You are too cold for Azara. The common, hardier Escallonia is correctly 'Donard Seedling'. The true 'Apple Blossom' is a different type, much more like 'Frades' but with the apple blossom (two-toned) flower color. See them shown side-by-side in the Phillips & Rix shrub book. Mature Eucryphia glutinosa is floriferous, indeed it might be the most profuse of the main cultivated kinds. The southern hemisphere has more ocean relative to land than the northern, making periods of low humidity combined with cold not the feature they are up here - southern hemisphere plants are dehydrated by nothern winters.

BBoy...thought I might hear from you! Various web sources claim the hardiest Azara tolerates 5F.
i.e.
http://www.greatplantpicks.org/plantlists/view/209

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/3210/box-leaf-azara.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azara_microphylla (info from the RHS I believe)

But web sources are not always to be trusted...and, I agree with you it's going to be difficult here. I'm already trying to think of a suitably wind sheltered spot. It wouldn't be as much fun if it weren't a challenge. I'd like to have one more plant in the garden from Chile.

Thanks for the tip about 'Apple Blossom'...I'll make a note of it in my records, and compare the flowers this year when it blooms.

Minor correction about Wollemia: though I believe it was once written about as though it was monoclonal; there were in fact always multiple plants, and seedlings in the wild. Whether these have sufficient genetic diversity (I.e., are not too inbred) to sustain the species in the wild remains to be seen. Kind of like the cheetahs that way.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Mar 13, 13 at 8:52

5F would be probably be about where most of them burn up completely, or are otherwise damaged to the point where they become derelict in appearance. Seattle has few pre-1990 specimens, while fair numbers of them are around now. Results will of course vary with how cold a site gets* as well as genetics, perhaps there is variation even within closely related seedlings - as with eucalypts. Basis for 5F claim may have been plant(s) more hardy than others, perhaps from uppermost wild range. IF it was stated that there was minimal or no damage. And their thermometer was working right.

*1990 Seattle minimums reported to me personally by serious gardeners there ranged from 2F-12F.

Quick update. Like (at least a couple) Escallonias, it has no apparent distaste for hot, humid conditions. So far in June we've had rain almost every other day, well over 10" by now, and humid nights staying in the 70s. It looks very happy and has grown over 6", which is not bad because it was only 12" high. An Embothrium would be a lifeless dead twig by now, believe me, I've tried a couple.

Bumping this thread to report that...not surprisingly...the Azara is dead as a doornail. As is my Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' or whatever it could be. FWIW it was definitely hardier than 2-3 other Escallonias I'd tried...'Frades' being one of them...and had persisted since 2006, having variable winter damage each year but returning quickly in spring. I suppose it could still sprout from the roots, but the lowest stems, unlike any prior years, are like driftwood now.

OTOH, both of them were some of the only Chilean shrubs to not mind our summers, and, when I'm in the mood again (not this year) I will probably reorder them. I think the novelty of having a plant from every continent is appealing; though I have a few Brazilian plants like Fuchsia regia (which might not return, but I doubt it...I've observed multiple times that even young plants put down roots 10-12") there was something really cool about being able to say a plant came from Chile.
I might as well wrap up my antipodal/California plant deaths here:
Grevillea victoriae - utterly amazing, looks better than some zn 7 rated rhododendrons. Is acting like it wants to be become a tree, so I've started limbing it up.
Grevillea juniperina - more injured, but still alive
Eucalyptus parvula - had been one of the better Eucs. for me. E. neglecta just gets roasted by the wind here. E. lacrimans was the hardiest but died after 14" of rain fell over 2 days one September. Anyhow it got to about 15' tall. After first round of 3F, was showing very little injury and foliage still smelled alive and was turgid. However, cold outbreak after cold outbreak took their toll, and the last time any of it seemed alive was probably late February. Then, the cold March finished that off. I suppose the roots could sprout, but I doubt it.
Ceanothus 'Concha' - dead; had been in garden in since 2007 and showed light to moderate injury. In a raised bed on a south wall...about the best circumstances for it, because it protected it from winter wind and summer rain. Probably will retry, some day. I really wish someone would do more east/west crosses, or even just offer 'Henri deFosse' which is like a more saturated 'Gloire de Versailles' and would have been more likely to survive the winter in that same spot.
Fremontodendron 'Ken Taylor' - dead, although it still had some green foliage until this week. (NB we are having yet another cold outbreak - the 15th since this winter started? But I luckily escaped freezing again) Was in a similar spot, but even more protected from rain by a wide eave on my garage. Even managed to bloom a couple years. I think it went into winter already dying, because last summer's consistent moisture - though loved by camellias and rhododendrons - was not to its liking and it had started to show leaf drop in autumn. Unlike the Ceanothus, I'm unlikely to repeat this experiment, but it was interesting.

This winter was off-the charts cold. I've had, for example, a Rosemary 'Hill Hardy' since early 2006. Never shown a lick of damage. I was warned a few years ago by that seasoned impresario of midatlantic experimental gardening - initials A.H. for those of you in the know - that 1994 completely destroyed a giant rosemary of his. Mine was about 8 ft. X 6 ft. and 4ft. tall. So back in 2010 I pulled a runner from it and planted it right next to my house's foundation. (The mother plant was still somewhat sheltered, but about 8' from the house) Well, the mother plant? Utterly dead. I just took a chainsaw to it, to clear it out. The main stem had gotten to 5 inches wide, but even down in the layer of dead needles, the stems, trunks and runners were completely dehydrated and easily split open by pulling. Dead as can be. But the plant about 8 inches from the foundation still has some green leaves, albeit only 10-15%, and looks like it will probably pull through. (if the stems were killed, the green would no longer be, especially given the cold windy spring)

A Cupressus arizonica 'Carolina Ice'? So cold and windy here that the foliage on the north side of it is burned!

oh btw - not tree/shrub related, but on the antipodal front...a collection of rare montane Rhodophiala species has survived. Not the typical oxblood lily, but I do have one and it survived too. OTOH, it's looking like certain South African bulbs and rhizomatous forbs are gone, including some borderline priceless ones I'd rather not discuss in detail. This in a way is not surprising: eastern South Africa can have the odd cold outbreak when a front penetrates far to the south, but there isn't snowcover, generally, - Tiffendell ski resort has to make most of theirs and they are in the part of ZA most likely to have permanent snow cover. Winters can be so dry even in the montane areas that there are brush fires. OTOH, the southern tip of South America is much closer to Antarctica, and those bulbs probably come from places where, even though there is snow cover, the ground still freezes. So yes some things like Dieramas can survive the air temps taking a brief dip to 0F. While this winter had permanent, deeply penetrating cold, even with the snowcover, it was too unlike what they are used to. Cold, moist and frozen solid for almost 2 months, when what they want is mild, dry, and unfrozen.

Oh, how could I forget Sean Hogan's "Lake Te Anu" hardy phormium.
After January, they still looked remarkably alive. But the ceaseless cold killed that green 5" or so inches back. (I cannot imagine if this winter hadn't had deep snowcover for all the freezes. Damage would have been much, much worse)

I had given up on them, but I just took a pair of scissors to one earlier this week, and there are still green bits near the roots. So fingers are crossed. This form has definitely seemed hardier than the only other form I tried, from the former nursery with the wonderful name "Wierd Dude's Plant Zoo" which I think he probably got from Plant Delights. In the past 2 mild winters they were not damaged at all and I think if this winter had been mild too, they might have been big enough to start blooming. The PDN form returned from the roots after 3F in 2003 in a former garden, but very slowly, and you wouldn't want the plant to have to do that trick every year.

***
Posted by davidrt28 7 (My Page) on
Fri, Apr 18, 14 at 10:43

A Cupressus arizonica 'Carolina Ice'? So cold and windy here that the foliage on the north side of it is burned!
***

Surprising. Maybe not established enough to have roots below the frost line? Small green giant arbs, pines & other evergreens suffered a bit here the first few yrs (a tiny cryptomeria & nootka cypress killed), but since then no problems.

Yeah I was shocked.
The odd thing is the dead bits all trace back to a handful of main branches off the trunk. It's almost as though the plant "decided" to just give up on maintaining certain branches with heavy wind exposure and let them die. In other words a given 1" caliper branch is all or nothing, dead or alive. I grow clematis through this plant in the summer so there's no way it started earlier, I would have spotted it. Besides it's never had any sort of disease problems.

I've been through Flagstaff when I crossed the country in winter. Even at that elevation, winter days are fairly warm and I don't remember a lot of wind. It ain't the top of Mt. Washington. I can't rule out something else causing this damage, but I can imagine a zn 6 hardy plant losing a few branches in a terrible zn 7 winter. Also, given how moist my location is compared to its hative habitat, it might have not been fully dormant.

In the background is a Fargesia 'Green Screen' which has mild burning but has never shown any before.

oh btw it's about 12-14' and 6 years old.

Well, that may discount my "unestablished" theory. Here's a couple Arizona cypresses on the Hagerstown Jr college campus. There are some impressive 80-90 footers at the VA state Arb too.