You can see them throughout Southern California. They are strikingly beautiful when in bloom. Not mentioned in the article is that the blossoms exude a sticky nectar that makes an absolute mess of the area under the tree.
There is a dreamlike quality to the exuberant color of their flowers. I fell in love with LA in parts because of that. The trees in some streets line long stretches. Every year I'm stunned. When I told that to an old-hand Hollywood writer (I startup-worked with him) he said he felt exactly the same the year he arrived there as a young man. He beamed, said this awe never stops.
I planted some Jacarandas from seed last year, and forgot about them in my chaos garden. I then had to move, and realized I had four of them growing very close to each other and another tree, so I (without much research) transplanted them and brought them with me.
Sadly, all but one lost all of their branches and leaves, but they are slowly starting to grow new ones. Jacarandas are all over Southern California, and I hope my little trees grow large and contribute to the beautiful spring bloom in a few years once they fully recover from the transplant shock!
I am also going to experiment with Bonsai’ing one or two of them, they look very cool.
Planting trees from seed is truly special, I highly recommend it to anyone who has a little bit of space and an abundance of seeds to pick from nearby!
yes, they tend to out-compete and shade-out other plants. They're popular curbside in LA for that reason, though I worry about the topsoil quality and erosion without some cover plants.
Not take from the beauty of these trees, but this time of the year is always my favourite time in Vancouver for the sheer amount of colour and pop that the city gets. Sometimes only for a few weeks only to be gone in the first storm and other times lingering for up to a month of beauty. Nature is fantastic.
We also have a lot of them in Gauteng, South Africa; even though they're classified as an invader species. They can only be in urban areas and aren't allowed to spread. They look really nice but smell like pee.
