I teased you with a Texas mystery tree in my last post. Well, these are native Texas Mountain Laurels – just starting to bloom. Mine are about 4 feet tall. The two full-tree photos are from more established trees in our neighborhood, and they are well protected – by the house – thus they are in full bloom a little earlier than some others.
On the food network, Emeril says he wishes we had “smell-avision.” Well, I wish we had scent-blogs! The floral scent of these lovely trees is so heady and beautiful, I wish I could share it with you. For now, these photos will have to do!
Oh, I envy you the 4-foot tall Texas mountain laurels, Diana – mine three are about 14 inches tall and only one has buds… I’ll have to practically lie on the ground to get the grapey goodness.
Yours look lovely.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Already in bloom? I’ll have to give mine a second look tomorrow. Though I know it’s not blooming yet or I’d smell it before I saw it.
Annie – oooh – grapey goodness … nice alliteration! And you hit the nail on the head – they do smell like sugar-sweetened grape Kool-Aid. Made me smile.
Pam – They totally surprised me. My neighbors’ trees (in the 2 full tree photos) were blooming, so I went out to check mine, and lo and behold – plump little bloom buds that were just waiting to burst open.
I’ll have to post a long shot of my trees tomorrow so you can see them. The first one is my close-up, but I didn’t shoot them from further away because there are so few blooms that you don’t get it on the camera. Oh- Annie – I have one mutant one, too, that is leaning over so far it’s almost lying down. It wasn’t supported properly when the previous owners planted it.
The Texas Mountain Laurels here in Phoenix are now starting to bloom. The flowers smell like grape soda. I really wanted a couple of these in my garden, but they are so slow-growing that I didn’t get any. They are really great small trees.
Aiyana
Yummmmm. Those Laurels look good enough to eat. It must be breakfast time. 🙂
THank you for the kind comment about Luna. She is really doing well now that the meds have kicked in. We do feel fortunate to have her.
Wow, those look great! Home Depot had a bunch of these in bloom when I was there this afternoon, but strangely, they were completely unscented!
Wish we could smell the scent… Thanks for sharing. Also. Thanks for your comment on my blog.
Aiyana – I guess I never thought about Texas Mountain Laurels in Phoenix! They are slow growing, for sure. And they don’t like much water, which makes them nice for us here in the drought. I was going to dig up a few volunteers and replant them (they are 3-4 inches tall) and realized I’d be dead before they look like trees!!!
Lisa – Glad for the encouraging news about Luna. I call my 2 dogs my “kids” just like my two-legged kids. The Laurels sure smell good enough to eat.
Like Grape soda – Travis, Just like you said!
Lori – isn’t that weird? Makes you wonder about what they do to plants in the big box stores, sometimes.
Mountain laurels do smell like grape flavoring, don’t they? I don’t have any myself, but I’ve noticed lots of mtn. laurels blooming around town.
The redbuds are blooming, too. I’ll try to post a photo of mine soon. 🙂