Ceiba speciosa

Regular applications of balanced fertilizer will significantly speed growth, along with infrequent, deep soakings. This plant likes its food.

Trees may produce several flushes of foliage each year, interspersed with brief deciduous periods. Where best-adapted (Southern California, especially warmer valley areas), trees will become completely leafless when blooming and keep a full canopy of greenery most of the rest of the year.

In Central California and the Bay Area, best flowering and speediest growth occur where summer days regularly reach 70F or warmer, like Oakland, San Rafael, San Mateo, Fremont, and San Jose.

Thick surface roots can cause problems around street-tree wells or within 15 feet of paving. Not a good choice for an urban sidewalk.

Shade-grown trees won't bloom until their crowns reach the height at which they get full sun, but they can develop a more conical form on the way there. Honestly, it's best to plant this tree in full sun.

Its habit of vivid (some might say garish) fall blooming sets this tree apart and marks the beginning of fall, especially in Southern California, where it is widely planted and visible from a distance.

Large, football-shaped fruits burst open from winter into spring to release "silk-floss" attached to seeds. This fluffy material enables seeds to drift on the breeze.

In all seasons, the trunk of this tree draws attention with its thick, wine-bottle shape and green bark studded with sharp, conical spines. The form really shines when the tree is leafless after flowering, its branches carrying oversize hanging fruits and its apple-green core radiating vitality in fall sunshine.

The nationwide champion tree grows at the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles and reaches 90 feet high.

A related white-flowered species, Ceiba insignis, sports an even fatter, more picturesque trunk and a creamy, cool-toned display in bloom.

Trees in marginal zones such as Central California coastal valleys have been damaged and killed in extraordinary freezes such as those of 1990 and 1972.