MIMOSA? YES, PLEASE

May 28, 2016

I was caught by pleasant surprise today, as I am every year, at the first sighting of Mimosa (Albizia julbrissin) in full bloom. I'm usually still ogling spring when summer rolls up on us. Gardeners celebrate each season in increments--the succession of flowers in Spring, Summer, Fall, even Winter. When the first flowers emerge, it is like seeing them for the first time ever--year after year with the same delight each year. Mimosa signals our slide into southern summer.

I have a special affection for Mimosa. It was the first flowering tree I remember seeing up close and personal as a child. Although out of its southern range, my parents had a Mimosa outside their bedroom window. Standing on the bed offered the perfect observation deck. I thought the flowers were exotic, like nothing else I had seen growing up in the Midwest. It is, in fact, native to southwestern and eastern Asia.

Proper horticulturists tend to shun Mimosa because it is considered disease prone and short-lived. Perhaps that is one of the many reasons I don't run in the same circles with proper horticulturists. I lean toward gardeners who capture the heart and soul of gardening.

Lee May was a well-known journalist who wrote about the heart and soul of gardening. When he was writing for the Journal-Constitution, he beautifully wrote an article about his love for Mimosa. That's when I knew he was my kind of gardener. I once had a copy of this article and was ill-advised to throw out boxes of stuff the last time we moved. (Of course, I want things 15 years after I throw them away.) My online search did not result in finding that particular article, but I found a lovely tribute written about Mr. May that directed me to a blog filled with his essays, www.leemaysgardeninglife.com--a treasure trove.

Yes, I love Mimosas both in the landscape and served in Champagne flutes.

My next search was for the link between Albizia and the cocktail named Mimosa, a happy blend of Champagne and orange juice. Sources cited in Wikipedia indicate the cocktail is believed to have been invented in 1925 in the Hôtel Ritz Paris and is named after the common name in Anglophone Europe for the yellow flowers of Acacia dealbata. Common names vary, so the cocktail is not named after Albizia after all, but the yellow flowered Acadia.

Either way, Cheers to a sunny cocktail and a lovely southern tree!

[Carolyn Fjeran, LowTide explorer/reflective writer; horticulturist & gardener; former writer for Cooperative Extension Service, Master Gardeners, and The Newnan Times-Herald.]