Yeah. I bet you get ten years. Problem is they are very invasive. Drive along I270 here between Hazelwood and Maryland Heights. Dozens of them which have escaped cultivation are visible this time of year.

I bet they keep redbuds and dogwoods from sprouting up. Probably make oak seedling less likely to survive also.

Mimosa will certainly live longer than five years. I believe ten to twenty years is the average. They grow wild on my property here in Georgia and are an invasive species. I don't think they are that bad. Mimosa doesn't bother me at all like the other invasive plants I have to deal with like Chinese privet and kudzu. Check out the 'Summer Chocolate' cultivar. That's what I'd plant, but I am obsessed with purple leaves. There are probably some alternatives that you should consider. Golden Rain Tree comes to mind. Hopefully other people will make some recommendations. It's too bad it would be almost impossible to find a Korean Mimosa (Albizia coreana) around. It is probably less invasive than the common one.

-Forrest

Here is a link that might be useful: Learn From My Mistakes

Golden raintree is no prize either. I found it very weedy in Georgia and was pulling seedlings out of my yard and my neighbors' yards constantly. Then I just cut it down.

Mimosa is "bad" because it is invasive. Mostly in the south but obviously working it's way north now if you are seeing it on the side of the road. As temperatures continue to moderate in the years ahead, it will become invasive in the northeast, I predict, just like tree of heaven has.

Growing up NYC, the tree was almost a dominant tree species in urban areas of Brooklyn and Queens County decades ago so they have been in the 'North' for a while now. I must confess I thought the trees gorgeous in bloom let alone the feathery foliage. They seem to do best in highly urbanized environments (perhaps where nothing else survived!)--similar to Ailanthus. Now that I am in a more suburban area (though still in the immediate NYC Metro Area and same gardening zone), I hardy ever see them. They are rarely planted, nice specimens are unknown to me, and they are almost never sold in local nurseries. I was told by a nurseryman a few years ago, that some virus or blight did a number of them in. The only place I still see them is along the highways, but only rarely. I don't grow one now or even find them as attractive as in the past. I know they are listed as an invasive in NJ but after doing years of weeding in a rather sizable yard, I have yet to find one growing wild. Any number of other plants (many sold in nurseries) seem infinitely weedier. Am assuming they might be a bigger problem tree in warmer winter areas of the Southeast.