Just to cheer everyone up, I'll report the rainfall in Iowa the past 24 hours. Parts of "western" Iowa were deluged with 6 inches of rain over night. Thanks to a slow moving cold front. Also, 27 of Iowa's 99 counties are under flash flood warnings and some state highways are closed due to flooding. I had almost 2 inches of rain in the past 24 hours in my rain gauge. The temperature also dropped about 20 degrees today as the cold front finally moved east. Our problem is how are we going to afford to buy gas to mow twice a week...

Quirky: From the age of five I have been a tree nut--I think I gave a little of my personal history about this in a couple of other posts. Well, to add to that., at the age of five and for many, many years after, tuliptree was my favorite tree. I told some stories about some of the wonderful tulip trees that grew in my neighborhood before in this forum. Let me add this: in my yard I was officially given as my very own a young tulip tree that was about 25 feet tall at the time. My brother was given a slightly larger one next to it. Boy we had fun climbing these trees. And my neighbor had two somewhat taller ones growing next to each other and my brother and I would climb these to the tippy top and sway in the wind. Well, people can tell me these trees are weak wooded --subject to breakage--until they are blue in the face, and they will only make themselves look silly in my eyes. During the time I lived in that town and climbed these trees and measured others with my little handy tape measure, I never saw any of these trees suffer any significant damage. We had a hurricane in about 1949 with trees down everywhere, and in January of 1948 had a terrible, terrible ice storm that had me crying about all the broken trees. But through all of that, not one of my favorite tulip trees was damaged. Thanks for your words of support and what I assume will be some reduction of fear in people who might want to plant and watch these wonderful trees grow. Bob: Thanks for the info. The trees in my hometown are growing along some streets that have 3 or four story buildings that may force their growth energies upwards. They are a fairly dark green unlike the lighter or yellow green of some of the more recently popular cultivars. You say skyline is pyramidal--is it broadly so, or does it grow in a kind of more narrow shape that more properly would be a cone shape? Pyramidal, strictly speaking, is rather broad. I am not really sure what this term means when I see it used to describe the form of a tree, except that it does suggest a central leader, unlike the vase shape. --Spruce

They might be talking about Zelkova carpinifolia, which is much more widely available than Z. serrata in Europe. But Z. carpinifolia is also at least z6, if not z5, hardy. Zelkova abelicea (from Crete) and Z. sicula (from Sicily) are probably less hardy, but are also not widely cultivated, and are only shrubby anyway. Ulmus americana is extremely rare on this side of the Atlantic, hardly ever planted, and what few there used to be in botanical gardens have mostly (if not all) succumbed to DED. There are different strains of DED on either side of the Atlantic too; Ulmus americana cultivars that are resistant to the strains in North America might not be resistant over here. A few DED-resistant clones of European elm species and hybrids are being selected; not sure what crown shapes they have though (and likely unknown, as none of them is very old yet). Resin

Actually the southernmost native range of Longleaf Pine is in northwest Lee County, which extends down to USDA zone10a and they could probably easily grow in Broward Co (10a/10b) Longleaf Pine should be planted much more than other pines because before European settlement the longleaf pine forest dominated as much as 90 million acres stretching from Virginia south to Florida and west to eastern Texas. Its range was defined by the frequent widespread fires that occurred throughout the southeast. This rich ecosystem has now been regulated to less than 5% of its presettlement range or about 3 million acres. Its range has decreased a lot over time. And their conservation status is now in the Threatened range (Vulnerable). They are much more resistant to pest and diseases than many other native pines which in turn they reach their full size at age 150 years old and they can live up to 300 or 400 years. The Longleaf Pine also has the largest cones of any eastern U.S. Pine, which can be up to 10 inches long and some reach about the size of a football. The needles of young trees can reach up to 18 inches long which are the longest needles of any pine tree in the world. They grow slow for about 3 to 8 years while in the "grass stage" in this stage, longleaf pine seedlings resemble a clump of grassÂand hence the name. But after that they shoot up like a rocket and can equally reach or exceed the growth of a loblolly pine during the "rocket stage". Here is a link that might be useful: The Longleaf Alliance