Worth knowing:
The summer-green and deciduous Princess Tree develops an upright stem with a wide and clear crown and can become up to 15 meters high. Starting in April and even ahead of the first leaf sprouts, it produces purple blossoms. The bell-flowers are arranged in panicles and exhale an intensive sweet scent. The big, heart-shaped leaves resemble the trumpet tree and have silky hairs on the bottom side. The capsule fruits with its apex contain each about 600 seeds and hibernate on the tree. Its botanical name honours the Dutch crown princess and later Queen Anna Pawlowna. As the favorite tree of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph it is also called Empress Tree.
Natural Location:
The Princess Tree has its origin in Central and West China. Nowadays, it is also found in Korea, Japan, North America and Europe.
Cultivation:
Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. Spread the seeds onto moist potting compost and put a layer of 1 cm compost earth on top. Then, cover the seed container with clear film to prevent the earth from drying out. Don’t forget to make some holes in the clear film and take it every second or third day completely off for about 2 hours. That way you avoid mold formation on your potting compost. Place the seed container somewhere bright and slightly warm and keep the earth moist, but not wet. Depending on the propagation temperature, the first seedlings will come up after three to ten weeks.
Place:
The Princess Tree prefers sunny and wind-protected places. With some protection during the winter season it can be kept outdoors in a large pot or tub all the year. After a few years, you can also plant the tree in your garden.
Care:
Only in very hot regions it is necessary to water your outdoor plant. Every two to three years you should prune the Princess Tree to get rid of dead and narrow growing sprouts. If the plant appears to be too big, it is also possible to do a radical cut back, preferably in autumn ahead of the first frosts.
During the winter:
Young trees are still frost-sensitive until the age of four, and need an adequate protection with straw or anti-freeze mats. Later the Princess Tree will be frost-hardy up to -15° Celsius. Frostbitten sprouts will shoot again next year. Even though the tree is frost-hardy, its flower buds that come up in late summer are rather sensitive to early frosts in autumn and strong winter frosts.
Picture credits:
- © © AnRo0002 - CC0 - http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
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- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
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- © Petr Filippov - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
- © KENPEI - GFDL - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl
- © 4028mdk09 - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
- © AnRo0002 - CC0 - http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
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