Catalpa Bignoniodes

[Rosie]

I really like Catalpa tree's but they can grow rather tall, too tall for my garden anyways.. Sooo I was wondering what your opinion is of growing one in a pot. Do you think it would survive?

[steve]

I have this planted out Rosie and similar to the Foxglove tree (Paulownia Tomentosa) you can cut it back hard every year it then produces massive leaves

[Rosie]

Hmmm....You have me thinking now our steve

[steve]

Of course in growing them for the large leaves and cutting them back hard every year you don't get to see the pretty flowers or seed pods

[SueA]

I like catalpas too Rosie, there are a couple of them in the city centre in Manchester in one of the little squares off a side street & the flowers & 'beans' are lovely but those are pretty big trees. I think you wouldn't get the flowers if you grew one in a pot because they have to be fairly established before they flower & as steve says you'd have to keep cutting it back.

[Rosie]

I kind of thought that SueA, the flowers are nice. I might give it a shotty anyhoo

[grindle]

I have a Chitalpa which is a cross between a catalpa and chilopsis, the leaves are different but the flowers are similar, it's very slow growing and I have to admit very very slow to flower and needs a bit of warm summer to do so, but a pretty small tree

[SueA]

That sounds lovely grindle, I've never heard of it so I looked it up but it says prefers a hot sunny spot in a well drained soil to flower well so no chance here, the height given for it seems to vary too, some say it grows to 16ft & others to 30ft?

[grindle]

well mine is about 12yrs old SueA and only 7ft, I agree with the heat though as that is probably why I don't get many flowers

[daitheplant]

Catalpa ( Indian Bean Tree ) tend to grow 12ft to 15 ft in the ground. However, as with any other plant, they can be grown in containers. The trees are primarily grown for their foliage rather than their flowers. As with anything else grown in pots, they are automatically "bonsai-d". So wouldn`t need pruning. Come to that, they don`t need pruning anyway.

[roofgardener]

There is a plant called "Catalpa Bignoniodes" ?

This sounds like something out of the "Welease Bwian" scene in "The Life of Brian".

Monty Python said:

Pontius Pilate: He has a wife, you know. You know what she's called? She's called... 'Incontinentia'... Incontinentia Buttocks
guards break out into giggles
Pontius Pilate: And SHE has a daughter called "Catalpa BigNoniodes" !
guards collapse laughing. All the prisoners escape. Rome falls

[sweetpea]

Used to see one in a garden in Bookham, Surrey. Over the 9 or 10 years I was working that way I never noticed it grow any taller. Roughly 6' - 7' tall and quite a feature, very striking.

[Lou78W]

There's a lovely specimen at Harlow Carr Gardens.....its huge! and has been there since at least 1980....

[daitheplant]

At the farm I go to they have a green leaved one and a purple leaved one. I will take pics on Saturday.

[grindle]

would they be Cercis Canadensis daitheplant ?