There are plenty of them in the San Jose/Milpitas area and they do just fine. Most nurseries around here sell them.

wanda

In our zone 15 we have some problems with Jacarandas.

They are absolutely gorgeous when they do make it through a few mild winters, have a long warm-hot summer, and are planted out of the wind.

Too many of those planted here are either frosted badly, wind broken, or simply non-blooming green for lack of heat. Or all of the above. The worst of these outright die, the second to worst are removed/replaced after two-too-many chances, and the majority of the survivors take up space with inadequate reards.

The first two situations account for the largest percentage of historical Jacarandas here but because gardeners don't replace up-and-gone Jacarandas with signs that say "Jacaranda died here", most others think that they must do well here.

If you can give it a very warm location (south facing, hardscape heat reflection), protected from the worst winds, and some kind of cover at least in youth, you might be rewarded.

Joe

I think it is worth the try if you heed Joe's last paragraph and especially be prepared to winter protect the first few years, after which they should stand the winter temps OK. Al

Thanks for the advice! But one more question: how fast do they grow?

I'm not in your zone, but I have a Jacaranda that volunteered in my backyard. It's about 3 1/2 years old, and about 16ft tall. It flowered the first time last spring.

FYI: there's quite a few in Los Altos in the University Avenue area. 30 - 40 footers. Good show in flower. I think they drop some litter however. Then again, how many trees have blue/purple flowers?

There are lots of tall trees in that area so it is somewhat protected at least from wind.

They litter a lot after blooming, so I would not recommend jacaranda over a patio or regularly used walkway.

The Sunset book says they can grown in zones 12, 13, and 15-24. "Plant is fairly hardy after it attains some mature hard wood; young plants are tender below 25 degrees but often come back from freeze to make multistemmed, shrubby plants." They grow 25-40 feet high and 15-30 feet wide. Seems like the ones in my neighborhood are wider than 30 feet. It's a beautiful tree.

Well, I think I am going to try a jacaranda after all.

I've seen many large beautiful ones in San Jose, Fremont, Milpitas, and other warm South bay areas that get almost no frost and lots of warmth. Also seen nice ones in San Francisco and Berkeley, but these are all Zone 16 and 17. Seen very few in Zones 14 or 15, although I've seen one very nice one in Napa Valley of all places, and I've seen a few large ones around Concord and Walnut Creek. Some of these survived the historic all-time record freeze of 1990 and regrew all their leaves, not from the stump but actually on the branches, so I think they are not as tender as people think. I've also seen them grow prolifically in some of the frost-prone inland areas of San Diego county, where temps in the mid-20s barely frosted a few of the leaves a couple of winters ago.

We are in Walnut Creek in Zone 15 and planted one a few years ago and it is doing really well. The first spot we had was not good -- poor drainage did it in, but we thought being near the house would be good. Then we planted another one in the middle of the yard with better drainage and it really took off. We've never had any leaf burn, and there are several in the neighborhood (maybe a dozen or so) that have been around for the past ten years and are also doing fine.

I'd say Zone 14 -- forget it. Zone 15 -- definitely worth it, and not very fickle at all except maybe every decade or two if we get a really bad freeze, but even then will recover back to normal.