Florida Gardening: FLORIDA GARDENING CHIT-CHAT #180 - ALL ARE WELCOME, 1 by JaxFlaGardener

JaxFlaGardener wrote:
Good morning, all!

Marianne, sounds like you have an incredibly busy day! Last minute preparations can be grueling.

Chuck Hubbuch, former zoo hort director and now hort director at UNF did recognize my mystery shrub as one of his abandoned orphans. It is an intergeneric hybrid, so it seems like I was sort of on the right track with my comments that it was created by committee. LOL Here's Chuck's explanation of the shrub and a comment from Terry in Plant Files: ( http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/58425/ )

Chuck Hubbuch:

Quoting:Yes, it is one of the plants I left behind. It is x Chitalpa tashkentensis, a intergeneric hybrid between Catalpa bignonioides and Chilopsis linearis. It is fairly cold hardy but it looks good now because of the dry spring we had. It is a very drought tolerant plant. I am glad it found a good home.

Terry:

Quoting:In 1964, a hybridizer in Uzbekistan crossed the Chilopsis linearis and Catalpa bignoides, giving rise to the Chitalpa Tree, which wasn't officially christened until 1991, when the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden gave it its name. The flowers are sterile and dry on the plant, eliminating the need to clean up messy seed pods.

Jeremy