Poinciana

Poinciana - P. Gilliesii is a beautiful sub-tropical tree which thrives against walls in the Isle of Wight. The late Rev. H. Ewbank wrote of it in The Garden as follows:—"The foliage gives it very much the look of an Acacia at a little distance, and it is often mistaken for one of them. But no Acacia that I have ever seen has such splendid blossoms. My great surprise has been in its well doing to such an extent in the open ground that I have now no fear for it at all, and during the worst frost we have had here during the last twenty or thirty years it was entirely uninjured. A very great recommendation for it in my eyes is the time of year when it is accustomed to blossom. All spring things have gone by, and the wealth of flowering shrubs and trees has become exhausted when this very beautiful object makes full compensation for any loss that has been sustained."