paulownia tomentosa planted in ireland

I think that we have two paulownia tress in our garden, and if so, they must be removed because such a potentially large tree would not be wise so close to the house. After two years, they have not yet flowered and so I am not certain of the species. They are about three metres tall and very branched out. I would like comment from people with longer experience in this part of the world

because it seems slower growing than reported elsewhere, and maybe should have flowered by now.

I have a small forest also, with spruce, pine, sycamore, cherry and others, and I am considering growing some species of paulownia

in that environment as an experiment.

Hi Perch,

I did grow Paulownia from seed many moons ago, but it was killed by frost at about 4ft. I remember being told at the time that it would not flower in Ireland as the Summers were too cloudy and cool. It was suggested to grow it as a foliage shrub, cutting back every year or second year.

It is used in this way in 'sub-tropical' gardens in Britain and flowers at about 15ft. or so in the South (Cambridge, Southhampton)

Paulownia tomentosa can be prunned heavily every few years to prevent it getting too big, so you can do this with any trees near the house. This also encourages very large leaf growth the following year. Some people cut them back to the ground as Vincent mentioned for a tropical effect the following year.

They usually flower at about 8-10 years from seeds. People think they will not flower for them because the flower buds form BEFORE Winter. So a hard Winter or just strong winds will kill them off.  You can see them in this photo http://plantdatabase.ie/Paulownia_tomentosa/image/17191

Paulownia tomentosa sucks nitrogen from the ground around it and as a result the leaves are high in nitrogen when they fall in Autumn. They will NOT TOLERATE SHADE. So you cannot plant them under a canopy of other trees. In the United States they are considered a weed because every seed pod has about 2,000 seeds and they populate waste ground readily. However they will not take over from native trees because of their lack of tolerance for shade. They can reach maturity in 10 years and are one of the fastest growing trees in the world. They also do not like high winds because their branches are brittle due to the fast growth.

You would need to research yourself whether the tree is suitbale in a mixed forest because Paulownias are normally grown as a single crop. So the wood is lightweight as a result. Here is a site with some good background information.

Hope this helps.

Thank you all.

 The Australian site is very good.

 I was lucky enough to meet  Dr. Máirtín Mac Siúrtáin from UCD who walked my little forest recently and I will e-mail him about Paulownia because it seems well worth checking out  in an Irish context, both because the leaves can be harvested for silage

and because of the incredible growth rate and the quality of the timber which is reported but of which I have no personal experience.

The method of silviculture seems daunting however...... maybe Moorepark or such like have done some work?