Description
Paulownia tormentosa is known by many names regardless of what you want to call it, there is no doubt about its impressive ornamental features. This beautiful tree puts on an awe inspiring show in spring. Its soft chamois velvet buds open into large violet to blue, trumpet-like blossoms which fill the air with a sweet fragrance. The flowers carried on long up curved shoots, look like large foxgloves. The huge leaves are an architectural delight: the soft, downy, large leaves appear after the flowers have opened. Native to eastern Asia, this exotic looking, deciduous tree is surprisingly hardy and can tolerate harsh winters, to minus 8C (-14F). Hardy throughout the British Isles, the buds of the Foxglove-like flowers are formed in the autumn and can be damaged by late frosts. They must be sheltered from hard frosts to ensure the violet blooms appear in spring. It is a fast growing tree, usually grown as a specimen or shade tree. Growing rapidly (to 6f)t in it first year. In 3 to 5 years, this tree achieves what many other tree species take generations to achieve. An excellent use of this plant is the production of stooled specimens giving perhaps the most magnificent of all foliage dot plants. All growth is cut down to ground level each March and the resultant suckers reduced to a single shoot. The result is a strong, erect growth rising to 10 ft. and bearing huge and handsome leaves, producing a most striking effect. In very cold zones they are often grown and cut to near ground level in autumn and grown as a large-leafed shrub the following season. Very easy to germinate, seedlings grow rapidly, flowering in as little as 2 to 3 years under good growing conditions.
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