Catalpa bignonioides

<strong><a href="https://en.promessedefleurs.eu/shrubs/shrubs-by-variety/catalpa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Catalpa</a> is a very beautiful shade tree</strong> appreciated for its summer white flowering in large upright clusters <strong>and its</strong> <strong>imposing deciduous foliage</strong> in the shape of a heart. <strong>It bears original bean-shaped fruits</strong>, hence its other name of bean tree or cigar tree. <strong>Catalpa bignonioides</strong> is most often planted in our gardens, but one can sometimes be surprised by the dimensions it reaches, ranging between 10 and 20 m in height and 10 m in diameter! Fortunately, <strong>it tolerates being cut back to the ground</strong>, producing strong shoots of 3-4 m in a year that generate leaves over 30 cm long. This very clever technique allows, as with Paulownia, to give an exotic touch in a small garden with a very hardy plant that simply needs to be treated like a perennial with annual pruning! <strong>Ball Catalpa</strong> (Catalpa bignonioides Nana) <strong>forms a</strong> <strong>small tree</strong> just as common as the typical species, <strong>useful for structuring small gardens</strong> with its very compact umbrella habit of 3 m in diameter and up to 5 m in height. It can highlight a path, serve as a focal point, or mark an intersection… It is worth noting that it does not flower, but it has many other qualities: it requires no pruning, 9 square metres of air space at 3-5 m in height is sufficient, with a welcome cluster of bushes at its base, and it is really not demanding! Its cousin, Catalpa bungei, is often confused with it, as it also has a ball shape but reaches 8 m in height and 4 m in width. It flowers in white clusters striped with purple, fruits, and its leaves are coarsely dentate. <strong>Some very beautiful species</strong> that are still little known <strong>broaden the range of Catalpas, such as the hybrid x erubescens Purpurea</strong> which delivers spring foliage tinged with purple, evolving to dark green, with large lobed laminae with points rather than heart-shaped. The golden form ‘Aurea’ of the species bignonioides, which has a short trunk and lesser vigour, fits perfectly into an English-style border, flanked for example by Miscanthus with purple spikes, hydrangeas, or landscape roses. Its lemon yellow hue persists for a good part of the summer before turning green.