Chinese Catalpa
Catalpa ovata
Size: #15–1.25 inch diameter
25 feet high x 20 feet wide
Broad rounded shape
Zone 2
Full Sun to Part Shade
Out of stock
When pruning a customer’s trees this past autumn we discovered one of the most beautiful small trees in Casper. The funny thing is when asked where’d they get it – the customer responded ‘from you’. That was twelve years ago! We didn’t have to think twice about reintroducing this small tree that wowed our senses. Chinese catalpa is smaller in stature than western catalpa, rarely more than thirty feet in height, the flowers are brilliantly colored with orange and violet on a pale yellow to ivory background, orchid like in appearance. Leaves are medium green, broadly ovate with heart-shaped bases to 10 inches long. Autumn leaf color is golden. Handles dry to moist soils but not a good choice for a windblown site.
Throughout this site, the following are used as guidelines for watering established plants:
These truly xeric plants can live with our 12 inches of natural annual precipitation and only need a winter watering during a multi-year drought, but they will thrive with a monthly watering. Overwatering will kill some of these. These plants are adapted to intermittent deep
watering with soil drying to a depth of a few inches between waterings. Watering frequency may be every couple of weeks during the active growing season and maybe only one winter watering for optimal care. These plants need regular watering somewhat like a bluegrass lawn so that
they never dry to depth in the root system during the active growing season, and need occasional winter watering to prevent root dessication and resultant plant
death. About sizes of our plants:
Sizes indicated with a # are roughly the equivalent in gallonage; so a #2 is about a 2 gallon pot size; b&b stands for balled and burlapped.