I've noticed some large trees with bouquet-like clusters of white flowers that are in bloom right now. They must be native to Kentucky because they are in the woods along the highways. There are a few beautiful specimens at the exits ramps of the Gene Snyder and I-64. Does anyone know what they are and where I can get some?

Might be a black locust. The black locust is also called common locust or yellow or white locust and is most often considered a weed tree. It will form dense thickets, because it regularly self seeds and it forms shoots from roots. It tends to be a fairly upright tree with brittle branches that often break and fall in high winds creating a mess. And eventually a pretty gnarly looking tree.

The bark is deeply furrowed, mostly a gray-black in color. The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound with 7-19 leaflets per leaf. Each leaflet is a blue green, 1-2 inches long and mostly rounded.

The best parts of the tree by far are the May flowers. The tree flowers—usually around Mother’s Day before the leaves emerge. Each flower is about one inch across. They are white and they are borne in 4-8 inch long clusters. If the weather cooperates, the flowers will last for a week to 10 days. And they are fabulously fragrant. . The flowers produce a seed pod that is flat and black 2-4 inches long that holds 4-10 seeds and lasts well in to the fall.

Locusts will grow in about any soil conditions, they transplant well. Locusts should be pruned in summer or fall because they will bleed in springtime. They are susceptible to a number of different disease problems. Probably the worst is the locust leaf miner that will totally defoliate the tree. But even with that, the wood tends to be tough and durable.

There are some cultivars that you might be able to find at your local garden center-notably pink flowered forms and chartreuse leaved forms, but a common locust would not be one that you would find on your landscape designers favorites list.