you try one. Thanks
If you have a super sheltered spot in a courtyard with south facing stone or stucco walls and amend the heck out of your soil, you might, maybe, have some luck growing a crepe myrtle. They need moisture, acidic soils and no colder than a zone 7a.
We're in zone 5b, in a semi-arid (dry) climate, and have neutral to alkaline soils.
I think an eastern redbud would be a good substitute for color and size and will do well here.
Don't you hate when the plant won't give you even a little teensyweensy wiggle room?
Yes, redbuds do well here and are very pretty in the early spring. Sounds like a paulownia would make it as well. Crepe myrtle sounds difficult -- too much so for me. I planted a Magnolia Jane in my front yard about 2 years ago. It made it through the first winter but began to look chlorotic. I put lots of organic matter on it and it didn't improve. This spring it only sent up a tiny shoot then died. I think I am going to give up on magnolias -- I suspect it was lack of water that did it in and possibly too much shade. Magnolia Jane, though is supposed to handle our zone -- but I think the dry weather was too much for it.
I do have a rhododendron -- a special one bred for cold climates. It has now bloomed for 2 or 3 years. It looks a little chlorotic right now, so I added a bunch of cottonseed meal yesterday. I will mulch it with compost as well. It seems easier to raise than the magnolia.
I also have 3 hydrangeas but so far only 1 has bloomed. I will try moving the two non-blooming ones later this fall in hopes of encouraging bloom.
I am all in favor of zone pushing, but you have to be prepared for disappointment. Not all experiments work.
This message was edited Aug 5, 2009 4:38 PM
I know it doesn't have purple flowers, but a catalpa looks a lot like a paulownia and it's hardy to zone four. Lilacs have purple flowers but they don't seem to get as large here in the mountains as they do at my parents house in Portland. They end up more shrubby than tree-like.
l actually planted my pawlonia right under the power lines, teehee!. Figured it would help it grow tall just because it shouldn't be there. It's on the west side of our yard in full sun with no protection what so ever, so it gets the full force of our wind, snow and everything. Our coldest day last winter was about 30 below. If you like it, try it, you never know, it might surprise you. And I got mine from 4 Seasons Nursery (YUCK< Do NOT recommend them) and it came almost dead and about an inch tall, no leaves. I wasn't even sure if I planted it right side up, it was that bad! I do give it MG about 3 times a year, spring, summer, and fall. That's it for special care, and it's planted in pretty rocky clay, as we have no topsoil. (I did take out some of the rocks when I filled the hole back in, and did put a little potting soil in the bottom.)
Catalpas do wonderful here.. there's practically a XXX xeric plant, but they take SOOOOOOO long to grow. :( I had one that I accidentally killed.. didn't realize that you weren't supposed to water them like the rest of my trees. So I put a 20gal tree gator on it and watered it like I watered everything else. After about 5 weeks, the leaves started to turn brown, so I upped the watering... oops. Drowned the poor thing. :(
I'm leaning more towards the redbud.. I know that it does grow nicely out here and should make a nice addition to my herd of trees. I have a European Mountain Ash, Golden Rain, Indian Magic Crabapple, Crimson Cloud Hawthorn, Autumn Serviceberry, Flame Maple, Brandywine Maple, Chanceleer Pear, Golden Chain, Purple Autumn Ash, Silver Maple, Coralberry Crabapple, and a Swedish Columnar Aspen for trees so a Redbud should mesh in pretty well. :)
Thanks everyone! :)
Well, I can only offer that I recently saw crape myrtles blooming and doing fine in Redding. Now, granted, that is a zone 7 as am I..... but coming from coastal NC where crape myrtles are everywhere I was shocked to see them in dry ole Redding where I know it gets a heck of a lot colder than ever in Carteret County NC!
So, I dunno. Denver Jude is probably right. But you could put one in a heck of a big pot and baby it and see........
The Denver climate has a cold twist, It was reported that on one fine fall day the temperature dropped 65 F in 90 minutes. Trees literally shattered! Highs & lows are okay to use as a rule thumb, but the extremes, the drastic changes are what rule the plains and the foothills.
Ever wonder why the plains don't have a lot of trees? Between fires, cold snaps and in the past, animal predation by huge herds, trees didn't have much of a chance unless they were EXTREMELY hardy.
Sonny
Pewjumper - That day was in Oct 05. I remember that day because I lost a full-sized ash tree in about 2 minutes. My DH & I had gotten up and looked outside and saw all the snow.. October 10th, 2005. So I was getting dressed so I could go outside & broom the snow off of my two trees in the back (mature silver maple & mature green ash) when I heard a loud POP like a gunshot and rushed outside to watch my beautiful huge green ash break in half right at the beginning of the crown! It lost EVERYTHING that day.. had an arborist look at it and he said that there was nothing I could do. Reason why this sticks out so well in my mind is I had just bought my house 2 months previously because it had 1 thing in specific: mature trees. :( :( :(
Horrible nasty day. I still made it to work (downtown Denver) and we had no electricity. Bossman wouldn't let us close up shop for the day.. even though we couldn't do ANYTHING and we were FREEZING (electric heat). That day SUCKED. :( :( :( Here's what my tree ended up looking like. :(
Here's the tree just months earlier in July when my DH & I went to inspect the house before we put in an offer. Sorry for the bad pict.. using an ANCIENT camera!
What an amazing story skiekitty and pewjumper. I had never heard of this incident. I hope you replaced your trees even though the loss of the mature ones must have been painful.
Ouch skiekitty and my SINCERE condolences both for the trees and for having a boss like that! I had a boss like that once too.
Temperature fluctuations like that are pretty normal here, especially in spring and fall.
I recall a day in the early 90's when I walked to work (capitol hill to downtown Denver - just under a mile) in a skirt, t-shirt and sandals because it was in the 70s at 7:30 am with clear blue skies. I was working at the downtown YMCA managing the pool which is in a sub basement. At 2 pm I came upstairs for something and found a full on blizzard with 6 inches of snow on the ground, howling winds, 20 degrees and the local schools already closed early. It felt like I walked through a time warp when I exited the stairwell. I had to take a taxi home at the end of the day.
That's a wild story, Jude. I don't recall any such events in this area. I often compare our climate to Denver's but I also think Denver has more severe weather events than we do here in Northern New Mexico. I have been snowed into Denver on more than one occasion.
Generally our weather is quite mild. I think it's the extreme change in altitude between Denver on the plains and the divide which is not very far west of us that messes with the weather on occasion. It's like a giant wall that the storm systems get hung up on on one side or the other. If the ski areas (west of the divide) are getting pounded with a snow storm (more common), we're dry and warm. If Denver is getting pounded with a snow storm (usually an upslope storm), the ski areas are dry and sunny.
I have been pounded in Denver more than once. I was too busy trying to get or keep my vehicle going to even think about what was happening at the ski areas!
keep i mind that the zone is not the entire picture on survival rate of a shrub or perennial. We have plants that do really well on the north side of a building and can't survive on the west or south side-- only 20 feet away. On the south and west sides of buildings you often have a rapid freeze-thaw cycle between oct and may that dessicates the soil terribly. You may also have cold "trenches" where the air temp at soil level may be siginificantly lower than the ambient temp, at night or when the wind blows. For example, on the lower west edge of our rose garden, only extremely hardly own-root roses will survive, even though some really borderline-hardy specimens thrive 10 feet away in the center, more protected area of the garden. I found out eventually that the combination of rapid freeze-thaw and the channeling of cold air in that spot really means that we have to insulate that spot 2x more than elsewhere with fall leaves, and that realistically only a few rose specimens of any kind can survive there. so that ends up being our showy border for lilies, annuals, iris, and sedums.
skiekitty, that there's a quittin offense by your bossman, seems to me. I have walked out of jobs on far lesser provocation than that. I could see it if you are some kind of emergency personnel, but it doesn't sound like that.
Kylaluaz - No, I wasn't an emergency personnel at that time (nor at this time, either), but in Colorado if you walk off the job, you don't get unemployment and I really did enjoy that job (unlike right now where I *HATE* my job, but it's a job right now). :) And I lived the furthest from all of us at work that day.. and I was the last allowed to leave @ 5pm (we *did* close early because, once the sun went down, it got too dark to see anything). But the bossman didn't trust the other two working w/me that day to close up shop correctly. He spent about $150 in salary w/the 3 of us working and made less than $10 total that day. Stupid.
This is a sample of the snow storms we can get. Love it! But don't love the fact that most people here don't know how to drive in it!!!
Well, glad it was otherwise an enjoyable job. Got too dark to see, did it? sheesh. ;-) I hope you know I'm sympathizing and not on your case, and your poor boss probably himself had a boss causing him grief -- so it goes.
Kyla - no, it was a mom-pop store and the bossman was the only owner (mom&pop minus the mom part). He just couldn't understand why our store had no electricity because his north store (about 10 miles north) had electricity & was just fine.
Well, he was 10 miles north! DUH!! *sigh* oh well, happy days! :) Here's a kitty for everyone! :)
EEEK! EEEK! Quick like a bunny offer some nectar to the summer fairys skiekitty cuz they have placed an evil spell on your kitty!!!
