Laugh - When I saw the Skinny Dragon from ltruett I thought, 'Man, that's a lot like Lou's trees'. My "regular" Shantungs have been "meh" and didn't like the really hot days. The "Fire Dragon" didn't miss a beat. That Skinny Looks great. Metro Maples is on my drive by list if I get up that way - wish I could mail order small ones. - Hair - Truthfully, I have no idea which would survive on their own. Some of the eastern oaks I have my doubts although I did opt for more drought tolerant ones when I could. I suspect the Mexican and Cali/SW oaks would do fine given how little precip they see naturally. pH tolerance is also an unknown. The drip lines are connected to my 'tree zone' that also provides water to many of my larger landscape trees. I've backed down on the waterings this spring from last (many new 30g landscape trees went that previous fall so they need help the first summer or 3) Lacey, Bigelow, Texas Red and Live all grown naturally in the surrounding woods and it's DRY with little soil. Except for the maples, I tried to get as drought and heat tolerant as I could (caddo fits in here as well) back off on water for the oaks to see how they do. Most pics are with a Nikon D7000. Some are iPhone when I don't bring out the big gun... Couple more shots today (iPhone) Q. organensis Compton Oak Acer buergerianum More growth on Loquat Leaf Oak Mexican Blue Oak Turbinella Oak Chisos Red Oak Meléndrez Oak - I need to get more info on this one. Seems to be an evergreen version of the Chiso Red or something like that. ShuWillow Oak - Q. x moultonensis This post was edited by mattm01 on Wed, Apr 2, 14 at 0:38

I haven’t visited these forums in some time and actually rediscovered this thread doing a google search on some rare plants (go figure). Since we have a lot of trees and not a lot of resources and time to protect them, most of my losses are due to deer/rodent herbivory. Instead of dwelling on all of the plants I haven’t been able to keep alive, I’ll mention the highlights and surprises here. I went go in depth on too many so ask if you want more details and I’ll try to keep an eye on this thread and respond back when I can. I have been in Arizona since May and I’m basing the updates from this past growing season on my mother’s observations. -Strongest growing maple is Acer lobelii by far; arrived as a stick broken in half during shipping en route from Colvos Creek Nursery in Washington state and has grown at least 3 feet a year. It towers over all of the other sticks in my maple collection at about 15 feet. -Acer davidii grosseri hersii (what a taxonomic mess!) is the strongest growing snakebark and a new addition since the original post I believe. I don’t give it any “help” nutrition-wise and it has grown 2 feet each year; excellent striped bark turns crimson with the onset of cold weather and the leaves are a mix of red, orange, and purple in the autumn. From Forestfarm and while they are awesome, I have not yet keyed this plant to confirm its identity; either way, doing awesome for a snakebark in a clay-dominated alkaline soil in an exposed area. -Acer rufinerve gets no fertilization either and has some years where it sits back and grows little, and other where it takes off. Apparently this year it grew over 2’, so it now stands about 8’. Bark is excellent, although it doesn’t change to crimson like some of the other snakebarks. Can occasionally develop minor signs of nutrient deficiency but not a big deal. Leaves are amazing both texturally (coarse) and by color in the autumn, a mix of red, orange and violet. -Acer henryi looks like a Boxelder and grows like one in upstate NY. After a rough time establishing and a nasty bout of sunscald, it now grows about 2’ a year and has excellent red and violet autumn colors, with violet usually dominating. -Acer longipes is notable because I was able to get one through a winter (low -13F) with the only damage due to herbivory. Supposedly sprouted up big time this past summer. Not many experts seem to place much faith in its hardiness and it may have been below the snowline at the time of the low temp. Time will tell. -Acer mandshuricum, Acer triflorum, and Acer maximowiczianum all suffer through chlorosis. A. triflorum does the worst, A. maximowiczianum the best. A hybrid from Forestfarm between A. pseudoplatanus and A. griseum has done very well, with violet-backed leaves and red fall color. Hybrid vigor and no cold or soil issues. -Acer oliverianum is starting to pick up steam and has yet to be damaged by temps as low as -16F. Might be benefiting from the protection of a nearby hedge. Fall color is usually reddish-orange; it is deeply shaded. -Calycanthus raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ is a huge success. Massive flowering in the second year and completely hardy. Grows very fast and gets leggy unless trimmed. Flowers are gorgeous and large, with virtually no scent. Numerous visitors that have seen the plants have subsequently scoured google for a dealer. The intense color has even drawn some hummingbirds. Seedless. Highly recommend. -Magnolia grandiflora ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’ gets defoliated by about January when the truly consistent cold temperatures begin. This about the time that the soil freezes for good as well, limiting the plant’s ability to care for the leaves no doubt. At times, it looks like a fancy houseplant with shiny green leaves growing amongst the snow. No cold-dieback although it is not yet established and grows only about 6 inches a year max so far (haven’t got an update for this past season yet). It is late to leaf out in the spring. -Have a Stewartia malacodendron that apparently did very well in a shaded and very rich sand lens in a protected area that gets partial shade. It is big enough to be above the (likely) snow line and I will be very, VERY interested in seeing if it overwinters. Perhaps more updates later (and as I receive them!)

When I was hiking, the first one I saw I stopped to take a picture of it because of its stunning form. Only when I went up close to see what it was did I recognize it as the rough-barked Arizona Cypress of the Chisos. I have never seen any other examples of rough-barked Arizona Cypress so I cannot compare the Chisos Cypress to them. I noted every Chisos Cypress from the cabin on the Boot Canyon trail up the creek til there were no more Cypress, only Pinyon Pine. They were consistently the same, no exfoliating bark but light-colored ridged bark that clung tight to the tree. Will try to post the pictures I have this weekend. Will petition the National Park Service to make the seeds of these trees available for limited harvest and the Texas Forestry Service to add them to their list of seedlings they raise. They must be planted in other places to avoid a one forest fire wipe-out of their genetics.

Torreya There's natural hybridization and artificial hybridization... Surely, there are natural hybridization between montezuma and bald cypress in Texas but there aren't really any information on that subject. At this point, I don't know how to tell whether they are hybrids or not. There are many variabilities apparently from what I've read. Some don't have knees. Some have smaller cones. Some retains their foliage round year (Montezuma is evergreen in zone 9 and warmer). Montezuma has darker green leaves compared to bald cypress that I've seen up close. There happens to be possible montezuma cypress in another subdivision a mile away. it is very rare that they are sold so I wonder how they ended up with that tree but I like it better than bald cypress which doesn't look all that great growing in area with caliche/limestone base soil. China has done major stuff with montezuma, bald cypress and pond cypress breeding program for quite a while, probably 20 years or longer, i forget the exact numbers but it's a big thing going on over there. They are literally growing millions and millions of cypress seedlings to plant across south area of China. Those trees are not native to their land. They were brought over there from USA in 1800s if I recall correctly. One hybrid that they came up is between Montezuma and bald cypress called 'Nanjing Beauty' that I have 4 at my house. A professor at my college went to China in the early 2000 to provide some help regarding taxiodium trees and he brought some 'Nanjing Beauty' back from here and I guess he started propagating them since then for evaluation program at 50 different locations across USA. China has since come up with more hybrids. They tend to classify their hybrids such as T-101, T-20, etc like that and do some testing on how they do over certain period of time. It's pretty interesting what they are doing over there. It might be a while before you see 'Nanjing Beauty' being sold anywhere if it gets that far. It is relatively new brought into USA in the early 2000s.