Douglas Justice's July blog features ×Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn', see July 2019 in the Garden | UBC Botanical Garden. I first became interested in Chitalpa trees in 2011 when I posted one for ID: Late blooming Catalpa, and what's with these skinny leaves?. At the time, I noted that the tree I posted had flowers, whereas Catalpa trees were no longer in bloom. Fortunately, this year, there are flowers on Chitalpa and Catalpa trees today, so you can go around and compare them. Here is the ×Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' outside the Shop in the Garden. The Catalpa speciosa, one of the parents in the hybrid, seems to be at peak bloom now, in the Carolinian garden. Another tree in the mix for the 'Pink Cloud' cultivar is C. ovata, which is one of the trees that forms the Catalpa × galleana hybrid. This has much smaller flowers than these others, and has the very skinniest pods. Edited: I found a habit photo of the C. ovata that I took as I was leaving the garden. I promised "and more", but that will have to wait.
I promised more, so here are some photos flowers near the entrance. Totally out-competing the Chitalpa for attention on the entrance plaza is the Meliosma pinnata var. oldhamii. I usually give this tree a wide berth, but I didn't find it particularly smelly yesterday, a little fragrant but not objectionable. Surprisingly, the small inflorescences on the Indogofera amblyantha were making a good showing. Well, it's not so convincing in the thumbnail. The flowers are upright now, but I mentioned in a previous year's posting that they will be finally drape over the way these Indigofera kirilowii flowers do. That's I. amblyantha in the background to the right. Quite near these shrubs are several geraniums. Here is a very pretty Geranium pretense 'Plenum Violaceum'.
