Wigandia Species, Caracus Wigandia

Great tree, amazing canopy (thin canopy) superb form.
My neighbor has one, and it is from a seed from the SF botanical garden. Stu...Read Morenning flowers that are on for months at a time, my sons love this tree. Yes it is invasive, but believe it or not, people come from around the city with garbage bags to snatch up the sprouts that come up in the public street planters. I love this tree, but does create a lot of little babies...

We have found it to be very invasive. Seedlings galore are produced under the tree.

A magnificent flowering tree native to Mexico. It has that cloudforest water needy look when in fact it is very drought tolerant. Large ...Read Moreplants at the Berkeley Botanical Garden are pushing 30'. FAST, fast, grower. I planted mine from a one gallon that was sickly looking last September,maybe 8-10" at most. A year later it has a trunk over 5' with huge leaves that make it a foot and a half taller over that. And,I give it very little water!...also seems to be gopher proof. You cannot ask for a more exotic or lower maintenance plant.
Many central American cloudforest plants have been introduced, or at least made more available the last decade. This is the King of them all.
I differ though on the z8 rating..full 9a winters every year would kill them. 10a minimum for best look.
I would say that the low zone rating is somebody mistaking Royal Paulownia as Wigandia.

When our specimen reached 12', we tied the main trunk at 9' to an arbor adjacent to the specimen. It is now well over 20' tall and when ...Read MoreI stand on the peak of our house, I have to look up at it to see the top. Although it's planted in our rear garden, its' winter and spring blooms can be seen from the road and all our neighbors comment on the "tree" with the beautiful purple blooms. It is a great hummingbird attractant and many mornings we will go out in the garden to have our coffee and watch the hummingbirds fly about. Some people have found the stinging hairs on the leaves irritating, so it is best to plant it in an area that doesn't get frequent traffic.