A Seasonal Look: Goldenball Leadtree (Leucaena retusa)

Posted on August 21, 2020 by Tina

In my reckoning, the Goldenball Leadtree, Leucaena retusa, is the quintessential spring tree here in Central Texas. It’s striking green foliage, paired with cheery yellow blooms shouts spring! spring! spring! and its airy, graceful growing pattern, echos the joyful vibe that we all feel during spring.

Goldenball’s native range is only in Texas–primarily in Central Texas, but also to far West Texas and even into northern Mexico. For pollinators exclusively and for gardeners mostly, the fuzzy blooms are the key items of interest on this attractive tree. Fragrant and stunning, the blooms dot the tree for at least two months in spring, sometimes longer.

I like this shot as it demonstrates a flower in its prime, some blooms are which over-the-hill, and a bunch of bloom wannabes, gearing up for their time in the sun.

The leaves are small and oval, arranged bipinnately along an axis, and suggest a kind of transparency when highlighted by Texas sunshine. The flowers are about an inch in diameter, yellow when at their blooming peak, taking on an orangy hue as the bloom fades.

Sometime in February, depending upon the depth of our winter, the deciduous tree begins to show new life.

Foliage forms and unfurls, growing at a steady pace through February and into March. By the time the leaves are near a mature size, the bloom buds are developing. Initially they’re small, green, and spiky: green kush balls,

…that develop into fat, yellow kush balls.

As beautiful as the flowers are, I find the airy foliage just as attractive and it lasts the whole growing season. It never loses its spring green, either.

It’s a hopeful green.

My Goldenball is about 10 years old and probably 15 feet high. It prefers full-to-part sun, but mine only receives some dappled early morning sun, then an hour or two of direct sun in late afternoon. Because of shade, mine doesn’t bloom quite as much as it once did, but I’m still very happy with this beauty. It has an open, rangy quality that I like. It’s a vertical plant, but not huge nor dense, which allows it to fit in a small area without overwhelming or outgrowing the space. The Goldenball is interesting all year. While I have no pollinator-sipping-the-blooms photos (how did that happen?), large carpenter bees and my honeybees are grateful visitors during the March-April-May bloom time. Some sources report that Goldenball blooms on and off throughout summer, but mine is strictly a spring bloomer.

Summer and fall show the Goldenball Leadtree as a happily green, dry-loving small tree, perfect for an urban garden in a hot climate.

My Goldenball leeaans to the left, I suspect trying for as much sun as it can gather for itself, but I don’t mind that bit of quirkiness. Throughout the year and especially in summer, the fledging birds dash to this little bit of protective green, which sits not too far from the bird feeders. I’ve seen Carolina Wrens, Thryothorus ludovicianus, hopping along the slender branches, gleaning insects from the bark as they go, and during migration season, warblers zip to it for safety.

I like the Goldenball’s green glow. Notice how light and bright the green is on the Goldenball, versus the darker foliage on the Red Oak branch to the left and the Mountain Laurel, to the right.

By late summer, the Goldenball Leadtree–true to its legume heritage–develops seedpods, which hang, pendant-like, from the branches.

I let mine break open and drop, but thus far, I no seedlings have grown from the mother plant. Supposedly, Goldenball easily grows from seed, but mine remains seedling-less. I would love to have some baby Goldenballs to share.

Until there’s a hard freeze, the foliage remains on the tree, thinning a bit with consistent temperatures near to, but not below, freezing. A hard freeze will take care of that green business, leaving the tree a skeleton of its former self.

Goldenball Leadtree, winter form with sunny sky.

Goldenball Leadtree, winter form with gloomy sky.

The now freeze-burned and dropped Goldenball leaves mix it up with the also frozen and dropped Red Oak leaves.

For those with deer in their landscapes, Goldenball Leadtree is not deer resistant, so browsing will happen, at least until the foliage is high enough that deer can’t reach it. Is that even possible? But for those who have cattle and aren’t growing it for this tree for its beauty, Goldenball is reportedly a good browsing plant.

I am happy to have a spot for this lovely little tough-as-nails native tree in my urban garden.

In spring:

Summer and Fall:

In Winter:

If you garden anywhere in Central to West Texas, Goldenball Leadtree is a charming, easy-to-grow addition to your garden.

Drummond’s a Cure for the Dog Days

Posted on August 19, 2020 by Tina

During these August days, these hot days, these dog days of summer, I relish the relative cool of my garden. Here in Texas, morning is best–quiet, fresh, uncooked. It’s been hot, more hot than what once passed for August hot. Fortunately, my garden remains green and lush, with sprinklings of color–some warm, some cool–all welcome.

Drummond’s Ruellia, Ruellia drummondiana, is a star in the garden, especially at this time of year.

This native summer blooming wildflower which came from seeds collected some years ago, were let loose to live: they germinated and have produced many generations. They’re happy wherever they set root, or wherever I transplant the emergent seedlings. Drummond’s bloom sporadically in late spring and early summer, but ramp up in July, reaching the zenith of their beauty just as our “real” heat kicks in and kicks ass. Well, kicks my ass, anyhow. The Drummond’s Ruellia? They’re just fine and dandy: no wilting, no complaining. The hotter it is, the better they bloom.

Visited by several kinds of native bees, honeybees, and some small skippers, the ruellias are hosts for pollination parties. This ruellia is also the host plant for the Common buckeye, Junonia coenia, though that butterfly isn’t particularly common in my garden. I grab my camera when I see one.

The plant produces flowers in pretty purple, each individual flute opening for just one day. At the end of the bloom life, tissue-paper petals form, preparing for seeds and new blooms.

Drummond’s Ruellia is a great shade/part-shade plant and perfect for my shady place.

Linking today with Anna at her lovely Flutter and Hum and Wednesday Vignette; pop on over to enjoy other garden stories.

August Blooms

Posted on August 14, 2020 by Tina

It’s hot August and hot-hued blooms are more than a match for the heat wave that defines recent days in Austin, Texas, USDA zone 8b. The flowers are fine as the day heats up, but the gardener becomes sweaty and grumpy. Early morning is the best time to appreciate the heat-loving blooming bonanza.

In my shady garden, I grow only two Pride of Barbados, Caesalpinia pulcherrima; both receive late morning to late afternoon direct sunshine. I adore the full-of-pulchritude flowers, but each of my individual plants are, truth be told, thinner and less lush than those around town which grow in all-day sun.

I’m not complaining, especially when an early migrating Monarch stops by for a sip of the sweet stuff that the flowers offer in abundance. In fact, these blooms are pollinator magnets and there’s always something flitting about and alighting on the bright blooms.

Turk’s cap, Malvaviscus arboreus, is a signature plant in my gardens, as they bloom well in shade–which my garden has plenty of–as well as in full-to-part sun. These native Texas shrubs bloom multitudes of petite fire-engine red hibiscus flowers from May until October. Bees and hummingbirds are frequent visitors, and birds will enjoy the fruits that follow, later in autumn.

More hot red blooms this hot August are found on the Firecracker plant, Russelia equisetiformis.

A plant which thrives in both dappled shade and part sun, its tubular blooms attract native metallic bees and hummingbirds. It’s a tough plant: it requires little water, has no disease or insect problems, and is lovely in both flower and foliage.

I also grow a cousin to the R. equisetiformis, the Russelia coccinea. My one little plant has been in the ground for quite a few years and doesn’t bloom often.

But, it’s blooming now–and how–and has done so for much of this summer.

I like how the arching branch full of red blooms visually bisects the purple Oxalis Triangularis.

Blooms are numerous along arching branches, bright red, but more fluted than the cigar-shaped R. equisetiformis blooms. The leaves are small, opposite and scalloped, rather than the fern-like foliage of the R. equisetiformis

The R. equisetiformis is native to Mexico and southward. I’ve had both plants in my gardens for many years, but the R. equisetiformis is the more prolific of the two and seemingly better adapted, as mine grows in both shade and in some sun, whereas the R. coccinea seems happier in a spot protected by the Texas summer sun.

Mexican Honeysuckle, Justicia spicigera, is back in blooming business after its June and July vacation.

The pollinators are cheering! Well, they don’t exactly cheer, but there are few bloom clusters which don’t have attendant bees, busily working the blooms–all day, everyday. It’s a popular place to eat!

A honeybee works the bloom,

…as does a Southern Carpenter bee,

…and a Horsefly-like Carpenter bee.

Another two plants which thrive in summer’s heat are the Flame Acanthus, Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii, and Firebush, Hamelia patens.

Like the other hot plants in this post, both of these shrubs produce blooms that pollinators love. Shortly before I caught this shot of the Flame Acanthus flower, it was feeding a female Black-chinned hummingbird. The hummer buzzed away with an annoyed chirp directed at me, but the flower remained, posed for a photo.

A native metallic bee was more cooperative with the photography session as it ignored me and worked a bloom cluster of the Firebush.

It’s hot. It’s August. There are still a few more weeks of oven-like temperatures–can you tell that I’m weary of the heat? That said, my garden and its heat worshiping blooms are doing just fine.

Autumn is just around the corner. I can’t wait.

For more awesome August blooms, check out May Dreams Gardens and its celebration of blooms galore.