Acacia Dealbata, Silver Wattle - 0.5 kg Seeds

Acacia dealbata, the silver wattle or mimosa, is an elegant evergreen tree with silvery-grey, finely divided fern-like foliage and masses of fragrant, fluffy golden-yellow flower balls in late winter and spring. In India it is grown in the cooler hill stations of the Nilgiris, the Western Ghats and the lower Himalaya where the climate suits it.

It is prized as an ornamental and avenue tree for its showy, sweetly scented bloom and graceful canopy, while its bark yields tannin and the wood is used for fuel and small timber. As a hardy nitrogen-fixing legume it is also planted for shelter and for greening cool, exposed slopes.

• Family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)
• Native region: south-eastern Australia and Tasmania
• Mature height: 8-15 m
• Growth rate: fast

The hard seed coat must be broken first: pour hot water over the seeds and soak as it cools for about 24 hours, sowing those that swell. Sow roughly 1 cm deep in a free-draining seed mix; germination usually takes 14-21 days. Grow the seedlings on in pots and transplant to a cool, sunny, sheltered site once established.