Catalpa Bonsai Early Updates - Seedling and Yamadori Examples

Source material: June 2025

            The catalpa says good morning! If you see any trees in the southern or eastern US this time of year (late spring) with large white and purple flowers followed by string bean-looking seed pods, you've found a native catalpa! Below I share some additional notes on working with this species for bonsai which I have started to learn over the past few years.

Sections:

1. Notes on Catalpa Seeds and Seedlings
2. Notes on Catalpa Yamadori and Wild Digging

In Vivo Bonsai Announcements/Upcoming Events in Columbus

• June 18, 6-9pm. Clip and Grow Styling for Succulent Bonsai - Lecture and Workshop with Central Ohio Cactus and Succulent Society.
• This is my next lecture/workshop here in Columbus. Since the Central Ohio Cactus and Succulent Society are already knowledgeable on succulent growing, for this educational day I will focus first on discussing styling via clip and grow. I will share some examples from Brucera (Frankincense), Jade, Dwarf Jade, and others so you can see the technique in action over time. Then you will get the opportunity to plant and style your own succulent bonsai. Species available include jade, gollum jade, dwarf jade, and others. Facebook event is here.
• July 3, 6-9pm. I will be presenting/demonstrating for the Akron-Canton Bonsai Society on the topic of deadwood! Bring a tree that you could use some advice on improving its deadwood if you happen to be in the Cleveland, Ohio area. I will have several stylistic examples of deadwood and potentially some manual carving tools available. Full info will be posted here.
• July 19-20. Columbus Bonsai Society Annual Show!
• Details coming soon but there will be vendors, workshops, and great trees! Facebook event here.

A catalpa flower. After a late spring rain, the flowers can often be found on the ground.

            This species first caught my attention a few years back when I found one with naturally stunted 1-inch leaves despite the typical size on full-size trees approaching dinner plates. At that time, I made a blog article highlighting the traits of the species and wondering about its potential (see here). Since then, I have experimented with growing them from seed (pic 5) and dug one larger wild one (pic 6).

A middle-aged catalpa specimen in Ohio.

An old catalpa here in Ohio.

Buck likes the catalpa flowers too!

Notes on Catalpa Seeds and Seedlings

A catalpa seedling, now 3 or 4 years old. The tree has been wired at least once, possibly twice. I am now testing out how ramified I can get this one to see what I can learn of the species while I am thickening trunks and digging yamadori of other specimen.

            The seeds easily maintain high long-term viability with a high germination rate, so they are a great species for anyone to try. By the way, some catalpa seeds are available for sale here on my Etsy, if so inclined. This species is even one that requires NO cold stratification so it can be planted even as late as July and still sprout and harden off by winter. Once sprouted and growing, they take to wiring easily but can drop branches if one is unconstrained while another is wired. Also, the leaves can maintain a small size when using bonsai techniques and the tree in pic 5 is about 3 years old. I just decided to focus on ramifying it this year as a test (instead of trunk growth which I usually make first priority for seedlings).

Notes on Catalpa Yamadori / Wild Digging

A catalpa yamadori, now 1.5 years post-dig. The tree was repotted this spring and pruned once last fall. Now it is backbudding abundantly and will be air-layered this year.

            The tree in pic 6 is one I dug locally in the fall about 1.5 years ago now. The tree recovered well with minimal effort or setbacks despite some harsh winters (one of the advantages of working with natives is that they are accustomed to the local climate challenges already!). I now intend to air-layer it into 2 or 3 smaller trees as there is some interesting movement in the trunk.

            As always, appreciate your natives and your wild trees. We don't need to go to Japan to find species for bonsai.