You can come get the one that grows in the pavement crack between my fence and the utility area out back. It gets up to 6+ feet tall several times a season after we cut it back to the ground!

I could also direct you to a few of them growing out of the masonry wall 15 feet above the ground on the huge old church down the street. Clearly, the way to make them thrive is to let them grow in cracks.

lavenderosey, I seem to recall from another post that you are located in Florida. If that's the case, your empress tree will grow perfectly well outdoors..........in fact, probably far too well!! It is considered an invasive species in Florida and one is not encouraged to plant this tree. Other than that concern, this tree requires minimal care and is not cold sensitive.

gardengal48,

Thank you for the info you've provided. I did a search with the name you suggested. It seems it is the right label for it. Firstly, I'm glad to hear that it will grow well here in FL., but a little disappointed to hear that it is a weed. Other than that, the flowers do exude some mild but pleasant fragrance there. The blooms are lovely. I think I might just transplant it to a larger pot and then let it grow a little bigger, but not in the ground where it will grow wild. I don't know if this will work, but I'll give it a try.

The Parsley: It's hilarious to know that they prefer cracks and will even grow big ... It's amazing how tough the determination some plants have. I wish some of my favorite plants would show that will power :)

Thanks so much for all your feedback. They are all helpful :)

Paulownias are definitely invasive/opportunistic around Philadelphia. They were very fashionable to plant in the second half of the 19th century, and we've had a lot of escapees all over the place ever since. (And certainly not just in the cracks - there are tons of them growing in vacant lots, along railroad tracks, etc.)

It confused me when I moved here from Los Angeles a few years ago, because I kept seeing trees with lavender/purple flowers that from a distance looked like the jacaranda flowers I was used to - but jacarandas don't grow in this climate. Of course, the leaves and branches look nothing alike, but the flowers are similar in color...and in spring the paulownia flowers tend to pop out first before the leaves show up.

Anyway, if you decide to keep it, just keep an eye on the seeds, because that's how it distributes itself everywhere.

"Cold sensitive" in the case of Paulownias means leaves will be damaged and start dropping with the first light frosts of fall. The tree is winter hardy well up into zone 5 and root hardy even further north (some people cut it back to the ground every spring because the new shoots with giant leaves are considered ornamental in a mixed or perennial border). Those in colder zones who want flowers are often disappointed, since winter temps in the low single digits and colder generally kill the nascent buds (the flowering period is pretty short anyway).

Much is said about invasive potential of Paulownia, but in my experience it tends to colonize empty lots, waste places and roadsides (which are not exactly virgin woodlands).