Mopheads keep cool
There are some eye-catching trees that can flourish even in non-sprawling gardens, writes David Overend.
Small gardens have their own attractions, plus, they are far easier to maintain than an acre or more of landscaped nature. However, there is one big problem with a small garden – it hasn’t the room to accommodate many of the world’s finest specimen trees. But if the room is there – use it. And if the conditions exist, use them to grow trees that, more often than not, would normally never be able to find a happy home in the UK.
One such example is Catalpa bignonioides, AKA the Indian bean tree, whose golden form is a gem of a slowishgrowing, mop-headed medium-sized tree, with huge golden yellow leaves and white summer flowers followed by long “bean” pods.
If I had enough space in my garden (and the right conditions) I would love to grow one.
Catalpa bignonioides tolerates most soils (even heavy clays, although given a choice, it would opt for a deep fertile soil).
Sadly, it’s a bit tender so it’s best planted in a warm sunny spot – such as a walled garden if you are fortunate enough to own one, or a sheltered spot protected from cold, drying winds and severe frosts. It needs that shelter from strong winds because they may shred the tree’s large leaves.
Given the right conditions, Catalpa bignonioides will easily reach 12 metres and may eventually grow to 20 metres in height and have a spread of eight metres or perhaps more, so it’s not the sort of tree for your average garden and it’s not all that long-lived – 60 years or so.
But it’s an eye-catching plant whose wide-spreading, much-branched head make it popular as a shade-providing parkland tree in warmer countries.
And if you have the space and you fancy something a bit out of the ordinary...
A bit of pruning may be required, such as removing any dead or damaged branches, cutting them back as close to the trunk as possible. Keeping the bottom few feet of the trunk clear will also enhance the shape of the tree.
Catalpa trees blossom in spring and early summer and then the flowers form slender seed pods 10-24 inches long. In autumn, these turn dark brown, then split in spring to release the seeds.