Here is one I didn't know about. Looks like they LOVE the high summer rainfall, and deep sandy soils of southeastern Virginia! The best Cryptomeria I've ever seen on the east coast (probably, anywhere! I've never been to JP or CN) was somewhere in Norfolk but I doubt I could ever find it again. http://bigtree.cnre.vt.edu/detail.cfm?AutofieldforPrimaryKey=660 Time for those folks to install a lightning arrester for that tree! Or make sure the church spire is well grounded so that it diverts the charge LOL.

I wonder how the 'Mammoth Tree' of Calaveras Grove, the 'General Noble' and 'Mark Twain' tree would have actually compared in wood volume to the Lindsey Creek Tree and the Crannell/Maple Creek tree? The 'Mammoth Tree' was 31 feet in diameter just above the base. Does anyone have any idea of the what the volume may have been for these trees, the board feet of lumber? Could we estimate from say the photo of the 'Mark Twain' tree? Seeing the base in these photos, it is a terrible shame that these magnificent trees were logged. Resin, did you see the stump of the Mammoth when you visited Calaveras Grove? Some of the photos on this page of the stupendous trees about to be logged! What totally irreplaceable trees, the Cedar tree in Washington must have been enormous judging from it's trunk. Here is a link that might be useful: Mammoth tree

Yes, yes we've discussed this ad nauseam, the irony or twist or whatever you want to call it is that this plant certainly does not need California summers. It doesn't need them to survive and it doesn't need them to have an extra shot at surviving cold winter. Believe me I'll be the first to admit when something from a dry summer climate is ungrowable. Before the 2nd great freeze we had the wettest June ever here, it killed some of my newly planted stuff and caused a huge 40' Morus to defoliate but apparently survive. None of the redwoods are in a particularly well draining spot (though neither are they in swamps) and they all made in through the following winter that was horrendously cold. I remind you that during some ice ages the glaciers came about as far south as the WA/OR border. Certainly S. s. has a "genetic memory" to survive much colder conditions than its current zn 9-10 haunts. 2500' ft. in the coast ranges wouldn't be very cold but the worst frost hollows at that elevation could certainly be into zn 8 territory and then the plants surviving zn 7 on the east coast doesn't seem so far fetched. In the Great Freeze of 1990, a low altitude location in Marin County reached an astonishing 4F! The Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek was something like 12F. And that's just what we know in recent human history. It's a known fact that 'Chapel Hill' survived a verified -9F in, what was it, 85? It was already a large plant then, nobody was covering it with Tyvek and warming it with orchard smudge pots LOL. As I said the Barnes tree surely saw temps around 0F more often. I'm not saying mine will survive another winter like 1899 but I'm saying they will probably survive well enough during my lifetime. Knock on wood (this winter is now over with respect to potentially catastrophic freezes) but it's fascinating that as bad as the past two winters were, as well as this brief spell of this one, it hasn't gone below 0F here when it certainly did in 85 & 94 and several other cold winters back to the infamous 1899, when the Atlantic froze as far south as Virginia Beach. Has something fundamentally changed?* I don't know but by the time I find out it hasn't I predict my redwoods will be big enough to survive almost any winter this area throws at them. * to clarify, I mostly think I just got lucky, but I can't rule out that something could mean that for a few decades we have, I don't know, a pattern of longer winters that don't get quite as cold, versus shorter winters with more serious freezes. Of course I much prefer the former. I also think my research in where to place this garden paid off: I had a vague sense 11 years ago that I should avoid totally flat terrain and that has been a good choice as is evidenced by vast swaths of the interior Delmarva going below 0F in one of the prior winters because the cold air had nowhere to drain.

Embothrium, I live a good 25 miles from the ocean in the San Fernando Valley. It's moderately to extremely hot, dry and windy in the fall, spring, and summer... cool to cold and mostly dry in the winter. Almost never foggy. We're still in the middle of a severe drought to boot. Even if it could survive here, it would probably outgrow my yard and become a potential liability in the not so distant future. If it weren't for the drought, I'd consider the SoCal coast, but who knows how long it's going to last. Tom, I don't drive a Prius. But I *do* drive an Elantra hatchback haha! I've always loved trees and I feel strategy responsible for this one in particular. It's the only tree I've ever taken care of. I'm gonna have to get one better suited to my climate to replace it when it's gone :/