Royal Empress Trees - an Update

I seem to get several people that still follow along with my royal empress tree section of my blog. I had someone post tonight that they'd like an update, and ironically, I took photos just a couple days ago to do just that.

But first, I'll catch everyone else up. Royal Empress Trees are claimed to be fast growers that will grow "up to 20 feet the first year". We live in a place that doesn't have many trees, and not many LARGE trees, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Because I was having a hard time finding real life photos on the internet, I decided to start a section of my blog. If you want to see the tree's progress, click here, or click on any "royal empress" label on any tree post.

Back in April, it was just a stick in the ground, so I did as they said and wacked it off right to the ground. Shortly, some little buds starting showing up. That was mid-april or so. In Mid-May, the tree looked like this:

12" in about a month. This was also around the time that the second of 3 trees total randomly died. You'll remember that the 3rd tree never came back after winter.

No idea what happened to the second tree. Just one day the leaves turned brown and it died. My best guess is too much water since our spring was VERY wet again this year.


A couple days ago, I went back out and took these photos:

You can't really tell, but this tree is about as tall as me, and I am 5'4". Around early August it really started to shoot up. Most of it was done over one week.

Here you can really see how large the leaves get. They are 3-4 hands across in width.

I don't know for sure if it will get any larger, but I will say I wish it would have grown more. This might be partly my own fault as they say when it grows, you need to break off all buds but one. I thought I had done that, but it was pretty good sized before I realized there were two. I didn't see it because the leaves are so big!

I did use a fertilizer stake on it at the beginning of the season.

This is the second full season I've had with experience with it, and I really was hoping for "more".

On a scale of 1-10 - 1 being a failure and 10 being better than they said, I will give it a solid 5. It's cool, it does grow fast, but so far it looks like a sunflower with no flower... not really a tree. It is supposed to be flowering, and the pics they show online look very much like a tree and not a "plant". I'm willing to give it time to see what happens yet.

Ironically, I've finally decided how I want my someday garage to sit on the property... I'm excited and hoping that construction will start next summer. *however* There's one sacrifice that'll have to be made.

Yep.. this tree.
Sigh.

Let the magic begin!

Well, that long winter is over (knocking on wood), and things are turning green everywhere. Last time we talked about the "amazing royal empress trees" they were getting big and fat last fall.

Then they died off for winter.

And then voles moved in.

I thought for sure that if anything was going to kill them, it would be those damn voles. (I'm on a vole killing mission btw. I think I'm winning).

I noticed that all I really had were a couple of tall dead sticks, and had about given up hope.

But then while on my daily tree inspection (which I guess is just a hobby at this point), I noticed some tiny buds at the base.

I'm excited to see what happens.

So I did what all the websites keep telling me to do:

I cut it off.

Supposedly, this will cause the tree to grow rapidly and very straight. When I say rapidly, they claim up to 20 feet in one year. All I know, at this point it's just a source of entertainment and a big giant science experiment.

I'll keep you updated.

If you are growing an empress too, leave a link to any photos!

Tree update!

It's been a while, since I updated you on the status of my 3 royal empress trees. I started out with 2 trees, one tree was left out when it was too cold and it died, so I received a replacement tree and then on earth day, I got a tiny free one when I purchased a maple tree.

All of the trees went into pots for a while as I was worried about having them in the yard and they'd get mowed over.

Two trees went into the yard in mid July, the third didn't make it in until early september!! (oops).

You can DEFINITELY see the difference.

One of the first 2 trees is around 18" tall, which is not bad, about double what it was when I put it in the ground.

The second one is 45" tall! The above photos were taken on August 31 and it was 24". So, in a little over 3 weeks, it's grown 21 inches! Almost one inch *a day* I'm very impressed.

They do however, look a lot like a sunflower with no sunflower. They are supposed to bloom out and get wide quickly so we'll see in the spring! (they have been known to grow up to 20 feet in one year).

The third tree is only about 9" tall, and it was a huge mistake leaving it in the pot so long. It also did not get a fertilzer spike, as I was nervous doing that so late in the season.

So, my advice? Plant sooner than you think (I should have went early June) and fertilize well.

Empress update

I haven't updated about my empress trees lately, so decided to add a couple new pics.

I got a free one on Earth Day, and I planted it in a pot until it got a bit bigger (I'm scared someone will just mow it over!) In about 3 weeks, it's about doubled in size, as you can see from the photos below. It's added a ton of leaves to it since then.

One of my trees, I had to basically start over because I shocked it. It went back to almost nothing, and in about a month, it has overtaken this tree! It's bigger than this one at around 3 inches. I swear the other day it had to have grown a full inch. I was worried about it for a while, and then we had a really sunny day and BAM, he just sorta sprang up.

I've been chatting back and forth with one of my readers, and he said that he planted his in a 5 gallon bucket and while he was away on a trip, his grew 3 full inches. Mine are in just 6 quart pots so maybe I need bigger pots!? I'll give it a couple more weeks before I decide.

In the meantime, I'm going to buy some miracle gro.

I'll have some shade.... someday... I hope.

Last week I told you I bought a tree in honor of earth day. That and in honor of wanting trees :p I'm telling ya, when you live out in the middle of fauxprairie (prairie because it's flat for a mile and windier than heck), you really want some trees around you.

I live in the middle of a bean field. *really*
It's ok, unless of course you feel sorry for me and want to send me monetary donations to relocate me... or plant lots of trees. :p

Anyway, my trees came yesterday finally, and I wanted to share a couple photos with you. I ordered a summers red maple and with that I got a free empress tree. This is what the boxes will look like if you order:



They are fastened to the box on the inside so they don't flop all over the place.




This is the maple


And this is my new empress (free) tree:

such a big box for such a widdle tree! He's cute, and sitting on my counter with all the other trees waiting patiently for a few days break in the weather!

I'm starting to feel like maybe I should be building an ark.


****NOTICE*****

If you have any questions or concerns about your trees, you need to contact customer service from where you purchased them. I'm not an expert on trees, nor do I work for any tree company. I'm just a blogger and a lil' ol' country girl trying to beautify my land and documenting it as we go.

Any comments posted requesting customer service will unfortunately, go unanswered and be deleted.

Sorry!

Happy Earth Day!

Last year on Earth Day, I decided that every year, I was going to do something to make us a little more green friendly.

Last year, I bought reusuable bags, and remember them about 75% of the time (I'm a work in progress), and also, I started recycling paper, bottles and cans. I actually have stayed on top of this, and have gotten Gene to play along too... that was an accomplishment! :)

This year, I've decided to start composting, but to be fair, I don't have my compost bin in place. I have been researching what exactly I want tho.

I also have decided to plant more trees. I bought my 2 empress trees, some blueberry bushes, and some hostas. I plan on planting quite a few more things, over time. This is out of my comfort zone, as I'm not a green thumb!

Today, I got an email which made me decided to buy another tree. If you buy a tree from them today, earth day 2009, you will not only help plant 2 fast growing fruit trees in africa, but you'll get a free empress tree of your own! So if you buy one empress today, you get a second one free! If you've been considering it, now is the time.

I bought a summers red maple, which was my dad's fav tree, and I've wanted one for years.

Her magesties have arrived

A couple weeks ago, I told you that I ordered 2 Royal Empress Trees online. These trees are supposed to be some of the fastest growing trees in the world, growing from 12-15 feet *per year* (sometimes more).

Me, being the photographer than I am, believes this is an awesome photo opportunity.

I'm going to share pics occasionally, so those ppl out there considering buying a royal empress tree knows what to expect. *After* I had bought them, I did some web searches and found almost nothing valuable.

This is how they were packaged when they came. I was really expecting the infamous sticks that people usually get, but instead I got two cute little bean stalks.

There is snow on the ground!! (it's April 2 here in NW MO). *sigh* So I'm going to try to hold off for a week or two before planting, because if anyone can kill one of these trees, it would probably be me!