Japanese Pagoda Tree Sophora japonica

The Japanese Pagoda Tree flowers when few other trees do. In late summer, long after the spring blossom has gone, its crown fills with loose, hanging sprays of small creamy white pea flowers, and honey bees find them almost at once. Around that flowering sits a medium to large deciduous shade tree with a broad, rounded head of soft, fern like compound leaves, and a reputation for toughness: heat, dry spells once established, poor soil and city air all suit it, which is why councils in southern Australian cities have used it as a street tree.

Despite the name it is native to China rather than Japan, where it has long been planted around temples. Botanists now call it Styphnolobium japonicum, and labels use both names. Young shoots stay green for several years before the bark turns grey and furrowed, which gives the bare winter frame a faint green cast that most deciduous trees lack.

Shade over a lawn, room to spread

Give it full sun and room to spread. This tree eventually grows wider than most front yards, with a canopy that throws real summer shade over a lawn, a patio or a car park and lets winter sun through once the leaves drop. It is most at home in temperate and cool districts: Sydney and the Hunter, the tablelands, Canberra, Victoria, Adelaide and the south west of Western Australia. Frost does not trouble it, and it handles hot, dry summers once its roots are down. In humid south east Queensland it will grow, but it is a less natural fit than further south.

Soil can be ordinary or even poor, provided it drains. It puts up with clay that is well structured, but not with a site that sits waterlogged through winter. In autumn the leaves usually fall green or after a short, dull yellow turn, and it is grown for shade, form and its late flowers rather than autumn colour. If you want summer flowers and autumn colour on a much smaller deciduous tree, Crepe Myrtle gives both.

Litter, patience and poison

Patience first. Seed raised trees are slow to come into flower, often ten years or more from seed, so even an advanced tree may still be several years from its first good flowering; buy it for shade and shape and count the first full flowering as something to look forward to.

Then the litter. Spent flowers fall over two or three weeks and leave a sticky, staining layer on cars, paving and outdoor furniture. The pods follow: green, fleshy and pinched between each seed like a string of beads, they hang on into winter and drop a few at a time. Keep the tree back from driveways, pools and pale paving, and let the crown spread over lawn or garden bed instead.

The pods and seeds are poisonous if eaten, to people and to animals, so do not plant it over a children's play area, a chicken run or a paddock where livestock graze beneath it.

Getting an advanced tree established

An advanced tree has a large rootball that has to be watered as a unit until new roots move out into the surrounding soil. Water deeply once or twice a week through the first summer, more often in heatwaves, then taper back during the second year; after that it needs a soak only in long dry spells. Mulch the root zone, keeping mulch clear of the trunk, and feed in spring with a slow release fertiliser for trees. The guide to planting an advanced tree covers the hole, the backfill and the first year's watering.

Pruning is mostly formative. Settle on one clear leader early, remove competing leaders while they are thin, and lift the lower branches gradually over several winters for head room. Prune while the tree is dormant, when the branch structure is easy to read. Few pests trouble it, and most problems start on trees stressed by drought, so steady watering in dry years prevents more trouble than any spray. Other trees grown on to a size that gives shade sooner are in Advanced Trees.

Choosing a size

This plant is supplied in one size, 45L, at $219.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot it arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to choosing a tree for a small backyard.