Growing up with a full grown catalpa tree in the backyard was interesting. I especially liked the blooms. Beside being fragrant, they made fine finger puppets and when the blossoms fell they created a carpet of flowers on the ground. It was a big tall strong tree with hugh leaves that could be used as fans and then came the long beans that hung down like decorations. I just have a 5 foot start in my backyard now, the above picture is from some tip growth. I was pleasantly surprised when we took a geneology trip to Illinois we found lots of catalpa trees in the wild and we were there for the blooms.
