"paghat" wrote in message
news
In article , "James"
wrote:

I'm wanting to start some Royal Empress trees from seed and plant a row
of
them along my long driveway. ( PAULOWNIA tomentosa) Anyone had these
trees
and am wondering about any drawbacks to the idea?

Nature Conservancy's Invasive Species Initiative requests that people
voluntarily stop planting these trees even in places where they are not
yet illegal. They sometimes sucker & invariably self-seed like weeds, to
the point of being invasive. They are illegal in about a dozen states, &
are on lists recommended for banning in several more regions. In
Connecticut for example (as of this past October) you can be fined a
hundred dollars for planting, transplanting, or selling paulownia. The
species has already proven itself a danger to native species in several
areas around the United States, being worst in the east, south &
southwest, but not yet too late to keep it from spreading throughout the
west.

I can attest to the fact that they are prolific throughout the southeast.
They're a common tree here in Eastern Tennessee. And yes, they do sucker.
I have a daughter that has risen up on the roots of her mama a few feet down
my side slope.

They grow rapidly but have weak wood that easily rots from the inside
which is naturally hollow.

I don't know about the wood being weak though. I have a Pawlonia tree, and
yes, she is hollow in the middle. But she only drops the ends of her twigs
where the pods are all at. The pods are a pain in the butt, but the flowers
(this tree is also called the Foxglove tree) are georgous and smell like
grape Nehi. The leaves are fuzzy and if you cut the young trees to the
ground each fall, they send up spring shoots and the leaves are as big as
three foot across sometimes.

The Chinese people use the wood as dowery boxes for their daughters because
it resists rotting and burning. I've only been able to burn the wood when
the wood pile is glowing hot and would probably fire clay. It just doesn't
start like most woods do. As for rotting.......I have the branches of this
tree that were cut for me when they grew over the electrical wires in the
side yard by the electric company laid out around the edges of a garden bed
and except for the bark that finally came loose, the wood isn't rotten yet
and that was three years ago.

They can snap at any point along the trunk in
storms, threatening nearby structures.

I've NEVER had any limbs snap off along the trunk on my Pawlonia (I have
pictures of her to prove it) and this tree apparently has been here now for
over 90 years. Which approaches that remark made below. So 90 years isn't
very long, not compared to an oak tree that has to be 50 to produce acorns,
but I will say they are messy with their pods and large leaves in the fall.

They are not especially long
lived trees.

It is recommended at the very least that they be planted only with
caution, & their use is strongly discouraged even where still legal. There
are so many finer safer choices that can be made.

And I AGREE there are other alternatives. But I have three Pawlonia's and
until the old mother tree shows me signs that she is about done, I think
they last at least several decades. Which is more than I can say for those
horrible Bradford pear trees. And I just checked the wood around the beds
yesterday for rot is why I wonder how long the wood takes to decompose. I
only had to pick up a few end branches with the brown pods as they bloom on
new growth, but no limbs or large branches or even smaller branches. Only
the end pieces.

Try other trees, and check with your local Agricultural extension agent for
good trees to line your driveway with for your location.

madgardener