[Alisdair]

It has an extremely wide distribution in the wild, from pretty dry parts of southern Africa through to damp parts of India. There's probably a considerable variation in drought hardiness, depending on where the seeds come from.
And yes, after seeing Oron's photos, I want it too!

[John J]

Bauhinia forficata taken this morning. It always flowers around this time of the year and is a welcome sight in the early morning before the sun gets too hot. Later in the day, after about 10am, the flowers droop and shrivel until in the afternoon they are limp and brown and rather unsightly.

[Alisdair]

Lovely! (though in the spell of very sunny weather we're having here in England, your description of the flowers in the afternoon could be applied to how I feel as I rotovate the veg patch!).

[John J]

Our Bauhinia variegata 'Candide' has put on a stunning display this year.

[Daisy]

Such a pretty tree John. I envy you having the space for such a lovely tree. The one I used to admire in a local town, never did recover from it's council hacking.
Daisy

[Alisdair]

What a lovely tree, John. But I suppose it couldn't survive long hot dry summers without any watering?

[John J]

Surprisingly enough, Alisdair, our tree seems to do amazingly well with little or no summer watering. It's on the boundary of our property alongside a road and is not on an irrigation line.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

By mistake I've done an irrigation experiment on Bauhinia. I grew some from seed, about 6-7 years ago. One seedling I potted on and then potted out into the garden in a sheltered spot. The rest of the seedlings stayed in the pot in the nursery. Those in the nursery had soon sent out roots through the bottom of the pot and no pulling could shift it so it just stayed in place. Gradually one seedling took precedence so I chopped back the rest and after a couple of years they gave up. I now have two trees. The one I planted out gets weekly irrigation and is barely chest height. The one in the nursery has gone through the roof and is probably 3.5 metres high. It is flowering for the first time this year and turns out to be white. It gets spray irrigation for 30 minutes every day summer, winter.

[Alice]

What species is your thirsty Bauhinia, Fleur?

[MikeHardman]

Similar and different...

I, also, had some languishing in pots in that sometime-excuse-of-a-thing called the 'nursery bed'.
There, too, they rooted vigorously through the bottom of the pot(s). I could not leave them there as they were obstructing an intended view. When it came time to move them, I didn't get much root, despite my best efforts with pick-axe digging round them - the roots were delving deep. But, having got them out, I pruned the roots back to undamaged parts and then pruned the tops heavily (over half), and removed more leaves back to the petioles (I like to let them reject the petioles in their own time, allowing them to abciss nicely). They then got planted out in the usual local soil (deep marl with some stones), staked, and watered. I presume they all rooted well, because they soon began pushing out new leaves and shoots, and they have flowered very well this spring. They are four years old.

Sequential piccies attached...

BTW: they are Bauhinia variegata.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

I believe my white Bauhinia is B. alba. The seeds were from Traude Gotsis and I've found a photo of the mother. I'm also posting photos of other Bauhinias in her collection. All the photos were taken by Traude.

[MikeHardman]

Fleur - I love the  Bauhinia galpinii.
It makes me think 'tree nasturtium'!

PS. I've added my transplanting piccies to my preceding post.

[John J]

Reliable as ever, our Bauhinia forficata in full bloom this morning. I never cease to be amazed at the fact that it chooses to flower at the hottest time of the year. Also that it does it with little or no summer water as it is situated in a bed of mainly phlomis and euphorbias that are not irrigated.

[GRJoe]

I never rubbed the leaves of my Bauhinias tomentosa plants, for two reasons: I had read that it smells of rubber, and I didn't have the courage to crush any leaf on these seedlings.

But now that they have grown to become 1.70m tall 6-month old young trees--and after reading Orion on their scented leaves--I finally put my act together: no smell.
Maybe it depends on the heat it gets, and now it's on average 17o here.

My plants/seeds come from a town in East DRC. I saw them in one spot only, used loosely for a hedge. When you pick the drying pods they soon snap open with a little cracking noise. The germination rate was very high so I had to destroy a few seedlings, and now 10 beautiful crammed plants wait to be transplanted to Greece.

I also am growing a climbing Bauhinia, which has very interesting growth habit. I will post pictures when it blossoms hopefully this spring.

[John J]

I have never seen any seeds on our Bauhinia forficata but earlier this year a small plant appeared on the other side of our southern boundary wall, right next to the tarmac of the road. It is at least 10-12 metres from the parent plant and, as I said, on the other side of a wall, so if it is a sucker it's a tenacious one. Removing it was one of those jobs that kept getting put off as there were more pressing things to attend to. It has grown to about 30cm high and yesterday as I drove out of the gate I noticed that it was flowering.