It'll grow for a while but eventually will be unable to get adequate water and croak.

Dan

The coast range of northern California is where the Douglas fir is the dominant forest tree. I would not expect it to do well for you. Think of all you can grow that would not do well for me. Al

Thanks for the response. I grow pinus sabiniana (foothill pine) coulter pine, tecate cypress and incense cedar among native coast live oak, sugar bush and others. Calistoga, what is your elevation? I know you get heat also, and I am at about 2,200. Any suggestions with regard to other cedars?

We are 300 ft. higher than Calistoga, which must be less than 200 ft. above sea level. Our average rainfall is around 40 inches. Average summer daytime temps are between 85 and 95 degrees in Calistoga, we average about 10 degrees less. Dad planted Deodar Cedar, and Blue Spruce which grew well, though we really did not need more forest trees. He planted Birch also which had a short life here. Among our native trees are live oak, black oak, arbutus, buckeye, coast redwood and California laurel. The only pines we have I planted, stone pines as a screen to hide a busy highway. I also transplanted several of the cedar seedlings for the same purpose. Al

Tressa;

I've seen all our local mountain trees growing down in the hot valley around Riverside; Coulter Pine, Jeffrey Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Incense Cedar, Sugar Pine, Coastal Redwood, Red Cedar, Pinion Pine, Juniper, and Lodgepole Pine. I have a Giant Sequoia in my front yard that's thriving. The big Christmas-tree cedars you see around town are Deodar Cedar, native to the Himalayas. These all require irrigation in our climate, probably why they're not grown more extensively.

The only mountain trees I haven't seen do well in the hot valleys are Black Oak and the Dogwoods. You can get any of these trees at Fox Farm Nursery on Fox Farm Rd. by Vons in Big Bear. By the way, I grow 100 varieties of apples on 200 hrs. of chill also; things are not always as you suppose.

Applenut

Thank you for the info, Applenut. I usually get my natives at Tree of Life. I purchased a Jeffrey pine at Las Pilitas in San Diego. It didn't survive - but at that time this was our weekend vacation spot. We now live here full time and I can do a better job of watering. Where are you located? I'd love to take a little trip to Big Bear!

Tressa;

I live down in the heat of Riverside, but spend a lot of time in the mountains (hard to make a living up there). I wish I could spend summers up there and winters down here.

Applenut