Sophora Species, Texas Mountain Laurel, Mescal Bean

On Nov 29, 2017, Mildcat from Escondido, CA (Zone 10a) wrote:

Thank you to all who have passed on their wisdom here about how to treat the plant, control the Genista moth caterpillars, and grow the plant from seed. I'm giving it a Neutral rating because I have only just acquired a (quite pricey) sapling from Monrovia nursery. I've had this plant on my garden wish-list for years and have searched for it every now and then without success. Despite what appears to be a suitable climate, no-one seems to be growing them in this area yet (north of San Diego). My new plant is a 4' single stem and looks very healthy.
Wish me luck!

On Sep 29, 2015, fish_craze from Laredo, TX wrote:

I grow these and sell them at the farmers market in the spring. I end up with an 85% germination rate by using a dremel with a grinder attachment, or just a plain old file, and nick the red seed coat just until you see the white bean underneath just beside the eye. I soak them overnight and they will swell up. Take the soaked bean and lay it on it's side and I plant at at depth of 1/4-1/2" deep in Solo cups with a couple of drain holes drilled through the bottom. If birds or rodents are are problem, you may want to protect it in a cage or net. I water them lightly every few days. To the poster that talked about worms in the seeds, I think you overwatered and the seeds rotted. I have had this happen to me in the past, too. Usually whats going to germinate will come up in a couple of weeks. ... read moreOnce it sprouts and send up a small shoot with leaves, its going to stop top growth and put down a massive gap root. Once it sprouts and comes up, transplant it to your growing container before the taproot starts circling your cup. These plants are very sensitive with their roots. I use 5 gallon containers from the get-go for that reason. You will lose some over a few months for unknown reasons. Some will die off and then come back. I give them a deep watering once a week. One thing that I have experimented with and had really good results is with foliar feeding. Every morning at sunrise, I take a 2 gallon pump sprayer mixed with water and 1/8 of the recommended dosage of Miracle Gro and a couple drops of Dawn detergent. Get your water to where the water has a slight bluish tint to it. I give the plants a quick spray to get the leaves (top and underneath) and call it good I usually get 2' of good growth a year with this system. Also, this works extremely well on Mexican Buckeye. I hope this helps out, let me know how it goes for you. -Brad

On Apr 3, 2013, robertaelaine from Hebron, TX wrote:

I need an answer to my question about how to treat a
Texas Mountain Laurel with pale green, unhealthy leaves.

Elaine Simmons

On Apr 19, 2011, Mimmie from Granbury, TX wrote:

I live in Granbury a few miles SW of Ft Worth on the Brazos River with LIMESTONE and alkaline soil but my beautiful 5 yr old TX Mountain Laurel has never bloomed. I get excited and anticipate the "grapes" each spring and then nothing. Plenty of sun. What sadness! Does it bloom here before the new leaves grow or after? Maybe April is too early here.

On Mar 5, 2011, beazert from Decatur, TX wrote:

I love this little tree, but it is definitely variable in what it will or won't do. I planted four in a line about 8 feet apart five years ago. One is 4' high and bushy; the others haven't grown much at all (could be because they are NOT in well-drained soil), and of those, one gets terribly chewed up by caterpillars. Of the others I have planted, three were finally killed by caterpillars last year; the other two are doing just fine and don't seem to get infested at all. I had read that it wouldn't handle the cold (it gets to 9 degrees of so here), but that has not seemed to be an issue.

On May 23, 2010, ainethewise from San Antonio, TX wrote:

We have a large one in our backyard. It blooms beautifully and is covered with seed pods. It reaches as high as the top of our roof. I also tried to propogate seeds but with no luck. However, they seem to just sprout naturally all under the tree. I have been digging them up by the handfuls and putting them in one gallon pots. At first, I tried transplanting them and they died. Now, I fill the bottom and the top of the pot with mulch. Put in dirt and the little plant. Keep mostly in the shade and drench with water every few days and they are doing fine. We had put out a couple of nursery grown plants a year ago and they lost almost all their leaves when we planted them. They are fine now. I think it is just too hot in San Antonio and too much sun for the new seedlings. Don't kn... read moreow what to do with all of these little ones.

On Jul 25, 2009, kwilson55 from El Paso, TX wrote:

This is an awesome tree. I was told to water the heck out of it for the first three years. Then don't water to much. I have had ours for seven years now. It is 8ft. tall & about 12 ft. wide. It is beautiful!!
Here is my problem: It has so many caterpillars, then they weave a web. Loll like it kills the new growth. I had to cut off the new growth. A lot of it. I spray it with insecticide now for three months. We have been having a lot of rain here in El Paso.

Good Luck with yours...........

On May 23, 2009, jimmycade from San Antonio, TX wrote:

We live in San Antonio. We purchased a single plant from Home Depot that was about a foot tall from a 1 gallon container. It had one bloom on it. After the first six months I ignored it. Now, three years later it is well over 8 feet tall and it has bloomed (fully) two years in a row.

On Apr 16, 2009, kayleerae from Huntington, TX wrote:

This plant was a gift for my birthday from a friend. She could not find it in our local nurseiers so she had to order it. It was 2 years before I ever saw a bloom. I must saw it was very beautiful. This plant grows very slowly for me. I dare not take the chance on moving it now. I have had it about 6 years and it may have grown 10-16 inches. It is now at about 2 ft tall. Again this year, has it has for the past 4 years, gave me a handful of blooms. I never knew to look for the seed pods. I will be on the look out now for sure as it has just finished my yearly handful of blooms. Any suggestions on helping it bloom more.

On Nov 8, 2008, pongsak from Chiang Mai,
Thailand (Zone 11) wrote:

I grow this plant from seeds for 6 months now. I have two seedlings and they still have only 4 leaves. Very slow. Should I do anything to help them grow faster?

On Jan 29, 2008, Kada from Southern,
Taiwan wrote:

i use a thin file or serrated knife to nick the opposite side as the eye of the seed....just barely going through the entire outer red shell...then soak for only one day as it will expand a LOT if nicked right. plant in soil and we had them sprout in no more than 1 week.

here in taiwan they are are only 2 feet at 1.5 years :( but thats grown in pots, not in the ground.

On Mar 9, 2006, Gustichock from Tandil,
Argentina (Zone 10b) wrote:

I love this tree!
First time I saw it was in Arizona. Its fruit look like a big peanut shell!
Its red seeds are very hard to break! I was so nahive back in those days that I seeded them directly without pre-soaking them or without rubbing them against sandpaper! Three years later they are still coming out in different pots!
Excellent surprise! I only have three! It's a slow growing tree and I can't wait until they bloom!!

On Apr 10, 2005, vossner from Richmond, TX (Zone 9a) wrote:

i love the the grape koolaid scent in the blooms but brother! this has been an incredibly slow plant for me. Planted in full sun w/ adequate water, don't know what I'm doing wrong, if anything.
Mar 2018: Changed rating to positive b/c this plant truly is no maintenance and so tough. Still consider it incredibly slow. Can be grown as a small tree or a large shrub.

On Nov 8, 2004, PvillePlanter from Pflugerville, TX (Zone 8b) wrote:

I like these a lot, but they are not the easiest to grow or maintain. Germination is quite slow and spotty as is subsequent growth. Roots grow very deep so they need deep watering but require very good drainage. They also don't compete very well for space, water, or nutrients with other close plantings. I use to have 2 of them but I lost a well established one quite suddenly to cotton rot last summer. Which reminds me, they are not very disease resistant either.

On Jul 16, 2004, Tcrow from Georgetown, TX wrote:

I collected about 100 red seeds from the ground at the Austin Zilker Garden's about five years ago. I put them in the yard in different locations and long since forgot about them. At the time, I didn't know about sanding or cracking the shell to get it started.

This spring, I was weeding a rose bush in a pot and pulled one of these out. I was so excited. I have since put the two sprouts (out of 100) into individual pots. I hope these two make beautiful trees. I can't wait to get my hands on more seeds.

On Apr 29, 2004, annabr wrote:

I live in Houston and recently planted 200 seeds in small containers. I read the information about soaking and nicking to help seeds germinate. We got excited when we saw 10 little sprouts come up about two and half weeks later. After about two more weeks and no new sprouts we got curious.

I dug a little in some of the containers and found following:
Seed was not there; itlooked like inside of Cadbury egg.
Seed looked like a tiny ball of sand; in some cases I could see really little white bugs and eggs.

On Mar 22, 2004, frostweed from Josephine, Arlington, TX (Zone 8a) wrote:

Texas Mountain Laurel is a beautiful large shrub or small tree. Mine is about six feet tall now, after 5 years of loving care and this spring for the first time it came into full bloom. What a beautiful sight it is, and the scent perfumes the whole yard. We are thrilled and feel blessed to have it. We highly recommend it, but it is not for the impatient gardener.

On Mar 21, 2004, new2texastoo wrote:

I just collected about 200 laurel seeds, and wonder if it would help just to crack the hard red shell.

On Jan 9, 2004, KARLAE from Freeport, TX wrote:

We have one close to the house in a full sun southwest corner of the sidewalk and another one about 30 feet away.

It's about 10' tall and has bloomed a lot for the last few years.

I just let the pods fall off the tree and lay in the bark mulch underneath until the shells rot. We usually have 8-10 seedlings at any given time. I've had good luck replanting the seedlings into pots. .

On Oct 16, 2003, Cathi from Owasso, OK (Zone 7a) wrote:

Excellent native plant. Smells like grape Koolaid when it blooms. I sand and thin the hard coat shell. Very heat tolerant, drought tolerant. Even did well in our ice storm last February. Still bloomed on time.

On Jul 28, 2003, TyKelly from Mullin, TX wrote:

Collect the seed pods while still green and before seed turn hard and red. Plant at once for best results.

On Feb 19, 2003, amazing from Tucson, AZ wrote:

After researching propagation on Southwest Gardening sites, I broke open the hard shell and rubbed the hard red seed with sandpaper. They have been soaking for 1 week in water. I'm going to try planting them soon in pots with a mixture of our clay soil and potting soil. I hope this is the proper method. I'll let you know if they sprout.

After 2 more weeks of soaking, they were planted and watered regularly. It is now April 7 and a sprout has just appeared!!! One sprout out of approximately 15 seeds. Hopefully, there are more to come!