Ok, I posted a picture of this tree in the everyday bloom thread, but I noticed something today that merited its own post. I've had my GS for about 3-4 years - I bought it when it was in a 25 gallon nursery pot. It was big, but still fit in the back of a Tahoe. It's been planted in the ground ever since. Other than a minor set-back from one rough winter with some freezing temps, its growth rate has been astonishing.

Here's the whole tree as of today. It's about 5.5 feet tall, and super bushy (not quite at VW bug stage, but it's getting there!):

This has been the first summer that it's had more than 3 inflos. As of right now, it has 12. The first one of those 12 inflos opened relatively early - in May, I think. Since that time, the two branches that split from that inflo have grown enough that one of them now has its own inflo!! In the same summer!! The inflo with flowers on the right is the one that opened first this summer. The one with just buds that's in the center of the picture is on one of the branches that split from that original inflo. And you can kind of see that that new branch is now splitting into 3. All from one season of growth!!

The new branches from this season have already grown almost a foot. It's hard to judge the size in the photos, but the inflo stalks themselves are huge.

Some additional bloom photos:

It's really been an amazing thing to watch this plant grow. I've seen pictures of the original GS tree in Bud's front yard, and I totally get it - even though this plant has years and years ahead of it before it gets close to that. You can see the pictures of Bud's original tree here, in the post by tdogdad: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/2097957/guillots-sunset

I can't wait until the inflos on this tree are the size of Bud's!!