Fresh leaves on the empress tree (Paulownia tomentosa) in Bute Park, Cardiff, on May 21, 2015
It’s already June in the tree-following year and it’s all change for the beautiful empress tree (Paulownia tomentosa, also known as the foxglove tree) in Bute park Arboretum in the middle of Cardiff.
I have visited a couple of times this month to take part in Lucy Corrander’s monthly tree-following meme on Loose and Leafy.
After enthusing so much about the tree’s beautiful purple flowers last month, I knew it couldn’t last, but I wasn’t sure how much the blooms would overlap with the expected new leaves. So I left it a couple of weeks and went back on May 21.
There was still plenty of purple…
The lower tree always looks quite bare but it stands in a swathe of Queen Anne’s lace or cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)
The higher branches
Many flowers had faded and fallen…
The fresh green leaves were starting to come through
The leaves are heart-shaped
The sunshine through the branches just caught these right
There were still plenty of flowers
Some were at their best
Not sure if these are just coming out or shrinking and growing paler
Zooming in this looked like a little mouse or a one-horned monster, but I guess it was just a dead flower resting there!
This is the view from the red footbridge over the Taff
The purple and green go well with the slate roof of the park cafe
A few days later I took a detour on my way home as I had noticed from the bus that if you stood in one particular place on the main Canton Bridge some distance away you could spot the empress tree, purely because of its distinctive colour. It was drizzling, but I managed to catch a couple of shots…
View from Canton Bridge
Zooming in
I thought that was it for the month, but then on Friday night we were walking home from an event at the university where my husband works and he showed me his favourite shortcut across the city, which passes through the parts of Bute Park I already know but which started in an area I had never visited. It was the corner I hadn’t yet reached in my arboretum walks, “beyond” the empress tree, where it’s full of conifers.
Approaching the empress near sunset
It was nearly sunset and we came on the empress tree from a very strange direction. It was so strange, with the cafe closed and looking like a shed, that I didn’t at first think it was the same empress tree. I was disorientated. It looked a much fatter tree than I remembered and there were flowers almost at eye level. For a moment I felt disappointment that maybe there were TWO empress trees?
The empress’s trunk looked fatter
There were flowers almost at eye level
But it was OK, once I had accustomed myself to the unfamiliar direction of the sun and gone around to the other side of the empress to see her belly-button and check on her label, I was sure once again she was the lady I knew and loved.
But she did look a bit rough!
Many of the leaves so fresh a couple of weeks ago were torn by the winds or turning brown in places
There was mess all around in the overgrown grass
The husband didn’t think much of “my” tree and hurried on. Oh dear, have I been fooled by the empress’s new clothes? Is she really in the altogether? But he wasn’t wearing his specs so wouldn’t have seen the detail I see.
That fallen white fork-shaped branch is still stuck there
Flowers and leaves together
This is where the distinctive seed capsules will grow
Looking back…
The branches are still comparatively bare – but I believe the leaves end up very big, so maybe next time it will look different
I’m not looking forward to next month’s tree following. I’ll miss the purple flowers more than I ever mourned the early catkins that fell like dead caterpillars from the hornbeam I followed last year. And I don’t think the weather will treat this tree well. Summer is not my favourite time…
See Loose and Leafy for news from all the other tree-followers.
See all my empress tree posts here.
See all my hornbeam posts here.
See all my tree posts of any kind here.
The Squirrelbasket 
Beautiful tree!
I love to see new green leaves against the blue sky
Thank you. yes, nature does provide a beautiful combination!
All the best 🙂
Funny about common names. We call the tree “Empress Tree” too, but your Anthriscus sylvestris to us is wild chervil, while Queen Anne’s lace is the wild carrot Daucus carota. Similar flowers but the chervil blooms early spring and the carrot has much bigger flowers and blooms mid summer. Then we have a native plant cow parsnip which is very different.
I hadn’t heard ‘Foxglove tree’ but it fits!
That’s why I usually put the Latin names. I did notice that you have a different Queen Anne’s lace – your wild carrot looks a bit prettier than our cow parsley.
On looking it up, I see your native “cow parsnip” is Heracleum maximum, which we don’t have, although we do have its bigger relative the giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). There are very few umbelliferous plants I can name with any accuracy!
Thank you for your interesting comment.
All the best 🙂
What a fantastic tree, I’ve never heard it called the Empress Tree before, it’s a fitting name.
It’s one of many common names for it, but I thought it suited her!
All the best 🙂
I do hope your tree will do well in summer…..I love the purple flowers and the many views were stunning…quite a tree!
Thank you for that.
Although I fear it is going to look very messy in summer – as many trees do. It’s my least favourite time of year.
Best wishes 🙂
Beautiful young leaves – especially when lit by the sun. I hope a good number survived the windstorm!
Thank you.
It is often windy here so I expect there will be plenty more ripped leaves to come!
I notice your little pussy willow keeps low out of the wind, though…
Best wishes 🙂
Beautiful blooms. I also thought you had a mouse on one of the twigs as I scrolled past that photo! I had to do a double-take.
Glad I’m not making things up, then!
Thank you for your kind comments – I’m loving your red oak, too 🙂
Glad I’m not making things up, then!
Thank you for your kind comments – I’m loving your red oak, too 🙂
Your Empress looks like quite an old lady, any idea how old she is? She must have been spectacular in her prime although aging beautifully. You’ve done her proud.
Thanks. She’s a bit wrinkly (and falling apart) now, though.
I believe she was planted in the 1950s.
Sorry to be so late in visiting. I’ve been away quite a lot recently and all sorts of things have got left behind.
I too thought it was a mouse when I scrolled down.
I specially appreciate the photos of the tree from a distance. It shows how impressive it is. In time, perhaps it will the empress will impress your husband too.
No need to apologise – I am SO far behind in visiting most of the blogs I follow.
I’m afraid my husband is just NOT a tree person…
All the best 🙂