The Cassia Tree

Saturday morning was crisp and cool.  The sunshine was brilliant.  The skies bluer than a blue bird.  It felt good to be alive!  A gentle breeze blew as I walked to the barn in my bathrobe with my coffee in hand and opened the nesting boxes so the hens could lay their eggs.  The animals don't care that I'm not properly dressed.  

As I hurried back inside where my wife was busy preparing scrambled eggs with sautéed mushrooms and onions, I glanced out and saw the cassia tree putting on a show.

Each fall the tree blooms and the yellow flowers are brighter than the sun.  The flowers are so bright, you almost need sunglasses to look at the tree.  The flowers fall from the tree and create a carpet of yellow petals on the patio.

Here is a photo of the yellow blooms that cover the tree:

And an even closer photograph.  You can see unopened blooms that will soon yield even more yellow blossoms!

While the tree is certainly beautiful with its happy, cheerful flowers, like any good thing, there are some drawbacks.  This tree will freeze back in the winter.  You'll think the thing is dead, but in the spring, it sprouts back up from the bottom.  This past year it didn't freeze but one time and the tree kept growing and growing.  

The major downside with the cassia is its root system.  The Lord did not bless this tree with a good, sturdy root system that anchors it.  During any thunderstorm or certainly hurricane, the cassia will fall over on its side.  To remedy this, I positioned three t-posts around the tree and wove rope around the t-posts to support the cassia to keep it from falling.  For the most part this has worked.  The cassia has many trunks.  At our local nursery, Tricia got a good idea.  The owner of the business braided the trunks as it grew into one main trunk.  It seemed to make a stronger, better looking tree.  If ours freezes this winter, I will certainly try this!