Aracaria Araucana is the cold hardiest species--down to zone 7. Supposedly there are a few planted in my area but they are quite rare and you have to go searching for one being grown in the home garden. Years ago, a local garden center was selling nice ones for 10.00 and I passed it by only to regret it. I have since purchased one from eBay. No, it was not huge originally, but it has started to branch. I might eventually put it into the ground, but right now it's containerized and goes into a cold greenhouse in the winter. They all prefer cool, moist climates so resent excessive heat as much as cold--so Ireland is kind to them. You could grow one in Michigan but would need to protect it in typical zone 5 winters. I don't know how they would do as a houseplant in the winter under warm, indoor conditions though.

Oh my gosh. NB that the link now goes to a totally different dead nursery auction in a different part of the state of NJ. That auctioneer is so thrifty they reuse their old URLS! "Finally, the North American Rock Garden Society's Mason-Dixon chapter will present "Monkey Puzzle Tree, a story of survival"" That's a bit ironically titled. Surely a plant with one of the lowest success rates on the east coast, otherwise you'd see them all over. I seem to recall Mr. Hill of the old Hill's Camellia gardens told me he'd tried several and they were impossible in the climate of DC...he refused to believe there was one in Silver Spring and said it had to be a China Fir. (it isn't) They've been sold as specialities since at least the early 80s and yet you never see them in old gardens. Betty's Azalea Ranch in West Fairfax used to publish a big fancy catalog and they listed them for an ungodly sum for the era, I think $200, but I did see them at the nursery in that time frame when I was a kid. (mid 80s) I think they were also listed by the Foxborough Nursery in NE Maryland, which until they went wholesale only in the early 1990s was the country's ne plus ultra source of rare mail order conifers and things like boxwood. (The wholesale list now is a sad shadow of those days and from the vibe I get having seen the current generation of the family at plant sales, they just see horticultural as a business not a passion.) I have personally killed a couple small ones and I know of other collectors with similar experiences. Chile has probably never had a dewpoint above 65F in the whole country and it shows in the behavior of plants from there. This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sat, May 24, 14 at 12:53

I also think that -20 C is a limit for A. araucana. There is one tree in Poland (already nearly 20 years old) that survived -26 C. My friend believes that situation with A. araucana resembles that of C. libani - when only cedars from Lebanon were planted they were thought to be hardy only to Z7 but when the var. stenocoma was found in Turkey it turned out that it's hardy to zone 6 or even 5. Similarly A. araucana has two divided populations - one in more oceanic conditions in Chile which is easier accessible and was probably the main source of seeds brought to US and Europe - and second in Argentina - in continental forest-steppe zone where temperatures drop below -20C and which contributed less in creation of our northern hemisphere populations. This not mine theory but I admit it could be possible. And yes - Araucaria withstands long frosts very well - better than my beloved cedars so can be planted at high latitudes where winters are long but mild an summers cool (very nice an very old (50 yrs?) specimen in Alesund, Norway 63 N!). CedLib

Your Lucky your all in the states. I live in Windsor, across the river from Michigan and we also, can ONLY grow the Chinese Windmill Palm / Trachycarpus fortunei. (That I know of for certain - there are others being tried) Unfortunately, being tropical, the plant has to be brought in from BC where the climate there is more like California except BC does get hit with some severe winter weather. This is how we know it will survive (after a few years of winter protection) here in our climate. The plants I can order are small (1gallon-$18cad)and they take a long time to grow, I heard 2-4 palm leaves a year. And you can't mail order bigger than a 1 gallon plant from them and they have a smaller one, probably the 2 1/2 inches. They also want 30% of the total order for shipping or $32 whichever is greater. Ouch... Tropic.ca But places that carry these plants have other hardy tropicals such as 2 hardy BANANA TREES (1 definately for our area with winter protection Musa Basjoo (Japenese Fiber Banana)& Musa Sikkimensis (it's a beauty to and said to be as hardy as the Musa Basjoo once established (2-4 years) You have to cut down banana's in our area down to 2-3 feet and insulate. And the Canna's...outstanding(need to lift root to over winter inside.) They have bamboo and hardy paw paw fruit trees and figs, makes a tropics fanatic yearnful. Mind you, you'll find great prices for some of these at one store and better prices or availability and sizes at another. Best info I found for Tropical Hardiness for our area is at www.Bambooworld.com For you people over the border (US)who want to find a closer place to order from search the words 'Trachycarpus fortunei' (Chinese Windmill Palm) and those Latin words should bring you up mostly stores selling them and any tropicals you can think of. If your not after the Chinese Windmill Palm particulary, but a tropical on-line store that may not even sell the Chinese Windmill Palm, use 'Musa Basjoo' (Japenese Fiber Banana). Happy hunting! Yardman, you must be right over the river in the Michigan area to have that Zone. Though I've never seen that area classified as a 7, I know it has been classified a Zone 6 as is our area, though I still tend to stick with the better known Zone 5. Just don't have the money to be risky, some Zone 6 plants would survive here while others won't, so I just wait till someone incites my curiousity over a rare plant in our area and check it out. And if I want it bad enough... ;) Anyway, Yardman and anyone else growing tropicals in the Detroit Area/Lower Michigan, which tropicals such as bamboo, yucca's and figs do you have growing anyway? At least those plants you've had overwintered for winter or two. - Sandy