"I'm just glad they don't grow in front of my apartment so I don't have to sweep every day," she added with a laugh.Ī few blocks away at McKinley School, custodian Raul Venegas, 37, had no such luck. On her daily morning walk down Del Mar to Trader Joe's to get groceries, 96-year-old Maria Getty - who said that when she first moved to Pasadena 40 years ago she could rent a one-bedroom for $100 - admitted a longtime love of the trees. It's a great tree, goes the line, in a neighbor's yard. The trees infamously shed their flowers, frequently sprinkling down into manicured gardens and onto sidewalks, frustrating property owners and gardeners. And I think it's just a pleasant thing to look at."īut those who have lived among the jacarandas know such beauty can be messy. On a listing for a $582,000 tri-level condo overlooking Del Mar Boulevard, Realtor Teri Barton wrote: "The living room is accented with a tiled, mantled fireplace overlooking the jacaranda trees."ĭetails like that, Barton said, help set the person visually in the place and remind them "that there are still green places in Los Angeles. The trees' vibrancy can be a selling point. Why is it that we pay more for a color TV than for one that's black and white?" "They don't serve more than for the purpose of eye candy, but we as humans are inherently drawn to color. "Blue is a very difficult color to achieve in botany," he said. It's that distinctive color atop the trees, which can reach 60 feet high, that charms onlookers. Trees grown from seeds first imported to California had a violet tint that has been widely propagated in the region over the decades, Lofgren said. He said Southern California's variety - nicknamed blue jacarandas - are actually slightly less blue than those in the trees' native Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil. The trees bloom for two months twice a year, once around April to May and again around November to December.Īlthough there are 49 species of the tree, the Jacaranda mimosifolia is the most popular locally because it thrives in sunny, tropically tinged weather with little rain, said David Lofgren, a horticulturist with the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia. "Every morning when I step out of my house, it's like a Matisse painting," he said, the vibrant petals, to his eye, like the impressionistic brush strokes of the French master.Ībout 3,500 jacarandas dot Pasadena, with one rare, white-flowered exception flourishing near Del Mar and South Lake Avenue, said Kenneth Graham, the city's forester. He dreamed then of making his home on the postcard-perfect roadway.įive years ago, the real estate agent moved into a restored Craftsman with an inviting front porch. The drive down Pasadena's Del Mar Boulevard under a canopy of ultraviolet-blue jacarandas has lost none of its effect on Roland Clements after all these years.Ĭlements first saw the blooming trees that gracefully line the boulevard in 1984 when he moved here from central Florida. But they infamously shed the blossoms, leaving a sticky residue behind. It prefers well-drained soil, is resistive to oak root fungus and responds well to light pruning.Their distinctive, ultraviolet-blue flowers charm onlookers. In Redlands, it can thrive in full sun or partial shade. The jacaranda is a shallow-rooted tree that grows at a moderate rate to 25 to 35 feet high with an equal spread. After its flamboyant floral show, it produces ornamental seedpods that are frequently used in floral arrangements and even for jewelry. Its lacy green fern-like foliage creates a pleasant open shade. This tree is semi-deciduous and is excellent as ornamental or background plantings in gardens large and small. Today, Pretoria is known as the Jacaranda City. More than 100 years ago, Pretoria, South Africa, imported more than 70,000 of these trees from South America. In Australia, there are so many jacarandas in that some people believe it is native to Australia. Native to Brazil and Argentina, the jacaranda is a popular tree in many parts of the world. It is said that if you walk under a jacaranda tree and one of the delicate blossoms falls on your head, you will be favored by fortune. Even the ground is carpeted with the lavender-blue color. The statue of the Smiley brothers at the library - flanked by two of the many picturesque palms that highlight Redlands - is nestled next to an exotic Jacaranda mimosifolia or jacaranda tree that is filled with lavender-colored clouds of trumpet-shaped blossoms. Today, more than 65,000 trees call Redlands home, including the trees at the A.K. Throughout its history, Redlands has been known as a city of beautiful trees.
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