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The most pesky plant we have here in Central IL, in my opinion, is the silver maple. Giant ugly branches, helicopter seed pods all over the place, seedlings sprouting up everywhere. It's only redeeming quality is shade and fast growth. If I lived somewhere that didn't have them, I might miss seeing one every now and again, just for the memories. But I can think of other deciduous trees I'd rather see.
Silver maple grows poorly down here. I see one every now and then that someone has planted, but they always look stunted and have dieback. They never live long enough to be a huge tree.
The South's version of Silver Maple would be the Water Oak... grows fast, gets huge, then rots and breaks apart.
There is a Mimosa Tree Growing in Wataga, IL near Galesburg in the northwest part of the state. It has pink flowers every summer. I have seen it for about 10 years now growing unpritected from the winter in someone's yard near the street (Franklin Street) on the northwest side of town near the tractor store. Very rare tree around here.
I haven't seen a mimosa tree up here (Erie, PA area) but saw them all of the time in KY, TN, LA, and even saw a few planted in people's yards in the Metro Detroit area. I've seen them in central Ohio as well.
The trees that we have around here that tend to naturalize are silver maples, river birch, and Norway maples. Sugar maples seem to sprout up on their own fairly frequently too You won't see any mimosas here though.
There are actually a fair amount of them here in the Windsor area, zone 6b. Some are very large and are pretty old, and look very tropical and exotic. They don't seem to be a problem up here though like they are further south of us.
We also have a few southern Magnolias scattered around the region, but they are not nearly as numerous as Mimosa trees are.
Both species took a bit of a beating in the two horrible polar vortex years a few years ago, but all the ones I knew of survived, with only various amounts of branch dieback, though that was the first time I ever saw the Magnolias completely defoliate! Usually most years they either stay completely green, or just have some bronzing of the leaves.
I know they also grow fairly well in the Niagara Region, which is even a bit further north than here.
I see one growing quite successfully down the street from me in a Boston suburb.
I suspect that there are varieties of mimosa just as there are varieties of all plants, some of which would be more or less cold hardy.
I am from the South; have usually had mimosa trees; and for the life of me I cannot understand why so many people hate them. I think the pink flowers are pretty and the seed pods aren't worse than a lot of other things.
Have you ever stepped barefoot on one of those spiky pods from a sweet gum? How about the 100,000 acorns your live oak drops every fall? Ever had a lawn mower pick up and throw a burr oak acorn? Or a black walnut? Pecan trees always get bagworms, yuk, and drop branches all over the place. Cottonwoods make cotton. Bois d'arc make horseapples. Peach trees attract wasps which will end up getting into more of the fruit than you ever will. And so on and so on.
I'm with you Turf. I love Mimosas, I have two trees and we live in Texas. I also have a place near the coast of Oregon and the climate is quite different there. The mimosas are still in full flower in mid October, and just covered with fragrant pink flowers. This is long after the Texas Mimosas have quit flowering. I think that to fully appreciate the trees they should be viewed from above, such as a balcony. Then the fragrance comes drifting up and perfumes the house and the flowers appear as a pink cloud.
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Mimosa in Northwest Illinois
You won't see any mimosas here though.
