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Acacia dealbata

snowyysnowyy Posts: 58
in Plants
Hi
think I asked before but anyway I’ve got a mimosa that I got from J Parker’s probably about 4-5 years ago-it’s never flowered. It’s in a pot with ericaceous compost with grit mixed in for drainage. Water it with rain water and give it ericaceous fertiliser from time to time. Now I know the advice is probably going to be they don’t do so well in a pot however the stock picture from Jparker shows it in smaller pot and I’ve seen similar pics on the internet. So some of these just not flower? Also should I be pruning the bottom branches to make it more tree like, not sure how to really prune this one.

Jparkers pic

Mine

Posts

  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    Parkers plants can be a tad small which is why they don't cost so much. It could be your plant is still trying to get to a decent size before flowering. That particular catalogue photo that you have posted seems to appear on more than one site and must be the stock, go-to photo when selling these plants. It certainly seems to promise a lot and the soil looks very new so I'm guessing the plant wasn't in the pot for long.
    https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/24107/acacia-dealbata/details This gives a lot of information on the care of your plant.

  • snowyysnowyy Posts: 58
    Thanks for the comment Ceres, I can plant it direct in the ground but my soil is netural to alkaline so thought it be best with a pot so I could use ericaceous compost. Don’t suppose I have anything to lose by putting in ground because at moment it’s not looking attractive, hence why I mentioned about pruning it,
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    edited May 2023
    In the ground? Outside?  Not in the UK.  I've seen them killed in Nice. I saw one in Cornwall killed by the Beast from the East.  I haven't been to Cornwall yet this year.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    There are plenty of acacias doing well in Cornwall, including a wattle I have, not dealbata. My tree is in a much bigger pot, not ericaceous soil. It is double the size of yours and it flowered this year. There is a dealbata sheltered  by two or three other trees  growing not far from me. They do not like to frozen or over watered. Your plant looks like a very young rooted cutting so it could be another year or two before it is grown up enough to flower.
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    I had (notice had, this winter did it in) one of these and it was in a conservatory for about 5 years and only flowered a couple of times then but as soon as it went outside and into the ground it flowered every year. It was smaller than yours and flowering in the pot, so I don't think it's a maturity thing. I also hadn't heard they needed ericaceous compost before, ours was in a normal mix and our garden soil is neutral to limey. 
    Although we lost ours this year there are small ones locally that survived in the ground absolutely fine and flowered. I haven't checked on the big ones in the area (they grow very fast in the ground) but ours was about 5 metres high and had survived colder temperatures than we had this year. They are short lived trees but I'm not dissapointed by that, it was lovely to begin with but I'm not sad I lost it, so if you don't mind either replacing it or potentially losing it after a few years, I'd pop it in the ground as it will do far better than in a pot.  
  • snowyysnowyy Posts: 58
    Just an update in my plant, so I planted in the ground around the end of May and it has grown bigger now and I’m hoping this is now going to flower. It is getting a little top heavy now so not sure if the plant is going to stabilise itself or if I need to cut the top bit off or support it with a bit pole

  • amancalledgeorgeamancalledgeorge Posts: 2,736
    That looks so much better. Well done. They do have the tendency to grow a bit lanky if they're not pruned to keep a more symmetric look. Let a little one I have go too tall and with a bit of help from the -8C° last winter the die back of a couple of stems gave me the opportunity to blitz it and now is regrowing as more rounded plant. So fingers crossed for yours and mine 🤣
    To Plant a Garden is to Believe in Tomorrow
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    From memory the flower buds start to form early as they flower in feb-march, so you may see signs of them soon if they are about to flower next spring (I can't remember exactly but I'm sure the couple locally already have buds forming).
    It certainly looks happier where it is.
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