Remiss on trees
OK, OK, I’ve really been remiss in blogging ‘the propagation of rare trees’ part of my masthead. I am particularly interested in growing some of the more unusual Asian species that seem hardy here on the West Coast of Canada. One of my favorites is Idesia polycarpa or ‘Wonder tree. They’ve got beautiful large leaves with a kind of red veining. I’ve got four of them which I grew from seed I collected at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Another magnificent species is Paulownia tomentosa, which has beautiful blue foxglove-shaped flowers and massive spade-like leaves, (when young). The oldest one I grew from seed is growing at Cottonwood gardens in Vancouver (about 6 metres tall ) and is already flowering. I collected the seed from a beautiful old specimen growing in front of the VIA station in Thornton Park, Vancouver.
Paulownia in Thornton Park, Vancouver, British Columbia
