FOXGLOVE TREE

Look up Paulowina tomentosa.
If left to grow it would eventually become an 80ft tree.

You can chop it right down at soil level and it will grow like a shrub producing large leaves, each year.

Or cut of the top growth once it has grown to the hight you want and it will throw out new branches with large leaves about 6-12" in size like big dinner plates.

It should be fine in the centre of your lawn.

Thanks so much for that reply. I didn't know the proper name for the foxglove tree but have now found Paulownia tomentosa. The picture shows a magnificent tree of about 30' in height. The notes say it is unlikely to survive prolonged and severe frosts but as the weather here in the South is not that bad it's worth a try. Many thanks again.

Paulonia tormentosa is a fantastic plant if you treat it like Treesandthi.. says, its very architectural and will make a fine spcimen tree for your lawn. This current cold snap is a bit of a worry tho.. its been a few years since we've had such hard frosts and I think there will be a lot of (garden ) casualtys this year.

This tree will flower in the early Spring with beautiful fox glove type flowers on the end of each branch, hence the name, Most people in the UK grow them as shrubs each year and coppice them in Autumn so they re- grow next Spring into large leaved shrubs, the only loss is the flowers, they will not grow on coppiced trees. Most trees in the UK don't flower because our Winters are too cold and the buds freeze. I had one in Nottingham in a pot which developed a load of buds and I waited with anticipation, but they all dropped off, i am now on the Isle of Wight which has a much warmer climate and the tree may just flower. You could of course put the tree in a huge pot and that would restrict the growth if you wanted it to flower and not coppice it.

My daughter has one which I grew from seed and it has flowered this year (2008). There is a photo of it on my site.