Comments on: Paulownia (Princess Tree) on “Most Hated Plants” List

By: David

David — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:10:25 +0000

I did not like this tree on a new property I bought and I had them cut down, now the stumps and roots are TAKING OVER!

How do I KILL them! I want them DEAD, 5 stumps has become 100′s of new sprouts some as large as 10 feet tall in just a couple months!

HELP!

By: E. Daniel Ayres

E. Daniel Ayres — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 19:02:50 +0000

IMHO given the vast areas of open disturbed ground humans have created in this country, and our complete lack of serious effort to reduce greenhouse gasses, using Paulowinia in a controlled plantation environment makes a lot of sense. We have a 46 acre church site surrounded by farm land and mowed fields which has been significantly re-contoured to build church buildings. We tried transplanting large maples to get shade where we needed it quickly and the all died because the combination of poor soil (clay) and inability to get folks to water them when dry spells hit. Introducing a few trees capable of growing 18′ in a single season could quickly pay off in terms of shade to south facing windows in summer (reducing air conditioning) etc. Keeping the trees in an area of lawn should do quite a bit to prevent theri escape. We already are fighting serious infestations of Buckthorn and Phragmites, and most of our local native species (oak and hickory) will not be likely to reach maturity before climate change has created a seriously inhospitable environment for them. We need to change our thinking about “native” in such a rapidly changing world. The attempt to preserve “locally native” species in the face of climate change is a loosing proposition.

By: Carole Sevilla Brown

Carole Sevilla Brown — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 22:17:09 +0000

John, I am not at all denying that Paulownia may be a good lumber alternative. What we’re talking about at this site is not investment opportunities, but about making healthier choices in our gardens and communities, choices that will benefit and protect wildlife. Habitat loss by human actions and the spread of invasive plants is the leading cause of wildlife declines. Ecosystem Gardening is about learning to create welcoming habitats for wildlife in our gardens so that we will attract more birds, butterflies, bees, frogs, bats, and other wildlife, many of which are struggling due to our irresponsible choices in our gardens.

By: Ruby DOVE

Ruby DOVE — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 15:32:16 +0000

I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW HOW TO GET RID OF THESE PAULOWNIA TREES! THEY ARE POPPING UP EVERYWHERE.I PLANTED FIVE ACRES IN SOUTH GA.

By: John Gaver

John Gaver — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 23:17:16 +0000

This sounds an awful lot like someone who earns money on other timber products and is scared that the availability of stronger and cheaper paulownia wood will hurt the market for their more costly timber products and drive down the prices for their products.

I have had a paulownia in my front yard for some years now. Not only that, but I live next to a “green space” and across the street from another. By “green space” I mean that it’s an area that the homeowners association doesn’t mow regularly, but where they only thin out the underbrush once a year. Furthermore, the prevailing winds when the tree blossoms, should carry any seeds from our front yard toward those green spaces. So if all this invasiveness garbage were true, then both green spaces should be thick with paulownia by now. IT ISN”T! I mean, with those big leaves in the first year and blossoms in later years, it’s not like I could miss one, if it were growing there. In fact, my paulownia is the ONLY paulownia around for miles, though I don’t expect that to be true for long, since every year when it blooms, I have people knock on my door, asking me what it is and where they can get one. I gladly tell them. I think that the neighborhood could do for more color.

BTW, when I bought my paulownia, I was doing some research and found out that major lumber companies like Weyerhaeuser and Boise were actively trying to undermine the market for paulownia, not because they didn’t have paulownia planted, but because they knew that the availability of stronger, less expensive lumber would mean lower profits, even if they were the one who were selling it. It’s only logical that if a 2×4 costs half as much, then the seller will make half the profit on the sale. So naturally, the big players in the timber business are doing everything they can to undermine the paulownia market.

Personally, since I am an enlightened environmentalist (meaning that I read more than just the spin form one side of the issue – I read the spin from both sides and then THINK), I think that the world could do with a lot more paulownia, since that would mean far less harvesting of old growth forests. It paulownia grows as fast in a timber plantation, as it did in my front yard, then they should be able to produce 4 or 5 harvests, before an ash plantation planted at the same time could produce one.

To be fair, I happened to stray across this article, while I was searching for investment opportunities in a paulownia plantation. I’ve seen it grow in my front yard. I’ve read the literature (both pro and con) and I’m impressed. I think that if we are to save our indigenous forests, we’ll need to switch our major source of lumber to a faster growing tree that can produce lumber at a rate fast enough that we won’t need to cut down more indigenous forest. At this point in time, paulownia seems to be the lumber tree of the future. That’s why I want to invest in it. I think that it will soon replace ash as the lumber of choice, for building houses.