Paulownia tomentosa

Commonly known as the Foxglove tree, this pretty and unusual tree was introduced from China in 1834, where its wood has been used for many years for furniture making.

In its native environment, a mature tree is capable of producing up to 20 million seeds per year.

With a slightly unusual name, Paulownia tomentosa was named after Anna Pavlovna, daughter of Czar Paul 1 and wife of Prince Willem of the Netherlands.

The Foxglove tree grows in an interesting manner; it has extremely large, bright green, hairy leaves which can reach up to 30cm across and appear to come directly from the bare wood of the tree.

At Barcham, we prune the crowns of the trees extremely hard when they are containerised, however each spring are rewarded by a vigorous flush of new growth and foliage.

This fast growing tree forms a round headed tree at maturity and produces its flower cases in the autumn, for flowering the following May time.

In England this tree does not flower as readily as it does in its native land, as winter temperatures do dip below 5 degrees C, which can cause the flower cases to become damaged.
However despite this, in recent years this tree has given a good display of flowers, especially in London where it has been planted as a street tree.

This tree is tolerant of air pollution and will thrive in most soil types.

Given that the flower of Paulownia tomentosa is a little sensitive to lower temperatures in the winter, this tree does best in sunny, reasonably sheltered sites.

It is a great tree to use as an architectural statement in a sunny corner of the garden, where it has the space to grow to its potential and is good alternative to Catalpa if you are looking for something a little different.

Mature height: 12-17m