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x Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' (Chitalpa) - A rapidly-growing deciduous tree, branching readily near its base with ascending branches that form a dense broad oval crown growing 20 to 25 feet tall with potentially equal spread. It has 6 inch long lanceolate leaves that are dull green above and fuzzy underneath,Among the best features of 'Pink Dawn' is the abundant clusters of showy pale-pink flowers with each cluster containing from 15 to 40 flowers. The 1 inch long bell shaped flowers have a funnel-shaped throat with conspicuous purple nectar guides that line the inside and emerge to give orchid striping to the flared pink petal lobes. Flowering initiates in May in Southern California and continues well into late fall.
Plant in full sun. It has inherited drought and heat tolerance from its Desert Willow parent (Chilopsis linearis) and is cold tolerant to round 0F and useful in USDA zones 6 and above. It suffers from powdery mildew on the foliage near the coast, in the southeastern U.S., or when planted in the shade and can also contract verticillium wilt, which can kill off whole branches.
x Chitalpa tashkentensis is a cross between the western U.S. native Chilopsis linearis, and the southeastern U.S. native Catalpa bignonioides that was first hybridized by Nikolai Rusanov at the Uzbek Academy of Sciences Botanical Garden in Tashkent, Uzbekistan Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) in 1964 and imported and introduced into the United States by Robert Hebb of the New York Botanic Garden in 1977. Although cultivated in the U.S. through the 1980s, this hybrid remained unnamed until 1991 when Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden assigned them the name x Chitalpa tashkentensis. Chitalpa is a combination of the scientific name of the two parents and the specific name identifies the city in Uzbekistan where the hybrids were initially created. Two cultivars were additionally named by Walter Wisura and Tom Elias at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (now called California Botanic Garden), the pink flowering cultivar as 'Pink Dawn' (AKA Clone #1) and the larger pale pink to white flowering cultivar as 'Morning Cloud' (AKA Clone #2). Recent information has emerged that these two cultivars likely had different parents with Catalpa × galleana (C. ovata × C. speciosa) being the pollen parent of 'Pink Dawn'.
We first received plants from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and began selling it in 1992 but discontinued production in 2002 because of powdery mildew issues in our coastal location.
The information displayed on this page about Chitalpa tashkentensis 'Pink Dawn' is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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