My new plant purchases over the holidays ...

Hi,
I'm a new poster but long time reader of this forum. I would like to ask members opinions and experiences of my recent purchases which are :

Foxglove Tree, bought as about a 2m high coppiced planted yesterday

Sorbus Dodang, Olympic Flame Tree , about 1m high with buds planted yesterday

Anyone have any experience with these trees? Do I have to cut back the foxglove every year ? I would really like to grow it into a nice tree

Thanks for reading )

 

Good morning Smiley,
welcome to Gardeners Corner. Glad to see you've taken the plunge and now climbed up the rope to be aboard.
I 've just Googled "Foxglove Tree" and fallen in love with it immediately - it looks spectacular. The Sorbus looks good too. Lovely Autumn leaf colours. Nice finds there. Any piccies of your garden to show us? Would love to see them in situ,
Jenny namaste

 

If you want a tree, and flowers, then don't cut it back.

If you "stool" it - cut it right back, and then thin the growths that appear, to a single stem - then you will get MASSIVE leaves and it will grow to about 8', maybe more, in the season. And yes, you would need to cut it down every Winter.

Personally, in a small garden, I think the Stooled approach and massive leaves looks spectacular.

Easy to grow from seed Jenny

 

Easy to grow from seed Jenny

Aaaah, if only I had the space Kristen,

 

Even Stooled? Here's one year's growth on Dave Brown's (from Hardy Tropicals)

 

Nice, but I read that it's stooled to produce large leaves but I prefer the flowers which only come when left to grow into a tree type? Is that correct Kristen?
ps Smiley , excuse me hi jacking your thread already,
Jenny

 

Hi Smiley

Good choice " Foxglove tree " it has various names Empress and Princess , latin name Paulownia .

The only thing I would add , best in a shelterd spot out of strong winds as the leaves are so big they get torn apart or damaged

Spruce

 

It flowers on last year's wood, I presume, hence no flowers if it is cut back. Once a tree I'm not sure how much of the flowers you would see though?

I wonder if you could have a two-shoot stool and cut them back in alternate years to get flowers on the second year's growth?

They grow quickly, so useful as a tree (with some interest) where you need something to fill a "hole"

 

Thanks for all the great replies.
The big leaves of the Foxglove look good but it was the picture of the flowers which made me buy it.
I will upload a garden pic tmoro when I take one in the daylight.

 

That might be worth having a go at in a big pot. The leaves would make it look great for my tropical bit!!

 

There is a large paulownia in the grounds of what was once a school local to me.
Its spectacular when in flower, but for some reason only seems to flower every other year.
The flowering is fairly short lived, maybe two weeks max in May.

The flower buds form in the previous year and overwinter as buds.
I've not seen flower buds form, late summer on stooled plants, so I'm thinking, although the buds are formed on the previous years growth the tree actually has to ripen that growth, not something its likely to do when putting all its efforts into growing massive vegetative shoots from a stool.

I think you need to go for a tree, or a stooled plant from day one, and a tree will get pretty big.

 

There is a really nice flowering Paulownia at Oxfords botanic gardens....................


Worth the effort of trying for a flowering tree in my opinion.................

 

Not sure if its a trick of the camera longk but that looks very pink, the one I know is a definite blue.
Pity I dont have any pics.

 

As I recall that's not too far off the Lilac colour that they were...................