CUBAN PINK TRUMPETTREE 
* CUBAN PINK TRUMPET (T. pal- 
lida). Here is my favorite for Florida 
gardens, for it flowers off and on all year, 
usually with the leaves, it withstands 
drought and neglect, it resists high winds, 
it knows no pests, it never gets too big, 
and the lovely shell pink flowers often 
come in such profusion that you think a 
dogwood has come to south Florida. The 
tree pictured here is in the Christian Sci- 
ence churchyard in Stuart where _ its 
startling beauty makes it a cynosure to 
passersby. 
*T. PALLIDA HYBRIDS (Tabebuia 
sp.). In efforts to produce Tabebuia trees 
with even more flowers and better habits, 
Paul Swedroc of Fort Lauderdale has been 
hybridizing them. His first was a cross of 
T. pallida (pink flowers) with T. hae- 
mantha, a Cuban red-flowered form. His 
second hybrid was a cross of two excep- 
tionally good forms of T. pallida (there 
are at least four quite different trees grown 
in Florida under this name, perhaps just 
different forms of the same tree.) Most 
of the Tabebuia trees are salt-resistant and 
are not bothered by occasional flooding. 
TABEBUIA PALLIDA 
* DECIDUOUS PINK TRUMPET (T. 
pallida No. 2). Much like the Cuban tree, 
but foliage very glossy, almost oily. In 
March it drops its leaves suddenly and 
becomes a solid pink bouquet, often spec- 
tacular. I recommend this tree highly. 
Last year the City of Fort Lauderdale 
bought all I could supply to plant along 
the streets there. 
PALMER’S TRUMPETTREE 
* PALMER’S TRUMPET (T. palmeri). 
This 50-80 foot Mexican tree, first of the 
Tabebuia trees to bloom, often about 
Christmas-time and on into February, 
bears heavy clusters of wine-red or purple 
flowers. Gentry says: “The flowers are 
so abundant that they cover the crown in 
a high spread of showy bloom.” The old 
leaves fall in December and the new ones 
come when flowering season is over. 
