Common Catalpa (Catawba, Indian Bean)
Catalpa bignonioides. (BIGNONIACEAE)
Planting and Growing Catalpa Trees
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow common catalpa, catawba, and Indian bean trees in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and fruit of common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- Growing conditions for common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- When to plant common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- How to plant common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- How to prune common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- Landscape uses of common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
- Pest and disease control for common catalpa (catawba, Indian bean)
Growing Catalpa Trees
Several cultivars of fast-growing, short-lived, round, deciduous trees native to North America, to 60–ft. (18 m) tall and wide, with opposite, smooth, light green, heart-shaped or oval, broadly pointed, whorled, acridly fragrant leaves, 4–12 in. (10–30 cm) long.
Choose either Northern Catalpa (Catalpa speciosa) or the more commonly cultivated Southern or Common Catalpa (C. bignonioides), depending on the latitude of your garden.
Catalpa Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Showy, white, flared, deep-throated flowers, to 2 in. (50 mm) long, with yellow stripes and brown spots, in spring–summer, form beanpodlike fruit, to 10 in. (25 cm) long, in late summer.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 4–10. Hardy.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist to dry, well-drained soil. Fertility: Average. 5.5–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full or filtered sun. Space 8–12 ft. (2.4–3.7 m) apart.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep moist until established; drought tolerant thereafter. Fertilize annually in spring. Prune to promote treelike form, remove low branches in autumn. Propagate by cuttings, layering, seed.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, screens, shade in turfgrass, woodland gardens. Good for tropical effects. Oak leaf fungus resistant. Mealybug, midge, catalpa sphinx moth and chlorosis susceptible.