Delonix Regia or Royal Poinciana

Which means?.....

 

I'd thought, since you chose Aesir (who were the Norse gods) for a screen name, that you'd get a reference to the World Tree, Yggdrasil, which grew quickly and supported the earth and sky with its roots and branches. Traditionally, Yggdrasil is an oak, but a Poinciana also fits the bill.

 

Lol strangely enough I didn't know the meaning of Aesir until after I had chosen it. Perhaps I am one of the Aesir reborn ;) and my royal poinciana will enter myth and legend! By the way, have added a pic of the week old seedlings.

 

The seedlings are looking good. Mine is around 5 inches high now too and groing its proper leaves at the top, it seemed as though it had stopped growing while the top leave formed but its back with a vengeance in the last few days. These things do literally grow before your eyes!!

 

Chungli V is this the tree that is used as a street tree in Brisbane and has different coloured flowers from a soft lemon through to red and I think there were other colours. From memory it had a bean for seed pod. Part of the legume family??? I know I wanted one what ever it is. Maybe there is hope for me yet if they are growing it in Durham UK :)

Liz

 

Just an update. This is one of the 2 week old seedlings.

 

i have a question. i live in ft.myers fl. we had a frost the other night. my tree is 1 year old and is about 12 feet tall. the leaves have died . is my tree going to die or is this normal?

 

From what I understand, it absolutely will not tolerate low temps. You may want to protect it heavily from other frosts and cold weather. I think you may need to just give it time and keep it warm, from what I have read they normally bounce back, but don't let it get too cold again.

 

wow. how do i protect a 12 foot high tree? we normally don't get frost but we did this year. do these trees lose the leaves in the winter or do they keep them all year without a leaf change? i'm new to this kind of tree so i have no idea what to expect. we have them all over town and they are beautifull when they bloom. any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

Most of the info I know was posted on this thread. Get a blanket and cover the tree with it when the frosts come. Year old and 12 foot high, I love how quick these things grow!!! To my knowledge, they do not lose leaves, they keep them all year, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Am sure have read they don't drop them for winter. They are famous for dropping them when cold though. As for warming the tree, the blanket helps, and if you read up online you will find people whi wrap a lot of little xmas lights around the trees and cover it up. I use xmas lights on my citrus in winter now. They really do warm it enough to protect from the cold.

I don't think they like even low temps above freezing. I would read up on warming external trees on the internet and see what you find. I don't know the ins and outs, and wouldn't want to recommend anything as I would probs cause a fire lol.

 

From what I know of these trees in Mexico, and this was before I ever thought of trying to grow one from scratch is that if it is a very dry season they can lose their leaves and then they will bounce back quickly once it starts raining agin, it also may be a different variety of Poinciana not all types are evergreen if what I have read on the net is correct. You may want to get an expert to tell you exactly which one you have, but like aesir22 all my research points to the fact that they don't like continual cold weather, you may survive the odd frost or two but its best to give them as much protection as possible if the weather men forcast a cold snap. When I think back I guess we have had it down to minus 2 -6 in Mexico City in a certain winters and the trees have survived but although the morning may start off cold ther its quickly up to 70 degrees or more in the sun by mid day and that probably makes a big difference.

I am still trying to get some accurate information myself as to how cold tolerant they are. They only other way to find out is to grow plenty of seedslings I still have plenty of seeds left from the pod I brought back and experiment bit by bit over the next couple of years. Often plants and trees can adapt if introduced slowly to different surroundings and climates.

Nath

 

How are the seedlings Nath? Mine are really growing - are far bigger than my 3 month old citrus seedlings now!! Planted 3 more seeds in the heated propagator on Tuesday and they're already growing really well lol.

 

I had a disaster and I have learned that buying supposedly sterile compost from B and Q is not a good idea. The compost had fly lavea in it and they ate the roots of my seedlings and killed them all. I will have to start again, but this time I will use a different compost. meantime I have had lots of problems with the B & Q stuff. What a load of Rubbish!!

Makes me want to go back to peat almost.

 

I buy a lot from there as it is next to work and never ad any bother. Make sure you go in and tell them about the problems you have had! They may need to do batch checks in warehouse stocks.

I just got in from work, but when I get a chance tomorrow I will send pics of my seedlings, they are doing well. At least you only have to wait a few days to get them to sprout!

 

Thats true, i have planted some more seeds in a different compost so we'll see how I get on this time. I'll mix the B & Q stuff in with my compost heap and leave it for a month or so. hopefully the heat generated will kill the bugs, I bought a box of garotta to get it going anyway.

On the up side, I have 4 shoots coming up from the two Bird of Paradise seeds I planted, which I found rather strange, but we'll see how they go.

 

Not strange at all - Strelitzia seeds are polyembryonic. Congrats on the germination!

 

Well you learn something new every day. Thanks for that I didnt realise. They do seem to grow quite quickly too. Deos that mean that as they are supposed to be related to the Banana species that Banana seeds will behave in the same way??

 

Nope. In my experience, Banana seeds only ever send up one shoot per seed.

 

Well Aesir22, I now have 5 new baby Poinciana seedlings 3 that look particularly well and 2 i'm not so sure of. I am hoping this time that they will grow well and that i'll have some success with them. How are yours doing?

Nath

 

Hey Nath, glad yours are going well! I have four of them (gave one away) They are doing really well A few of the leaves got a bit burned from the strong sun I think but all in all they are happy :)

I'm looking forward to summer when I can put them outside without fear of sudden temperature dips!

Not the greatest pics lol. Will take some more tomorrow. The leaves tend to close at night, making them look sad lol but they wake up with the sun and branch out. Will take a pic in the morning :)

 

Even mature trees close their leaves at night; it's kind of neat to sit on the patio with a beer and watch the sunset and the trees fold.

 

Its funny you should mention that as last night when I got home the leaves had all closed up and looked droopy and for a while i thought I'd over watered or something, ilogical really as I have been so careful with this batch, but I thought oh well we'll see how they are in the morning and heh presto in the sune the leaf branches have opened out fully and extended again and everything is standing proud a huge difference to last night when they looked so sorry for themselves. A tree to give you a bit of grief in the seedlings stage i think. I won't worry tonight if i get in and they are droopy again. 3 of them I can say with a certainty look like they are going to be fine, the jury is still out on the other two.

 

Here are a couple of quick pics of my progress so far. Not great pics I was in a hurry, I'll post some more later.

Nath

 

Aesir22 I was wondering how your Delonix are doing. Mine 4 are turning into nice trees. I have transplanted 2 into large pots to allow the roots to spread and give more height.

Here is a foto.

Nath

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In five days, I will have seeds for a yellow-blooming variety! Woohoo!

Nath, your trees are looking good!