Re: Fwd: Pruning a Princess Tree
- Subject: Re: Fwd: Pruning a Princess Tree
- From: J* S*
- Date: Sun, 30 Dec 2001 12:42:49 -0800 (PST)
Isn't "Princess Tree" also a common name for Paulownia
tomentosa?
Is Mr. John Young asking about this old-time,
overly-marketed Chinese tree or does he want to know
about Tibouchina (which I've always called Glory
Bush)?
Joe Seals
--- david feix <davidfeix@yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Nancy Swearengen <nswearengen@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: John Young <jfyoung@jps.net>
> > >Reply-To: jfyoung@jps.net
> > >To: nswearengen@hotmail.com
> > >Subject: Pruning a Princess Tree
> > >Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 16:42:09 -0800
> > >
> > >
> > >Hello,
> > >
> > >We are in search of good information on the care,
> > feeding and pruning of
> > >
> > >a Princess tree. It seems to be in need and we
> do
> > not know what and
> > >when to prune.
> > >
> > >Can you point us in the proper direction?
> > >
> > >Thank you.
> > >
> > >John Young
>
> Hi Nancy, How is everything up at the Berkeley
> Botanic
> Garden?
>
> Seems that many people don't know quite what to do
> with large Tibouchina urvilleana shrubs. It is a
> very
> forgiving plant, and when it gets too big or leggy,
> can be pruned hard to old wood if required, and will
> bloom again within 2 months if conditions suit it.
> If
> your area is subject to frost, it is probably best
> to
> wait until it warms up, to be safe. This probably
> gets so leggy because it is grown in too much shade,
> greatly affecting internode length. It is more
> usually a question of, does one sacrifice some
> current
> bloom to make it tidier? It is much more compact if
> grown with full sun, and just wants good fertile
> soil,
> regular garden watering, and some warmth to bloom,
> and
> appreciates regular feeding to sustain year round
> bloom. They do extremely well all along the
> California coast when protected from strong wind,
> where they can be covered in bloom nearly year
> round,
> loving the cool generally humid conditions.
>
> I find that some of the other Tibouchina species
> I've
> tried are just not as floriferous in the same
> conditions, but still enjoy T. heteromalla and T.
> granulosa all the same. It would be interesting to
> get more seed strains of T. granulosa into the
> California trade, as all of them seem to be the same
> light purple, but can also be white, rose or pink in
> Brazil. I've tried and lost T. grandifolia and T.
> mutabilis in other cold wet winters. T. grandiflora
> does seem to be more winter tender, don't know of
> any
> large plants outdoors in northern California. T.
> mutabilis is like a giant Brunfelsia pauciflora, and
> can have 3 colors of bloom at once. This tree I
> fondly remember growing all around the forested
> mountain hillsides of Sao Paulo, used as a street
> tree, and along the coast of Rio de Janeiro,
> lighting
> up the forest as a 30 to 40 foot tall tree.
>
> I'd love to trial T. lepidota 'Alstonville', which
> looks absolutely gorgeous covered in massive bloom
> as
> grown in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and coming
> from the Ecuadorean/Columbian Andes. I understand
> that this is also commonly grown in Cape Town, S.
> Africa gardens, along with T. mutabilis. I know a
> few
> people are also trying these in Los Angeles, but
> they
> aren't common here. You'd think that winter
> blooming
> trees with deep purple flowers would have already
> caught on here!
>
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