Janet: Thanks so much again for your help! I'm going to let these two little seedlings grow and see what happens. C. rigidus grows here too, I've seen a few in the neighborhood so these seedlings could very well turn out to be rigidus. My first thought was C. viminalis because the tree is right next to the deck and always dropping seeds onto the deck and into container plants sitting there but there are always lots of birds around too so these could have been gifts from a bird.
LOL, regarding your statement about it taking a lot of heat for the pods to open ... no problems in that department, it's been 94ºF (35ºC?) almost every day for the past couple of months ... and very high humidity too. I try to stay inside in the air conditioning as much as possible.
The large Weeping Bottlebrush tree in the yard has been covered in seedpods for a couple of months and the seeds are hard. I might try soaking a few and planting them to see what happens. I do love the weeping habit of this tree and it sure is pretty when in full bloom during February and March.
