Hoping someone can help with this mystery. I bought a Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) bareroot from Jung nursery way back in 2012/2013. I wanted the early red flowers for hummingbirds and had the perfect spot to grow it. It has since grown into a beautiful tree, but just kept getting bigger and bigger without EVER flowering. It's now as tall as my 2 story house at 20+ feet!
Finally this year I saw what looked like flower buds in mid-May and got very excited and waited for those bright red flowers to open. Then, they opened and the flowers were cream or pale yellow with just a hint of red at the base! They were way high up at the top of the tree though so I couldn't get a closer look and relied on my camera's zoom. I'm still waiting for the leaves to drop now to see if there are any buckeyes on the tree that I can see.
I checked a few sources and believe this is not a red buckeye, but another species of buckeye. But, I can't figure out which one. Several species and cultivars of species have pale flowers. Problem is that some of them get huge! The red buckeye was supposed to be about 15 feet tall, while some of these other ones say 75+ feet. I'd planted it fairly close to my house. I don't have the heart to cut it down, but I'm sure the next house owner will though. I still want to figure out what it is though.
I'm adding some new photos from this year and linking to the older ones I'd filed under red buckeye that I guess I have to move now! Any insight would be appreciated.
But... when I grow them from seed... they usually bloom when about a foot or two high.
You may have planted an Ohio buckeye.
Edit:
They don't move easily... Suggest collecting seed and planting in a container as a backup in case moving the tree goes south.
