General opinion on Mimosa (Albizia julibrissen) for bonsai

[Lou T]

You spent money on a Woody weed that's just a fact. No assumptions or draconian anything but your money your time. Never said not suitable for bonsai just said not worth spending money on. I have 2 and they were free. Have fun cheers

Dang, I wonder what this guy tells his wife when she goes shopping!

 

[coh]

apples and oranges...Wisteria is NOT grown for "bonsai" generally. It is grown for its flowers --that is the primary reason to have one. If it works out that it has an interesting trunk, it's gravy. Albizia's flowers turn to slimy mush if they get rained on more than once or twice. Wisteria is spectacular in bloom and aged, characterful trunks can be found. Albizia has neither characteristic.

Albizia is spectacular in bloom. The flowers are delicate and beautiful and fragrant. If you don't agree then there is probably no reason to try to make a bonsai out of it (so why did you try?)
Flowers turn to mush in the rain...simple solution, keep it out of the rain while it is blooming
Apples and oranges? Hardly. I'd say most people who try albizia do it for the flowers, just like wisteria. I'll give you the trunk thing, wisteria can have great gnarled trunks. So maybe
more like mcintosh apple versus yellow delicious.

Not saying not to try one, just that return on your efforts could be frustrating and time is taken away from better candidate species...

Fine, say that. Don't dismiss it with "crap species".

 

[rockm]

Albizia is spectacular in bloom. The flowers are delicate and beautiful and fragrant. If you don't agree then there is probably no reason to try to make a bonsai out of it (so why did you try?)
Flowers turn to mush in the rain...simple solution, keep it out of the rain while it is blooming
Apples and oranges? Hardly. I'd say most people who try albizia do it for the flowers, just like wisteria. I'll give you the trunk thing, wisteria can have great gnarled trunks. So maybe
more like mcintosh apple versus yellow delicious.


Fine, say that. Don't dismiss it with "crap species".

Whatever, dude. I can have an opinion as well as dismiss it as a crap species. Your mileage may vary SAY THAT. Don't tell me what I can and can't say for crying out loud.

 

[rockm]

As always, thank you for the informative write-up and reference, Leo. I’m going to give that a read. I never knew this about trees. Though it does make sense in that

you should look at the photos of the specimen with the “caudex” I took. If you don’t consider that character then I wonder how ancient and stoic your trees look.

yeah, saw them. Trunk may be all wrinkled, but it's too small to support compound leaves of the species... It will wind up looking spindly and insubstantial underneath all that foliage. IF you're going to use this species, start with a very large --over 4 inches--trunk. Anything smaller will just look odd.

 

[Lou T]

yeah, saw them. Trunk may be all wrinkled, but it's too small to support compound leaves of the species... It will wind up looking spindly and insubstantial underneath all that foliage. IF you're going to use this species, start with a very large --over 4 inches--trunk. Anything smaller will just look odd.

Aye it is about 4 inches. We will see. Might be crap. I’ll update.

 

[coh]

Whatever, dude. I can have an opinion as well as dismiss it as a crap species. Your mileage may vary SAY THAT. Don't tell me what I can and can't say for crying out loud.

Dude...if you continue to speak in absolutes as if you were delivering the word of god, I'll continue to call you on it. You don't like it, there's always the ignore option.

 

[rockm]

Dude...if you continue to speak in absolutes as if you were delivering the word of god, I'll continue to call you on it. You don't like it, there's always the ignore option.

Keep on calling me on it. If you consider me "the word of God" then that's your problem. I have an opinion, just as you do. Ignore works on your end too.

 

[rockm]

And BTW, threatening me with harassment unless I change the way I speak is pretty ironic...but then you knew that...

 

[penumbra]

What were we talking about?
Oh yeah, Mimosa aka Silk Tree. Almost forgot!

 

[TN_Jim]

Three trunk clump example...

Found at link below. My take home from info in link is well draining soil, full sun, careful of delicate branches, and tolerant of hard pruning in spring. What i don’t get is, is getting leaves smaller -partial defoliation??

https://www.bonsaitreegardener.net/bonsai-trees/species/mimosa

 

[coh]

Three trunk clump example...

Found at link below. My take home from info in link is well draining soil, full sun, careful of delicate branches, and tolerant of hard pruning in spring. What i don’t get is, is getting leaves smaller -partial defoliation??View attachment 229417

https://www.bonsaitreegardener.net/bonsai-trees/species/mimosa

Wow, what a piece of crap

Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but I'd happily take it.

 

[BonsaiNaga13]

Dang, I wonder what this guy tells his wife when she goes shopping!

Lol that was funny. Maybe i expressed a little too strongly but if you can't accept criticism maybe this isn't the place for you. Also the thread title says "general opinions on mimosa" my opinion was and still is not worth money, you got hustled buying a plant generally considered a weed your mistake not mine.

 

[Lou T]

Lol that was funny. Maybe i expressed a little too strongly but if you can't accept criticism maybe this isn't the place for you. Also the thread title says "general opinions on mimosa" my opinion was and still is not worth money, you got hustled buying a plant generally considered a weed your mistake not mine.

No I get it, I asked for your opinion. I’m not going to launch ad hominem attacks, for example, based on your indiosyncracies on how you respond. I appreciate your opinion though I do reserve the right to disagree with it/bash it. Your cynical attitude is rather refreshing. My opinion is that for $5, it was worth it because it has unique features (whether or not the brown hue to the vascular tissue I discovered when I chopped it is Fusarium wilt or not....still to be determined...). Though just for you, I’ll put the Albizia next to my Chinese Tallows and Brazilian Pepper.

 

[penumbra]

No I get it, I asked for your opinion. I’m not going to launch ad hominem attacks, for example, based on your indiosyncracies on how you respond. I appreciate your opinion though I do reserve the right to disagree with it/bash it. Your cynical attitude is rather refreshing. My opinion is that for $5, it was worth it because it has unique features (whether or not the brown hue to the vascular tissue I discovered when I chopped it is Fusarium wilt or not....still to be determined...). Though just for you, I’ll put the Albizia next to my Chinese Tallows and Brazilian Pepper.

Most of us would have paid double what you paid or more. You were lucky to find it. I almost never see them in the nursery business.

 

[Lou T]

Most of us would have paid double what you paid or more. You were lucky to find it. I almost never see them in the nursery business.

Thanks. We will see if it survives. @Leo in N E Illinois advises a full-on repot and I’m inclined to listen to him. The soil it’s in now is compacted and swampy too. Might you have any direction to offer as for substrate composition? My mind is looking cheap and thinking coarse sand, washed river pebble and compost/topsoil. I don’t like to water every day.

 

[rockm]

Most of us would have paid double what you paid or more. You were lucky to find it. I almost never see them in the nursery business.

It's almost never for sale because it is available for free. It is listed by the State of Virginia and more than a few other states as an invasive species. Not against the law to plant them in most regions (but it has been banned by some local governments and communities), but that's one of the reasons nurseries don't sell the thing.
http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/nh-invasive-plant-list-2014.pdf
https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/albizia-julibrissin/

 

[penumbra]

Thanks. We will see if it survives. @Leo in N E Illinois advises a full-on repot and I’m inclined to listen to him. The soil it’s in now is compacted and swampy too. Might you have any direction to offer as for substrate composition? My mind is looking cheap and thinking coarse sand, washed river pebble and compost/topsoil. I don’t like to water every day.

Swampy compacted soil is a serious problem. I would PERSONALLY use pumice and coconut coir and plant in a pond basket. But there are a lot of options. I don't like sand at all unless it is very very coarse. If growing it out is the main course, you could use potting soil with bark and perlite. I know you will here a lot of reasons why this is all wrong, but I have been doing this for over 40 years for almost all of my plant collections. I go through 3 large bales of pro mix and several bags of pine fines every year for literally hundreds of potted plants. I collect all sorts of plants and have been working with plants forever. Transplanted my first trees from local wood to my parents yard when I was 8 and I am pushing 70 now.
Best of luck to you.

 

[Lou T]

Swampy compacted soil is a serious problem. I would PERSONALLY use pumice and coconut coir and plant in a pond basket. But there are a lot of options. I don't like sand at all unless it is very very coarse. If growing it out is the main course, you could use potting soil with bark and perlite. I know you will here a lot of reasons why this is all wrong, but I have been doing this for over 40 years for almost all of my plant collections. I go through 3 large bales of pro mix and several bags of pine fines every year for literally hundreds of potted plants. I collect all sorts of plants and have been working with plants forever. Transplanted my first trees from local wood to my parents yard when I was 8 and I am pushing 70 now.
Best of luck to you.

Thank you sir. Believe me, I can be a soil geek but when it comes to species like this I just go for something fast draining. This thing is a long ways out from a bonsai pot anyways.

 

[Lou T]

It's almost never for sale because it is available for free. It is listed by the State of Virginia and more than a few other states as an invasive species. Not against the law to plant them in most regions (but it has been banned by some local governments and communities), but that's one of the reasons nurseries don't sell the thing.
http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/nh-invasive-plant-list-2014.pdf
https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/albizia-julibrissin/

Yes, we have a collective and thorough understanding that the silk tree is highly invasive and just a devil of a thing, bless its heart.

 

[BonsaiNaga13]

It's almost never for sale because it is available for free. It is listed by the State of Virginia and more than a few other states as an invasive species. Not against the law to plant them in most regions (but it has been banned by some local governments and communities), but that's one of the reasons nurseries don't sell the thing.
http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/nh-invasive-plant-list-2014.pdf
https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/albizia-julibrissin/

it's like paying for a prostitute with aids just because she "looks nice" then you get something you might never get rid of.

No I get it, I asked for your opinion. I’m not going to launch ad hominem attacks, for example, based on your indiosyncracies on how you respond. I appreciate your opinion though I do reserve the right to disagree with it/bash it. Your cynical attitude is rather refreshing. My opinion is that for $5, it was worth it because it has unique features (whether or not the brown hue to the vascular tissue I discovered when I chopped it is Fusarium wilt or not....still to be determined...). Though just for you, I’ll put the Albizia next to my Chinese Tallows and Brazilian Pepper.

With that logic I really got a steal cuz all mine were FREE. I'm not cynical, youre just pretentious