I just moved into my new house in May and in the front side yard there are two trees about 12-15 feet high. It started to bloom around June/July. The flowers are white and in bunches. They have 5 small petals with "feelers" like honeysyckle coming out of the middle and they look and smell just like Jasmine. The butterflies and the hummingbird moths LOVE this tree. There are dozens of them all over the tree all day. The trunks of the trees are not large and they remind me of the Crepe Myrtles that are all over this area. The leaves are velvety and pear shaped. The buds from the flowers are turning a pinkish purple now. I've taken a cutting to a local nursery and they believed it to be a Paulownia, but the photos that I've looked up don't match it. Another person thought it might be a linden tree, but again when I looked up the photos it didn't match. I love these trees and I just want to know what it is so I can take the best care of it. I have no way of downloading a photo yet, but I will soon so I can post that soon. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!!
You are close enough to D.C. that someone may have, years ago, picked up a seed on the Washington mall. The mall trees are Paulonia(variety?), known as "EMPRESS OF CHINA" trees. When Admiral Dewey made his show of force in Shanghai, a thousand years ago, the Empress of China gave him several small plants and many seeds. The national arboretum then propagated the seeds and subsequently the trees became the tree of choice to line the main boulevard from Virginia into D.C.. That may may be the variety you have. At least you have a place to start.
Paulownia has purple flowers, and it flowers much earlier in the spring. White flowers starting in June/July sounds more like a Catalpa to me.
Thank you for the responses. The tree has now gone through a strange transforamtion. As soon as the weather started to cool, the white flowers turned almost fuschia pink and there is a bright blue berry like thing in the middle. The fragrance is now gone (along with the butterflies). I've taken a cutting to a few nurseries and no one can figure it out. One guys thinks it might be a variation of a Linden tree, but I've not been able to find anything with this new transformation to it. I've included some photos. The one labled "Tree 2" is what it looked like in the spring. You can see one of the blooms on the bottom right of the photo. The other photo is a more recent one with the new color change and blue berry. I really hope someone can help me figure this tree out. I really love it and just want to know what it is. Thank you!
