Your best chance of growing this will be in a pot. Keep it outdoors until the time period between when the deciduous trees lose their leaves and then keep it exactly one month outdoors (minimum) and allow it to be exposed to cold-conditions/snow.

For example I am ready now anytime to move my potted grafting understocks into my greenhouse and shut the door to only open it during days where the sun will heat the greenhouse above freezing temps... prior to this, my greenhouse would have been too warm, because... it holds heat.

Another example, summer-rooted-cuttings having small root-systems, not enough "mass" to make it thru the winter... or dangerously-so as to do I will be soon bringing into my basement where they will be kept in a dark corner and will hover at what my unheated basement temp always is at and that's between 55 & 57 degrees F.

So... long as they receive a months time of dormancy - they will be fine in an indoor environment.

Only a few tips:

Do not water them often. Only water partially, after, the soil has nearly/completely had the chance to become-dry.

Mist them (not so they're dripping ever) as often as you can throughout the day, 4-5 times is the norm.

*these tips are for a conifer brought into a sunny-environment-only.

My "grafting conifers" would need the same care - only when I heat the greenhouse (24 hours a day).

Last tip, as soon as possible when the weather is gentle enough to bring the Aurucaria araucana/etc- outdoors during the daytime... do this as often as possible from the very-beginning of late-winter/spring.

--

To add to this as I read this morning which triggered an old memory I hadn't thought of in a very long time... 'dormany' can be artificially induced on all plants that fit in a refrigerator. Same--deal, one-month.

And... the least dry the environment, indoors, the better off the conifers are.

Dax

These simply thrive here in the Pacific Northwest. I can think of several specimens that are probably 60-90 feet tall with massive trunks. We typically have Winter lows of about 25 with an occasional stretch of teens or single digits.

Correct, the first thing I thought of before I started writing was that A.a. is a zone 7b minimum plant. What we're talking about in this thread are sub-tropical and tropical, plants.

Best Regards Will,

Dax

I always thought it would be cool to get these trees to grow in New Jersey, but never got around to trying it out. Maybe one day, for the hell of it, I'll give it a try...

Someone over in the Palms and Cycads forum is growing one either in Brooklyn or Staten Island I think. I know there are a few here in the DC area, but were a solid 7B inside the beltway here, approaching 8A in the inner city, especially right along the tidal Potomac inside the heat island. I think they could be doable in parts of NJ. In upstate NY, or anywhere that is a 6b or colder, I would definitely do it in a container so they can be brought in during the coldest winter months. They are rated down to -4F (-20C)

Just got one delivered,thanks for all the info.Will keep in pot and grow it on that way.

hi there :)
i wouldn't be so worried about keeping it outside if i where you, i might not know much about how the winters are in N.Y.
but what i do know is they grow fine here i Denmark with winter lows down to -15, at my school theres a small specimen(about 4 feet)in the ground that survived trough last year's extreme winter where the temp. stayed below 0c for 3 months night and day, with minimums of -15 and all that happend to it was a few browned leafs.

Araucaria bidwillii
The "Bunya Bunya" grows well as a weird houseplant... remarkably fast without much sun either. I don't know how much it looks like a natural outside tree.

{{gwi:856446}}

Jonas,

In NY state (north of NY City), temps generally get below -20C in the winter at least once.

oh, i didn't know that i got so cold there, theres places here in denmark where it gets so cold but i dont know if the A.a. thrives in those parts :)

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

One in Botanical Garden Prague Z 6/7 (there are two hardness zone maps for Europe and they differ substantially in it's central part)

Araucaria araucana can do well in a pot:
One i nursery in Poland (Z 6a) in the background very nice W. nobilis in a pot also...

One in botanical garden Wroc�aw Z 6/7 (second plant behind is dead). You can see some winterburns. Tree is in the ground since year 2003. The minimum temperatures in Wroclaw were: -22,8C 2004, -21,4C 2005, -24C 2006, -24C 2007, -10,7C 2008, -23,8C 2009, -22,6 2010.
It is maybe hard to believe that it is considered Z7 after seeing these data, but the data are official (from IMGW Polish equivalent of NOAA, but it might be that they are from the airport outside the city) and I was not the one drawing the maps...

CedLib