Friday, August 13, 2010

Flower Friday - Mimosa


Mimosa

This week's featured flowers are from one of our flowering trees - Mimosa!  This fast-growing deciduous tree has lovely petal-less, pink flowers that bloom all summer long.  The flowers have a distinctive sweet fragrance.  The feather-like bipinnate leaves are silvery green on top and bright green underneath.  They fold inward at night and remain open during daylight hours.  Mimosas have smooth greyish bark, an airy branching habit, and grow to around 30 feet tall.   They bloom well in full sun, and butterflies and birds seem to enjoy the soft pink flowers.  This tree is very easy to grow.  In fact, while it is not considered an invasive species where we live, it is apparently considered invasive in warmer regions.  If you would like to learn more about mimosa trees (also known as Silk trees or Persian Silk trees), check out Dave's
 Garden's Mimosa tree page, Garden Guides' Mimosa tree page, or Wikipedia's Mimosa tree page.

 
A few book and blogosphere updates:
1.  Novel Novice is hosting a steampunk writing contest in honor of Cassandra Clare's Clockwork Angel.  Five winners will receive finished, hardcover copies of Clockwork Angel as well as a Clockwork Angel journal and poster.  Very cool!  There are two ways to enter - by submitting a short story with steampunk elements or by submitting a description of your  idea for a steampunk-era device.  The contest ends 8/31, and you can learn more about it here.

2.  If you want to read Alex Flinn's Beastly before the movie adaptation hits theaters next March, you can read the first eleven chapters online for free courtesy of HarperTEEN's awesome Browse Inside feature.  It can be found here.
Looking for more fun reading online?  Amazon's 'Look Inside' feature will now allow you to read the first forty-eight pages of Lisa Desrochers' Personal Demons.  You can check that out here.

3.  The Mundie Moms will be chatting with Michelle Zink, the author of Prophecy of the Sisters and Guardian of the Gate, at 8 pm CST on Thursday (8/19).  You can stop by and join that chat by visiting the Mundie Moms' blog.

4 comments:

Jenni Elyse said...

You would think that being the fan of Japanese things that I am, I would have seen a picture of a mimosa. But, this is the first time I'm ever seen one. I've seen crocheted ones and thought they were hideous. But, the real ones are actually very pretty!

Candace said...

I want to read Personal Demons but I think just reading the first 48 pgs would be torture! What a way to pull you in though, huh? I guess that's a way to find out if you'll really like it before you buy it too.
I love the mimosa! Your yard must be BEAUTIFULL!

Laurie London said...

I've never seen a Mimosa tree. At least I don't think I have. I've only had the drink. ;-)

Candace, I've thought the same thing. I'll bet her yard is beautiful.

Violet said...

Jenni - I love Mimosa trees and they have such a sweet, pleasant fragrance. I'v never seen a crocheted one, but now I am curious to so I might have to google that.

Candace - I totally agree that reading book excerpts can be torturous since it tends to leave you craving more. We have totally been neglecting our yard this summer, so at the moment it is looking weedy and dry rather than beautiful. Thankfully our trees and most of our perennials are pretty drought-tolerant, so they are handling our negligence fairly well. I am looking forward to catching up on some yard maintenance once the weather cools off a bit.

Laurie - I've seen the trees but have never had the drink. ;) We planted two Mimosa trees in our backyard shortly after we bought our house because I love them so much. I like the little tufts of bright pink flowers and the feather-like leaves. They are a bit messy (between the flowers and the long seedpods), but I still adore them. :)