Saphire-Paulownia Tree-Instant shade?

has anyone ever had these or grown these trees. I got three seedlings off of ebay and I am trying to decide where to plant them. They stated that they are an instant shade tree so I am assuming that they tollerate the sun well. Now keep in mind that I live in the desert and I do push the zone limits but our sun here gets fairly intense. I would appreciate any feedback on these little guys.
Thanks.

I am not sure about Saphire??Paulonia . Usually Paulonia is considered a pest tree. Grow very fast, spread easlily by seed. Donna

Donna,
Speaking of tree seeds, I have
never seen any catalogs that offer
seeds. Have you suggestions?

I suspect what you've got is plain old Paulownia tomentosa. Around here it's a trash tree. There seems to be a wealth of information here.
http://www.paulownia.org/

The auction stated that this was an ornemental variety and not the messy wild timber variety.
See ebay listing #4305012472 There is a picture of it there.

Hi Tombstonejan,

I bought four of the Saphire Paulownias from the same dealer, probably the same dutch auction. I planted mine about 30 ft from my house and about 15 ft apart.

Which is probably too close in both directions. I plan to use these trees as a focal point and a windbreak and I also plan to prune them to about 15 ft in height (I hope that I am able to acheive that).

I have done a ton of research regarding the ornamental trees that we bought and I am looking forward to seeing them grow.

I really don't mind if they turn out to be a little high maintenance because that just gives me another reason to be outside.

billsmetro,
How are your Paulowania trees doing? Have they started to leaf out yet? mine aren't doing well at all. They just look like sticks in the ground.

I planted the trees July 3 into deeply amended and well draining soil. Then we had 4 major thunderstorms with very heavy rain. Intermixed with the rain were very sunny and hot periods.

The leaves (all of mine had 2-4 leaves when shipped) have shriveled up, but I think thats due to transplant shock. They all had pretty good root structures.

Darrin told me that they should leaf out in about two weeks and if not to let him know. I plan to mist these plants along with many of my tropical plants with GA3 at 300 ppm to give them a growth boost. I well let you know how that works.

Bill

the paulowina tree is also known as the royal empress they came from china they would plant one when a daugther was born and then cut it down when she got married. I was told they do better in groups of three.

How can you tell if you have the flowering kind, or the woody kind, I got mine from a nursery, just said flowering Paulawina. it is about 3' high and huge leaves.

I planted one last summer. We have lots of room for it to do whatever it desires, so I wasn't worried about that. While it has something attacking it at the moment (new leaves are curling in with no noticeable critters and somewhat "pitchy" inside the rolls), the leaves are huge, dark green, and plentiful. Last summer the trunk was probably 1 " in diameter. This summer it's probabaly 2-2.5! I think that's why some see this as the tree that inspired "Jack and the Beanstalk"!