If you want to try a species of Empress that does not share the invasive attributes of the Tomentosa take a look here. www.worldtreetech.com. They are called Empress Splendors (very well suited name) I purchased a couple of them about 4 years ago and they have been an incredible tree to grow. The flowers that blossom are exquisite! Let me know if you have anymore questions regarding these trees!

Fascinating tree with a long historical background. Dragon tree's sap has a long record of use in Chinese medicines. Before Mao came to power, Chinese intellectuals gathered for companionship in groves of paulownias, as they are said to promote chun-tzu, the becoming of a man of complete virtue. In Chinese legend, the tree was an omen of good fortune because of its association with the phoenix, since like the mythical bird, thay sometimes regenerate after a fire. All Paulownia trees are highly sensitive to insecticides and weed killers and will die or be severely damaged if exposed to them. It shouldn't be hard to poison the stump with something like Glyphos, but I never use those sort of herbicides, so I'm not certain.

I have one. They freely volunteer from seed and from roots. That's what makes people hate them, but my oak trees do the same thing, but they're "native" trees making a mess so that's okay. It can be a very striking tree at bloom time, and the size of the leaves when the tree is young is amazing.

As I am not a beer drinker perhaps I've never noticed that there are more than one type of hops. It should not be available in any form much like Japanese Knotweed - a gift from a friend as a "bamboo". IF something has been a pain for you - you notice when someone sells it, thus my concerned friends above. with the Paulownia. Well, my neighbour removed the hops plant about 20 years ago. Yes, it was to make beer he said so I assumed it was the real deal.! It had only been there 4 years or so. Even "removed" babies of it were present enough to establish at the base of his newly planted cedar hedge. some 15 feet away and eventually "take over" a mature cedar hedge, making the hedge brown from the weight and shade. The hedge was removed say 12 years after it went in as it was dying from the suffocation of the hops vine, and that was a 3 years ago. There are hundreds - more? of pieces of root that keep sprouting among a hosta bed that is established and overlapping on my property as well as in the lawn. For years I go out and remove them. I could go out every day and find new pieces. IF something spreads mercilessly both from seed AND root for 3 or more conseqetive years I call that invasive.