What city or district?

You should look for plants that are hardy in zone 6.

If you can put up with the many seedlings Paulownia produces, go for it. I don't recommend it because it's invasive, but a lot of trees I've seen grown ornamentally actually get some sort of caterpillar that is more common on Catalpas. I say we genetically engineer to eat only Paulownia. Bottom line is that there are far too many superior trees to Paulownia.

Here in zone 7, eucalyptus is a perennial, meaning it dies to the ground and comes back from the roots.

I'd like to know specifically what zone you are in before recommending other trees.

We live in Philadelphia....

Paulownia. NO! Don't do it!!

It's a pest. It is invasive in many parts of the USA. Ailanthus is a worse tree, but, Paulownia is bad. It's hard to kill, once you made the mistake of planting it.

Why plant something marginally lousy, when you have the climate to plant something much nicer?

If you want something similar, but far more desirable, try Catalpa trees.

Way back when....I planted three of them here and had to grow them from seed to get them. They are not invasive in our winters, but there is not much I find particularly lovely about their habit. They are course, and the limbs stick out at odd angles, and the leaves have no redeeming quality other than they are curiously large. The seed capsules are messy, cling to the tree when they dry, and the leaves are late emerging and early to fall. When they fall, they fall like strips of soggy newspapers and need raked up. They do not go gold or bronze or red. They go from green one day to brown and fallen the next.

You will totally freak everyone out with their juvenile growth habit. They go from being a seedling to fifteen feet tall in a heartbeat. As for the flowers? In those winters where the bud does not die (and some severe winters they do, the bloom is not consistant) they do not weep in pannicles, they are more erect. You can appreciate the show from a distance (like people driving down the country road) but I can't even see them from under the canopy.

I have acreage and they 'tuck' in well. I would never, however, consider putting them in an ornamental situation.

Don't plant a Pauwlonia :( I doubt the eucalyptus would do well there...they barely make it here and dieback every few years.

Evergreens that look like Christmas trees are regular trees. They just have a pyramidal shape.

Are you looking for an ornamental tree, a shade tree, a fast growing tree, evergreen?

>One more question...my husband wanted me to ask if there are any decent >evergreens that look more like a regular tree (as opposed to a christmas tree?)

I've seen holly trees that really are like small to medium trees, rather than the typical bush.

By look more like regular trees, he means branch like them instead of grow pyramidal?

If so then I'd think some Hollies and Southern Magnolias come to mind. In Zone 6 St. Louis enough people plant Southern Magnolias and their relatives with moderate success. They generally stay a good size for suburban yards here but do suffer some winter dieback. It's the FAR north of their native range I suppose. They don't get as huge as the ones down south.

She's living in center city Phila. , not hospitable conditions. She has probably seen the success of the Paulownia's around Logan circle. Former old dying specimans were replaced in '06 with new ones, by Longwood Gardens, who raised them on their grounds, from cuttings of the original trees.

I wouldn't plant that tree.

Good street tree candidates - Red oak-Quercus rubra, Willow Oak-Quercus phellos, Zelkova serrata, Ginkgo biloba-MALE

Here is a link that might be useful: Logan circle

Thank you to everyone for all of your responses.
We actually live about 15 minutes from Center City...and have never seen the ones around logan circle...but I'm going to have to go check them out this weekend as I will be in the area anyway. I live in a section called Bridesburg...If anyone lives in Philly you will know this is sort of it's own little town...cut off on one side by the Delaware River and the other sides by I-95.
One of my faves is the Southern Magnolia...I love the leaves of this tree and the flowers are gorgeous...

Do you know how the trees in Logan died? old age? disease? bad zone for them?

,,,,,a good tree to plant on our front sidewalk.......

Typically a magnolia grandiflora would be a poor choice for a small yard. They get very big, are rather messy, dropping their big hard leaves. Also, they look best in their natural growth habit, which is with branches and leaves all the way to the ground. Anywhere near a sidewalk, and you'll have to limb it up, which to me, decreases their attractivness.

They're wonderful, off to the side of a persons yard, away from grass and sidewalks, in a BIG pine straw bed.

There is the variety, "Little Gem" but I still wouldn't want it too near a driveway or walkway.

A male gingko, while not evergreen, would make a better choice. If you have the room, a willow oak is beautiful. Those two look good limbed up.

Speaking of Magnolia's what are some other types that may do well in Philadelphia? My husband is looking at an Edith Bouge...

I really want a tree the has an attractive bloom, that doesn't get to tall...preferably no higher than 40'...and doesn't have a lot of low branches...OR that has low branches that can be trimmed off...

I fell hard for the Paulownia about three years ago and ordered one from the online nursery below. After I bought it my husband did some research and went ballistic over the "invasive" factor. I called the nursery to cancel my order, and they explained that if a Paulownia is "cloned" instead of seed grown they won't be invasive. Don't know about that as it sounds a little too sci-fi for me, but I had that tree for three years and it grew appx. 25 feet in that time, and I never once had a seedling come up in my yard. So, maybe it's true or maybe I got lucky? If you're dying for one though, I'd go with them since they seemed to believe their product would not be invasive and in my experience it wasn't.

Here is a link that might be useful: Royal Empress Tree

Sorry, Marcie, but 3 years is insufficient time to judge the invasive qualities of a tree - seedlings coming up in your yard don't really qualify either; invasive usually refers to many seedlings coming up in woods/fields within several miles of a parent tree, and sometimes can take 15-30 years to become evident. And cloned stock, if it flowers, will probably produce just as many seeds as seed-grown stock - all it means is that the method of reproduction is different, and it's all the one tree, which MIGHT be fairly infertile. There may be a difference if there are no other Paulownias in the area to pollinate it - although I think it is normally pretty self-fertile. There are areas where seedlings are not likely to grow, but I am still a bit sceptical about it....

Unless I grew it only for the leaves, and cut it to the ground every spring, which is too much work for me - I have too many other things to remember and do then - I don't think I would grow any of the Paulownias - P. tomentosa is very invasive around here.

Clones of anything are identical to their mother plant. Period. Cloning doesn't do anything to change any characteristic of a plant. When you take a cutting off your geranium, you are cloning it. So if somebody takes a clone off an invasive species, it will exhibit the exact characteristics of the mother plant, invasiveness. I could read nothing in any sales website so far to indicate that any paulownia is guaranteed not to reproduce.

Referring to Paulownia one testimonial says: "It grew 18' the first season". Why is there an assumption that this is a good thing? Don't you think that fast growth is weak growth? I do.
Marcie says: ..."never once had a seedling come up in my yard". Abandoned lots, waste places, fencerows and disturbed natural areas is where we see them by the zillions. They come up under powercuts and the crews hack them back. With all the high quality trees available why would someone intentionally plant this rubbish on their property?
A nursery by the name of fast-growing-trees.com should set the alarm bells off.

Well, that's why I said I didn't know about the "cloning" or anything like that, just that in my experience the tree didn't reproduce in the time that I had it, at least that I could see. I suppose now that I'm 800 miles away from it I'll never know for sure. All the reviews that my husband had read at that time made it out like the tree would take over your yard and neighbor's yard etc. like wildfire, so I was impressed that I hadn't seen even a single seedling come up in three years. Wasn't trying to encourage anyone to plant a "rubbish" tree, just thought it was a nice tree that we enjoyed very much at the time. Maybe 30 years from now we would have felt different! :)