Thursday, June 25, 2009

What in the hell IS that?!



I saw this ..... thing ..... down by the creek the other night. The plant itself is actually more of a tree, easily thirty feet tall, with these ginormous blooms in clusters. Each bloom in the cluster is around an inch-and-a-half across.

I mean, come on, it's GORGEOUS ....... but what in the hell IS it?

4 comments:

rockygrace said...

...... it's a catalpa tree!

I want one.

Unknown said...

Take a cutting of it (pretty much anywhere, hardwood or softwood) and have at it...for free.

The instructions are here:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8702.html

Be warned, though. They can be a real hassle when all the pods drop and you have to rake those big-ass leaves. Sometimes things are prettier to go look at (like...you know, ornamental cherry trees) than they are to take care of.

listie said...

I'm in agreement with Bridgett. Catalpa trees are some of the messiest on the planet (I wouldn't plant a cottonwood tree either, unless you like to be ankle deep in that cottony stuff they drop every spring. To their credit, though, they're very tolerant of wet conditions.)

rockygrace said...

Hmmm .... looks like I'll have to weigh the prettiness of the blooms against the mess the tree makes.

Aw, hell, you KNOW I'm going to be down at the creek this weekend with a pair of pruning shears ....