THE POWER OF THE PLANT

The most talked about trees on my property by family, friends and general passerbys, without a doubt are my two curbside Royal Empress trees. Hard to believe I planted two bare roots two years ago. This being the start of it's third season is where the fun truly begins. I've had multiple unknown passerby stop while walking, and even pull over in their car to have a closer look. In the first year people thought I'd lost my marbles and planted two gigantic sunflowers on my curb. They were convinced! I initially trained the saplings and allowed only one shoot to grow while plucking away any other shoots that fought to grow (seemingly daily new shoots budded) but I left the gigantic leaves all the way up the soon to be stalk that would become the tree's trunk.  In the second growing season I had an established "pole." No better way to describe what the trees looked like. At this point the nicknames began. "Jurassic Tree" and "Jack and the B...

My two Royal Empress trees are in their second season of growth and have surpassed 20 feet tall. In early spring when buds and leaved began to appear I pruned back the growth at about 8-10 feet to allow a long tree trunk for aesthetic purposes and to allow the foliage to clear the stop sign. In early summer the trees appeared to have a bug problem as the leaves had small holes in them but as summer progressed the problem ceased so I did not have to spray the trees. Neighbors and passerby do in fact stop frequently and ask questions about the trees. People in general seen excited watching the rapid growth and unique tree.