Native Plants

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Friday - July 10, 2009

From: New Orleans, LA
Region: Southeast
Topic: Seed and Plant Sources
Title: Source for non-native mimosa plants in New Orleans
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

We need potted mimosa plants for an installation in New Orleans. I hope you can help me or know of anyone who could help me with that. If so please let me know how much and how fast I can get about 10 potted mimosa plants to New Orleans.

ANSWER:

First, let's talk about Albizia julibrissin, Mimosa. We would not recommend this tree anyway, because it is non-native to North America. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center supports the use, protection and propagation of plants native to North America and to the area in which they are being grown, because they will need less water, fertilizer and maintenance. The Mimosa is a weak-wooded, short-lived tree, considered an invasive weed, and actually outlawed in many urban areas because of its tendency to spread into and take over other areas. We have lists of suppliers in all parts of the country, but they are all on our list because they supply native plants. Even if this were a native plant, we would have no way of knowing what the prices would be as we do not sell plants except twice at year at Plant Sales, which are, of course, all plants native to Central Texas and sold only on-site.