Every spring, Sydney turns purple. The jacaranda is the tree behind that dreamy blue-violet haze over streets from Kirribilli to Grafton, and the carpet of fallen flowers underneath is half the appeal. Before you plant one, though, there is more to know than most people realise.
At Landart, we design and build gardens across Sydney and the Northern Rivers, and a feature tree like a jacaranda is often where a garden design starts. Get the species and its position right and the whole garden settles around it. Get it wrong and you are fighting the tree for years. Here is what we tell clients who fall for the colour and want one in their own garden, and how we approach it on a Landart project.
Jacarandas are not native to Australia
Despite more than 150 years in the ground here, Jacaranda mimosifolia is not a local. It comes from parts of Central and South America, and the seeds are thought to have arrived with sea captains sailing from the Americas, with Sir James Martin often credited with planting one of the first in New South Wales. The tree has naturalised so completely that most people assume it belongs here.
When do jacarandas flower in Sydney?
In Sydney, jacarandas flower from late October into November, sometimes lingering into early December. The timing shifts a little year to year with temperature, and coastal Northern Rivers gardens around Byron Bay tend to colour up a touch earlier than cooler inland pockets. The bloom lasts a few weeks, then the flowers drop and carpet the ground in blue.
There is a bit of folklore attached, too. In university towns, the saying goes that if you have not started studying by the time the jacarandas bloom, it is already too late. A pretty tree with a reputation for exam anxiety.
They grow tall and wide
If you are thinking about planting one, you will need room. In good conditions a mature jacaranda reaches at least 10 to 15 metres high and close to the same across. That rules it out for a small backyard, and it makes a poor choice on a boundary, where the canopy and roots quickly become your neighbours’ problem as well as yours.
The root system is not friendly to pipes or pools
Jacarandas have a vigorous, spreading root system, so placement matters. Keep them well clear of drains, pipes, water lines and paths, where the roots can lift paving and cause trouble over time. The classic mistake is planting one near a swimming pool. The fine fallen flowers and leaves clog filters and skimmer boxes, and you will spend the whole flowering season scooping them out. This is the single most common jacaranda regret we see, and it is entirely avoidable with the right position.
It is also the reason we plan planting and hard landscaping together rather than one after the other. When a pool design and build and the surrounding planting are drawn up as one scheme, the big trees go where their roots and leaf drop are an asset rather than a maintenance problem.
Are jacarandas messy?
Honestly, yes. The same flower drop that looks beautiful on the ground also lands on cars, decks, paths and pool water, and the spent blooms can stain and get slippery underfoot. None of this is a reason to avoid the tree. It is a reason to place it where the drop is a feature rather than a chore, over a lawn or a garden bed rather than a patio or driveway.
Young jacarandas hate the cold
For the first couple of years, a young jacaranda needs looking after, as it is frost sensitive and vulnerable to cold snaps. Get it through that early stage and it settles in and adapts to the Sydney climate without much fuss.
They live a long time
The average jacaranda lives around 50 years, though plenty push well past that, with some reaching 200. They hit maturity at about 20 years and can regrow from fresh fallen seed if damaged. Planting one is a long-term decision, which is all the more reason to get the position right the first time.
Pruning is trickier than it looks
Jacarandas do not take kindly to heavy pruning. Cut them hard and they respond with clusters of strong vertical shoots that spoil the natural shape, and once you start you have to keep removing them. The formative shaping is usually done young, in the nursery, so the best approach in the garden is to choose the spot well and then largely leave the tree alone. Where shaping is needed on an established tree, it is light, regular work, which is exactly what our garden maintenance team takes on for clients so the tree keeps its form.
Should you plant one, or is there a better option?
If you have the space and the right spot, a jacaranda is hard to beat for spring impact. If you love the colour but not the size, there are smaller purple-flowering alternatives that suit a compact Sydney garden, such as tibouchina, which gives you a similar violet show on a far more manageable frame. The right choice comes down to your block, your soil and where the tree will sit in the wider design.
This is where it pays to plan before you plant. We place feature trees as part of a considered garden design and full landscape design and build, so a jacaranda ends up somewhere it can earn its place without threatening pipes, paving or the pool. You can see how feature planting sits within a finished garden across our recent projects, and our luxury garden autumn planting guide for Sydney and the Northern Rivers covers more on planning a garden by season.
Thinking about a jacaranda, or a garden that makes the most of one? Talk to the Landart team. We design and build across the Northern Beaches, Lower North Shore and Eastern Suburbs.
