Tree of the Week showcases some of the biggest and most beautiful trees in the GTA, as compiled by Megan Ogilvie. Here, three Star readers tell us about their beloved northern catalpa trees that showcase gorgeous, orchid-like flowers in July. Each reader — from Mississauga, Caledon and Toronto — is proud of their catalpa tree and believes it unique in its own way. Meet the trees, and their smitten owners, below.

Richard Fine, Mississauga

My wife and I have always believed we have the “mother of all catalpas” growing on our property. We have lived with our magnificent tree since 1986, when we moved from Toronto’s Annex neighbourhood to Lorne Park in Mississauga. This tree is truly spectacular, especially when it’s in bloom; we’ve never seen another catalpa as big. Its trunk measures 4.3 m (14 feet) in circumference and we estimate that it is between 24 and 30 m (80 to 100 feet) tall. We are very proud of it. We have a little house, and this tree towers over it, kind of protecting our house with its branches. Our tree is well-known in the neighbourhood and people like to stop and admire it and talk about it. Over time, we’ve seen little baby catalpas — offspring of our tree — growing in our neighbours’ yards, which makes us happy. My wife and I have decided to spend the rest of our days in our house so that our tree, which we believe is irreplaceable, will never be in danger of being cut down. We love this tree. To us, it’s a person, it has a character. We plan on protecting it as much as we can. It would be a very sad thing to lose such a large, old tree.

Pamela McGugan, Palgrave in the Town of Caledon

As a young child, I spent a lot of time at my grandparents’ house in Hawkesbury, Ont. Every summer, we were excited to see the tree across the street — the one growing at my Aunt Janie’s house — bloom with masses of exotic white flowers. During the week the tree was in bloom, we were encouraged to visit Aunt Janie’s for tea so we could enjoy the smell of the tree’s lovely, perfumed flowers. Later in the year, those blooms would turn into long, green seed pods, which the other children and I loved to pick and throw at each other while running in the yard. By Halloween, those pods had grown even longer, turned black and hung down from the branches, making the tree seem eerie, especially at night.

Years later, while living in my home in Caledon, I was excited to buy my own baby catalpa tree for my backyard. Sadly, it had a hard start and didn’t survive its first winter. The second one I planted didn’t survive, either. The third baby catalpa I planted also appeared to be in danger of dying, but we kept it in the ground because it had a few shoots at its base. I remember a nursery staff member telling me: “If it takes, it will be very strong.” Well, the tree did take, though for years it had a misshapen top. As the years passed, our baby catalpa tree became more and more beautiful, until it surpassed any catalpa tree I have ever seen. Now huge and majestic, each summer, for one precious week, it’s covered with the same exotic, orchid-like blooms that I loved as a child. The tree’s long, dangling pods are prolific, too, and delight our grandsons, who like to chase each other while clutching the pods in their hands. I love to see history repeated, two generations later, with my own much-loved catalpa tree.

Read more:

10 of Toronto’s most breathtaking trees — our ravine queens and urban legends

English oak in Orangeville has roots in Buckingham Palace

Seven generations have lingered under the limbs of cherished walnut tree on family’s Scarborough farm

Daniel Lavoie, Playter Estates, Toronto

Our neighbourhood, just north of the Danforth, was built in the early 1920s. At one time, many northern catalpa trees grew in the backyards of the houses along our street. When we moved into our home about 20 years ago, I could look out our second-floor window and see a half dozen catalpas towering above all the other trees in the neighbourhood. These days, the enormous catalpa growing in our front yard is the only large one left on our street. At first, right after we moved in, we had mixed feelings about the huge catalpa tree. Yes, it has lovely, fragrant flowers in the summer, but does it ever make a mess. The tree has huge leaves that are a chore to rake in the fall (we often collect more than 13 bags of leaves) and its big seed pods, which are about 30 cm (12 inches) long, also fall to the ground and are difficult to rake up. Still, our tree provides great shade for our home, and is unique and lovely to look at. If it is possible to become fond of a tree, I would say that we are fond of this catalpa. A few years ago, we planted a new northern catalpa tree, grown from a seed, in our backyard. This year, it was finally old enough to bloom. We made sure we planted this baby tree in the perfect spot in our backyard so that over the next 75 years it, too, will have a chance to grow big and tall.