What kind of plant is this? It comes up in the first week of June and grows 2 1/2 feet a day. It is now around 18 ft tall. It is supposed to have purple flowers and long beans.
By Becky
This looks like a Paulownia or Empress tree to me. They are a fast growing tree with clusters of purple flowers, native to China. They do not have long seed pods but rather clusters of ovoid seeds. The catalpa tree has similarly shaped, but smaller leaves and white flowers that remind me of tiny orchids, with purple flecks in the throat.
I had a Paulownia in northern Oregon and while it did take a few years to flower it was not 15 years. Sorry that I have no useful information on the lack of blooms. I hope that the identification will help.
My vote is also Paulownia. It takes a few years to flower. By now it seems you would have had flowers. They only bloom about five weeks in spring. Then they are done until next year. Try some blooming fertilizer next spring. Or possibly you are using fertilizer and it is over fertilized? Some plants only bloom in poor soil. I hope this helps.
OK so you said it comes up every year. So if it does not have an actual tree trunk it would not be the Paulownia tree. I didn't notice that in your first write up. Paulowina is actually a tree. Or if cut down and allowed to re grow from the root can actually turn into a large bush many feet tall.
It sounds like a hyacinth bean vine but I've NEVER seen one that big! They bloom and have long beans which are not for eating.
It is called a princess tree also know as an empress tree. I love them. They are beautiful. Have one in my yard. I have grown from a sapling.
I found an image on a website about growing Paulownia and the image shared of young trees looks exactly like the one in your image.
I found an image on a website about growing Paulownia and the image shared of young trees looks exactly like the one in your image.
