iforgotitsonevermind, I for one rarely give out personal information, and so I agree with not giving out specific information, however general information (zone/region)gives some indication of length of growing season, rainfall, rainfall pattern etc which can all be helpful. With that said people are only trying to help you, but I'm not going to argue with you as you have obviously gotten upset. Just something for you to think about, Arktrees I do have the following to add that could be of some benefit to you. Allot of trees in containers (I don't know the percentage), are in fact "containerized". These trees are actually field grown, dug bare root, roots pruned, and then planted in a container and given some time to recover before being sold as container stock. I don't know it this is what happen here, but it would seem likely to significantly slow recovery. This is due to the fact that as many or more root are lost, than if the tree was balled and burlaped, so that there is a great deal of regeneration must occur, which is likely to be slowed due to limited sun exposure. It may be beneficial to dug a small test hole with a trowel a short distance from the tree to determine if roots are spreading properly. Obviously if you are only making a small hole, and the roots are spreading well, then this is a minor lose of roots compared to what may have happened previously, and will give you a good ideal as to what is happening below ground. But of course you don't want to repeat this very much. I intend to do just this with our kousa dogwood, did just this for a tulip tree last fall that did not exactly thrive last year. Containerized trees are very common. Our first Fall Fiesta Sugar Maple I planted improperly for our soil. By the time I realized that I had screwed up, I dug the tree up, and placed it back in a container but the tree eventually died. Many months later, I removed the dead tree from the container, removed the soil, and discovered it was a containerized tree. In the intervening time I planted another Fall Fiesta Sugar Maple elsewhere that is doing very well so far, and my discovery of the containerizing of the original explained the growth rings I had seen on the new tree that didn't seem to make sense. The current years growth (at the time of planting in the fall) had been much less than previously years growth. It had shoots of approximately 6-8 inches, while growth rings (can bee sine in the bark on shoots when bark color and texture changes from one year to the next) on other trees indicated that they often grew a great deal more than that. So apparently the tree had been dug from the field the fall before i bought it, planted into a container, and allowed to recover for the summer, and fill the pot with roots. The tree was then shipped late summer to my destination, at which time I bought it in the fall, and planted it. Then last spring it grew about double what it had the previously year (the recovery summer), but still not as much as it as has been visible in other larger trees. I bring this up, as it may give you some clue as to whether the tree has in back been field grown, then containerized. At the least it may give somebody else some ideals for this problem.

One thing they didn't cover in the video, is how far a large tree can drive its branches into the ground when it hits. A tree that size could drive branches into sub terrain 6-8+ ft. There're tons of force associated with a tree that size hitting the ground. Which could affect lawn irrigation pipes and utilities. Not to mention a rogue wind sending the trunk off course. He was basically taking a huge chance dropping the tree with no other control than his 'keen eye'. I also thought it interesting that he never did drive the wedge into the saw cut with any force at all. Just saying.... 8^)

Just got a report from the director of the Stephen F. Austin State University Mast Arboretum that the tree I supplied him about 10 years ago - which had originally come from Ian Barclay's Desert Northwest Nursery - survived -4F in the big TX freeze. I think that would be the lowest known 'official' record that one of those survived. Granted that does not mean I think I could grow it around here...although they would probably be fine in SE VA. Fully established plants can often survive one-time dips well below their official zone designation. Still convinced this is best classified an 8a species, which is what the Mast Arboretum is. (actually 8b) And east Texas is a generally warm climate, period. The rest of winter after the freeze quickly went back to sunny days in at least the high 50s if not warmer. I think I remember hearing it hit the mid 70s in parts of Texas a couple weeks later. Here, we would have spent another month below freezing! Fun to see the thread again. I too wish Jason could have bought Sonoma Hort when it was up for sale har har har. Or me for that matter! A parana pine seedling that Polo gave me as a gift is doing well, last I heard, in a Raleigh NC area garden. Yes, I immediately re-gifted it ;-) He is such a kind man and an important figure in US horticulture. I hope he's doing well.

I would survey plant collections there before deciding these were not present, myself. There are two levels of horticultural diversity, same as here: the general landscape, where you see the same cultivated plants over and over, and collections, where there are vastly more kinds grown. There are a great many kinds of garden plants that surely could be grown in Hawaii, that apparently aren't. For example, possibly only a single species of Magnolia, M. grandiflora is represented. Concern about protecting agricultural crops and home gardens from new weeds and insects, resulting restrictions has alot to do with it, no doubt. I've seen Trematolobelia macrostachys growing wild (and flowering) on Oahu on a prior trip, as well as a few other species I may never have identified. None this time, didn't even visit gardens. Short visit, to take care of some family business.