Hi gagriffi, Welcome to Garden Web and the Seed Exchange I thought you might like to know there is no email link on your member page, thus no way to email you. Please see addressing newbie and newer member issues for instructions on getting your Member Page email link set up so that you can easily be reached for trading. Happy Trading! Sue...aka chemocurl

I have germinated Sequouia sempervirens seed in a heated propagator and most other species too.But Cephalotaxaceae and Taxaceae need cold conditions.

HS may or may not be worth the trouble of finding a supplier unless you are in a marginal area or want the blue-green color. They've been harder to purchase in the last couple of years. You might try "Powder Blue" as well. In the east Sequoias get cercospora unless sprayed, but this is fairly easy to prevent. Another issue is simply heat stress in July-Aug, which will kill inner foliage as the tree tries to cope. Look for inner foliage on prior year growth turning orange-red and then tan-brown. Cercospora is a grey-black color turn. HS is not better at handling summer stress than the species. You could try watering in July-August to help with heat stress if it is very dry, but watering by hand is tricky. Do it very slowly--like leaving the hose to drip for several hours, and water on one half one day and another half on another day. Don't wait until the foliage starts dying to water, by then it's too late. Don't use mulch. Don't water within a week of substantial rain. Avoid wetting the foliage. Winter stress is either orange again or tan-brown. Tips can turn brown from frost. Trees exposed to the sun in winter suffer worse than trees that don't get sun in winter. Good planting conditions help enormously with stress in non-native environments for Sequoias. Good soil in particular. Avoid moisture extremes.

I have one and various other conifer beauties(zone 6). At least they were beauties until this winter. I'd like to list them for you but all my records were lost in a computer mishap. I remember my favorite, may she rest in peace. Abies pinsapo aurea. I LOVED that baby. The others either died or are mostly rust red except for the bottom branch that was under the snow. I'm sick about it. Am I correct that they won't repair themselves? Will I be able to cut most of the dead-(except-for-the-bottom-branch trees) down and make some sort of tree shape from the one live branch-or do I have to cut the whole thing down. I'm discouraged that this can happen. Except for the Abies pinsapo, the others were supposed to be good in zone 6.