My downhill neighbors have a Catalpa tree and it is glorious, like an 80 foot bouquet of orchids. The huge heart shaped leaves are so lush all summer. And the long seed pods add winter interest. Why don't any nurseries seem to carry them? If you've purchased one, where did you buy it?
by kdawnbear
48 Comments
It’s not really native that many places, only a few states.
People are REAL nervous about big trees. Browse r/arborists and you will notice people buying homes and immediately wanting to cut down big trees.
I love dem big leaves and beans
I have one growing naturally on the edge of my woods along the redbuds. Turns out, they have a pretty small native range and NC is not even close to it. They are beautiful though, and at least ecologically better than most trees.
They’re sort of a mess. But I love them.
Some variants are considered invasive due to seed spread and root growth. I also hear they are only native to certain regions in the U.S. But I agree, very beautiful tree it seems.
According to some people, it’s a “messy tree” because it drops yard debris multiple times per year in the form of large seed pods, flowers, and leaves.
It doesn’t bother me at all because I’m not obsessed with growing grass
My neighbors have one and they live on a corner and never rake. I don’t mind because I need leaves for my garden and catalpa leaves are the easiest to rake up quickly.
Absolutely love my Catalpa. Had never seen one before but am now in love. I have a few volunteers growing at the wood line too. Sadly one will have to go as it’s competing with the persimmon grove.
https://preview.redd.it/4nhbhuk39l3f1.jpeg?width=689&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=746c3de2c5f50332786492a3bf620732e0ade034
We decided to remove a volunteer after looking at the root system requirements. There are recommendations about distance from buildings that no spot on our lot could meet even slightly.
We have catalpas all over my neighborhood. They’re definitely an interesting tree.
We have to remove one because it’s sprung up in a narrow space between two houses (and over the gas line). It’s not that old, already over four stories tall, has broken two fences, and wreaks havoc on our gutters – a single leaf can entirely block the drain. I do love the flowers and smell and that it is native, but it can’t stay where it is 🙁
When we moved into our new house, there was a stump that just kept trying to grow. I kept it cut back for a couple of years until I decided to just let it grow.
Now I have a beautiful healthy catalpa tree, 100′ tall. I love it.
Catalpas are great. They get big FAST, they don’t have a lot of diseases, have beautiful flowers, and reproduce well (but not weedily/invasively). They can also handle drought and wet feet with equal aplomb.
I think a lot of people are nervous about the size; also, they have a short leaf season: they’re the last tree to get leaves and the first to lose them.
I love them but one volunteered in my tiny vegetable garden this spring and I’m like LOL nope. I simply don’t have the space for one.
Most people don’t care. I have two catalpas, and a few other trees in the 20 foot range. I’m going to let my kids chop them down in a few years for fun/learning. Let them pollard up and watch them regrow. I can’t afford to live in the woods so I’m growing the woods in our backyard
https://preview.redd.it/tl195yxyel3f1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=abf33263a379eea66a75e0dd22b9fa0b67c4f844
I have a couple and I love them. The flowers are gorgeous too. I have yet to see a catalpa worm on any of them though.
Honestly? I despise Catalpas, cut them out wherever I find them.
I consider them a trash tree that grows too fast, sheds a ton of pods and has weak wood.
I lump them in with honey locus, pin cherry and box elder around here. (Se Michigan)
Catalpas CAN be a nice big-leafed specimen tree if you don’t mind the debris and the skeleton, just not for me.
I live in Missouri and they are everywhere
Planted two last fall. Excited to watch them grow.
I have one and there are quite a few others in my neighbourhood. They were all planted by the builder, even though they are not native. They are stunning in full bloom and I don’t mind at all when the blossoms drop – it makes a gorgeous carpet of white on the ground. Unfortunately many of the catalpa trees in our neighbourhood are dying, I don’t know why.
Ditch tree that grows all around. Always liked it. Some of the pictures really show a great shape when it’s not growing in a ditch
I love them.
They’re a fun, derpy kind of tree, lol.
Horticulturalist and arborist here. Catalpa are beautiful when in flower, but they’re essentially the native version of a Paulownia. They’re messy, weedy, and to date they’re the only wild tree I’ve seen get regularly infested with whitefly. Their weaker wood also makes them a structural risk to themselves and any property/plants around them. They’re not on my “don’t ever plant it list” like pin oaks, ash and callary pears, but they are on my “don’t plant it near a valuable target” list alongside tulip poplars, silver maples and white pines. If someone has several acres and can plant one waaaaay in the distance they can be stunning. Especially if structurally pruned regularly.
There is a seldom seen dwarf cultivar called ‘Nana’ that grows more like a shrub. The largest I’ve seen was maybe 10′ at an arboretum. For those who want the plant without the associated risks it would be worth tracking down.
They’re kind of invasive outside of their restricted native range
There’s one in my neighborhood and I love it! But when we were looking for trees for our yard, I never saw catalpas available anywhere. Plus couldn’t find much info on northern vs southern and which one I should want.
I ended up with some non-natives (Kousa dogwood and ginkgo) and cultivars based on where I was on my plant journey when I bought them, but luckily nothing invasive, and there are some straight species too. At this point, I do wish I could swap out some of them but I don’t want to lose the growth I have gotten from them, and the cultivars at least are still beneficial. Focusing my energy and money elsewhere.
So messy!!
I transplanted a volunteer from the catalpa down the road last fall. It was not successful but there are plenty more where that came from.
My city plants caltapa speciosa as one of our street trees, I feel like I see them plenty lol.
I assume there’s some commercial nursery(ies) up here growing them given their availability as street trees. They are cool!
Bought bare roots from TN valley nursery. Planted in October and they’re starting to leaf out now!
They are all over Denver. They are probably the most planted tree in my neighborhood besides Siberian Elm.
They are great trees. But they do get too large for most normal houses. They also suffer from weak brittle branches that break often in the snow or other extreme weather. They are rather weedy too tbh. Lots of seeds and they germinate easily. There is one down the street and I took a few pods and had great success.
Because their beautiful flowers make me sneeze, my eyes water, and my head fill with snot.
They are gorgeous, but I grew up with two mature ones near my home and they have pretty soft wood. Made my parent very nervous having them near the house when it was windy. They still have one, the other they removed a few years ago for that reason.
I love the flowers so much but I actually hate catalpas with a passion 😆 I just dug dozens of them out of my yard
My biggest problem with them is that they aren’t native where I am and they’re all over my riparian zone where their huge pods and leaves do not break down at ALL! They do not mesh into that rich detritus layer the others make. And they’re outcompeting my natives on the forest floor. So I end up with huge monocultures of catalpas, a bunch of stupid sticks, and nothing else growing under them. I replaced them with other species like sandbar willow, river birch, hazelnut, persimmon, pawpaw, etc. to stabilize my banks and I finally have riparian shaded species coming in 🥹
That’s a beautiful tree.
It’s prone to breaking and dropping branches, native in a very small area, and incredibly weedy .
They pop up *everywhere* in my town, and are not native. They’re pretty for sure, but not a great choice.
I have six baby trees that I grew from seed that will be planted on a bare hillside and to replace some Russian elm that I hate.
Messy in all seasons, a landscaper warned me.
Bc of the caterpillars.
We had two in our south ga yard, when I wss growing up.
Huge spiderweb looking nests full of caterpillars. Then said caterpillars got on the clothes on the line in the yard, came into the house under the screen door, were all over the ground to step on in the yard. **Shudders**
No thank you.
i bought several different tree seeds that included a few southern catalpa ones because i have fond childhood memories of being fascinated by the catalpa growing near my dad’s store. they’re ridiculous trees that work perfectly well when in the right time and place, and hopefully i can get some seedlings started for transplanting into the abandoned open fields around here.
My genuinely wonderful, lovely, kind, and sweet ideal neighbors have two big beautiful catalpas. I don’t mind the empty seed pods that blanket my yard, but they are almost as aggressive as my other pretty cool, kinda loud, and politically opposite other neighbor’s invasive honeysuckle.
This is hurricane country. It’s lovely but no.
Catalpa’s are illegal to plant in Detroit, even though there’s so many nature ones. Maybe they’re banned in other cities too?
Catalpa trees are messy AF. We have tons around where I live. They are a pain!
I have at least three of these on my recently purchased property (3+ acres) I think they are beautiful! I’d never heard of them before and reverse image searched the flowers and leaves to find out what they are! The flowers mimic orchids to me and I love that
I’ve got an 80′ one! Beautiful this time of year! To the right and behind dog tax. It does shade the entire yard.
https://preview.redd.it/k7r4ymt6im3f1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f52d81db738a49afe2e3befd3cc2e51605be1dea
I bought one last year. It’s only about 8 ft tall right now. I swear I put more thought into buying the tree than buying the house. I love Catalpas. So excited because it started blooming.
I love it.