Is a Mimosa Tree suitable for my garden?

I recently came across an advert for a mimosa tree. I thought it looked like something I could use at the end of my garden. I have a space to fill where I have drawn a red X on the photos.



To the front and left of that I have a crab apple tree that's been there about 5 years and although perfectly healthy, it still isn't anything to look at.

As a mimosa tree can grow really big. Too big for my garden at any rate. I would have to grow it in a pot. If needed I already have a half barrel that I didn't use on a previous project. The main concern I have in my garden is wind. I have read that mimosa tree are not the most robust.

If anybody could advise me, I would be greatly appreciative.

G.

 

Happy New Year! I have never grown one in the UK, but in our courtyard garden in the Languedoc (SW France) my family used to have a 'mimosa des 4 saisons' (acacia retinoides), rather than a winter mimosa (acacia dealbata) which is probably what you are considering. That was what was usually grown locally, because it didn't mind stony soil and flowered year-round. Ours was planted in the ground, in a sheltered spot but at quite a high altitude, and survived some prolonged periods of frost without difficulty.

This blog article has lots of practical information about growing mimosa dealbata in the UK - the author appears to be based in Norwich, so gardening in relatively similar conditions to yours. I would definitely give it a go, if you fancy the idea! The flowers look beautiful and smell lovely. You could start it in the half-barrel and see how you go - our retinoides *did* want to grow large but proved amenable to being cut right back, to form a multi-stemmed bush, with those stems again getting cut back when they got over a couple of metres.

 

Personally I think you would be ok with it in a large pot for two or three years, but not sure how it would work for longer than that.

Also it looks a bit overgrown with trees in that corner, how much sun would it get in the summer.

 

This is a picture of the same area on a sunny day in July. From this angle it does look pretty dark. At the moment in that space, I have a hellebore and a daphne, both in pots. I'm sure either would do very well but I am hoping to add a bit of height. I am also hoping to add some winter/spring colour. Especially when the other trees are bare. That was why I originally bought the daphne last summer (2021). It is still very tiny and I'm not exactly sure how quickly it will grow and how big it will get. I thought that I would grow the daphne in a pot, partly because I'm not sure if my soil is suitable and partly to add architectural interest.

G.

 

It does look rather a dark corner. A lower-risk strategy would be a forsythia or a kerria japonica, both of which would also give you that late winter/ early spring blast of yellow. Both readily available, cheap and strong growers. Myself I'd plant them in the ground and hack them back hard after flowering, to prevent them taking over.