Focus — Trees

Catalpa speciosa

Zone: 4 to 8

Sun: full sun to part shade

Water: any, including wet and periodic flooding

Size: 40 to 70 feet high; 20 to 50 feet wide

Bark: Deeply ridged, fissured, and sculpted bark with age.

Flower: Huge pyramidal panicles of fragrant orchid-like white flowers with delicate purple stripes at the throat bloom in late May into June.

Fruit: Flowers become long thin green pods that eventually turn brown as they dry providing much entertainment to children as frustration to gardeners who prefer their yards tidy.

Fall Color: A slight yellowish green.

Native: Native a broad swathe of the Midwest, particularly in Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Ohio.

Why We Love It: You can find catalpa growing nearly anywhere from cracks in urban sidewalks to the wide turf lawns of golf courses and parks. “It’s tempting to say I love it for the flowers,” admitted Beuerlein, “because they are so showy and nicely fragrant. However, I think what I really like about them is their weathered form. They never are that perfect symmetrical tree. They’re always contorted or twisted and bent. I just think that gives them so much more character than a lot of other trees.” Almost all catalpas have a distinct character. “However old a catalpa is, and they live to be very, very old, they usually look older. They have that ridged bark that twists. They might have a section that got hit by lightning or removed. You can tell they’ve seen some street battles.

Celtis occidentalis

Hackberry

Zone: 2 to 9

Sun: full sun to part shade

Water: any

Size: 40 to 60 feet high and wide Bark: Deeply ridged and warty bark even at a young age.

Fruit: Small dark purple drupe that while edible, contains a large seed.

Fall Color: A slight greenish yellow.

Native: Native to all of the Midwest, Northeast, and parts of the South.

Why We Love It: Hackberry is tolerant of compacted soils, salt, and urban pollution. “They’re absolutely great for wildlife,” commented Beuerlein. They aren’t the loveliest of ornamental trees, but they make up for it in durability and wildlife value, supporting a number of butterflies and moths. Mature trees also have an elegant cragginess about them. “You can justify that sacrifice of a little bit of beauty for the sheer functionality of it and the importance of supporting the landscape. That’s a good thing. I think Chicago, because you’re on the prairie and you have all these prairie plantings and restorations, you’ve been doing naturalistic landscaping for decades and consequently it makes you a little ahead of the curve.”

We are the premier shade tree grower in the Chicagoland area with of 400 acres of quality field-grown nursery stock . Cedar Path Nurseries has two conveniently located sales yards, Lockport and Barrington, to better serve our clients.

Cedar Path Nurseries carries a full line of B&B trees and shrubs, container shrubs, perennials and groundcovers. Not only are we your onestop-shop, but we are sourcing experts. We look forward to assisting on your next project.