Bauhinia x blakeana - Hong Kong Orchid tree

lovely tree

Thank you.

It’s a very popular tree here.

That cold front made it down here, without the rain, however it brought the cold air. We had three mornings (Monday - Wednesday) in the low 40’s. We were freezing here. It’s not as chilly in the morning now, though.

Shame we can't grow that tree in the streets of our towns & cities here in the UK! That tree looks really nice & if it smells good & livens up the neighbourhood all the better!

Must have come as a real shock to you such low temps! Here we are having freezing temps by night & then only a few degrees as our max for the day. But we have had a few days with lots of sunshine! Yesterday the sky was unusually transparent & the sun was blinding in a glorious blue sky - reminded me of the 30 winters when I lived in Spain! 😆

Balcony,

It’s a beautiful and sweetly fragrant tree. It is a very tender tree. It’ll tolerate some freezing (a few mornings) , but will definitely be damaged. Luckily, we don’t have freezing weather or frost here.

It’s been warm, beautiful and clear here, too. However, by this weekend maybe some much-needed rain will arrive.

Such a shame it's not a hardy tree, Andy, it would have been killed with the heavy frosts we are having this week! Just this past night we had minus 6C! All day the temps have hardly climbed above 0C! We expect similar temps for tonight as well. These are very low temps for us here where most winters we seldom get lower than -2C. We have had 2 or 3 days this week with wall to wall sunshine which is lovely to see. The skies have been particular transparent & last night the stars were incredibly brilliant! It's normal for sunny days here to have light blue skies with high very thin clouds that, while not very visible, make the sunlight more filtered. So dark blue skies are a rarity that only come with the northly winds direct from the North Pole coupled with intense cold.

Beautiful. It should be doable in the bay area..I would think its flowering would be delayed in the cooler climate. I had a potted Bauhinia do alright for a few years outside. Had a white flower.

Balcony,

It sounds frigid! Brrr! I hope all your plants are well!

Stan,

The first Hong Kong Orchid tree I ever remember seeing (Although, I’m sure I saw one in Hawaii, just didn’t realize it was a Hong Kong Orchid tree) was in El Sorbrante on the border of Berkeley, SF Bay Area in 1985. My IPS friend had a big beautiful one in his front yard in full bloom. I fell in love with that tree! 😂. I did see more in Fremont and San Jose. I also had a good sized HK orchid tree when I lived in Mission San Jose, Fremont.

I remember Cabot College has several Bauhinia variegated growing on campus.