Sorry too cold

Are they as bad as THIS SITE makes them sound?

Yes, I already have a few varieties of Catalpa, I imagine that it may well be invasive in warmer climates but if it's borderline hardy I'm not too concerned about that here. I could write a book on what is invasive for me here (15 years after the plant is removed) yet hops vine continues to be sold.

We don't have any trouble with them around here either. :o)

Just happened across that site. It had a pretty sharp spin on how bad they were so thought I'd ask.

Thanks!

Regular hop vine, Humulus lupulus....what is used to make beer (and also grown as an ornamental) is not invasive anywhere that I am aware of. Japanese hops - a completely different plant - is highy invasive in many areas but I am not aware of any nurseries that sell it.

Might you be using the term "invasive" in other than its accepted usage?

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.

I used to live in Minneapolis (maybe 4B). About a mile from my house, someone had a Paulownia growing in their front yard. Every winter, it would die to the ground, and then spring up from the roots to about 7-8 feet by fall. So I guess if you want a BUSH, that might fly.

Would it bloom nicely in that "bush form.?

sorry, I never saw any flowers :(

I do appreciate your comments. Thanks.

Young empress trees die back during winter even here in my part of USDA 8. But after a few years manage to start overwintering branches, make progress. To the point of being able to start flowering. But the flower buds mature partly in autumn and sit out all winter in a comparatively vulnerable condition, so that a percentage of them freeze some winters and fail to open in spring.

The common one, sold as the typical species is 'Lilacina'. It seems to do better at retaining flower buds through the winter than the typical species, which is rare in my area. Yet appears to greatly exceed somehow the cultivar in the production and accumulation of ugly brown, persisting seed capsules that hang in the trees for perhaps years at a time. And are then hard and pointy when they do make it to the ground.