Types of Orchid Tree – Purple or Hong Kong

Choose a purple orchid tree or a Hong Kong orchid tree first.

Choose a purple orchid tree or a Hong Kong orchid tree first

The first choice is whether you want seed pods. Purple orchid tree flowers in winter and spring, then sets long brown pods and often seedlings. It is the larger landscape tree in this catalog. Hong Kong orchid tree is a sterile hybrid with larger flowers and no pods, often a smaller umbrella tree. Read the Latin on the tag before you buy, because shop names mix the two. [1] [2]

Browse by kind

Match the fruit habit, then pick that kind. A Hong Kong orchid tree will not give you a crop of pods, and a purple orchid tree will not stay sterile. If the tag only says orchid tree, look for pods after bloom, or ask whether the plant is a graft of the sterile hybrid. Read the Latin, then buy that kind. Care for the tree you already have on How to Grow Orchid Tree. After bloom, see Prune Orchid Tree.

Purple orchid tree

purple orchid tree is the tree grown for winter-to-spring bloom and long brown seed pods. Tags may say mountain ebony. Buy this group when you want that classic orchid-tree show and can pick or live with pods and seedlings. It is Bauhinia variegata, not the sterile hybrid. [3]

Hong Kong orchid tree

Hong Kong orchid tree is the sterile hybrid with larger rose-purple flowers and no seed pods. Tags may also say purple orchid tree, so confirm the Latin. Buy it when you want the longer bloom and do not want pods. It is Bauhinia × blakeana, not a seeding purple orchid tree. [4]

If you do not want seed pods, buy a Hong Kong orchid tree — purple orchid tree is the seeding kind.