Some Asiatics do better back there. Our western species have trouble with your torrid summers.

The summers are rather torrid. Not really excessive heat, but a combination of heat and humidity. How do the Eastern species do in the Northwest?

They may find it rather cool, dry and infertile. Depends on the site, of course, but it is somewhat typical for the eastern North American species to stand out via their poor foliage color. A few are even a bit tender, due to inability to reach full maturity (and hardiness) before autumn.

Nevertheless, we have large examples of various eastern trees, and some eastern plants are commercially important here. Among shade trees, quantities of Acer rubrum, A. x freemanii, Fraxinus americana, F. pennsylvanica, Quercus rubra and so on are grown in wholesale nurseries and planted on public and private property.

I have plenty of bigleaf maple seedlings for you to experiment with. ;)

Dear Southwebb,

To put torrid into perspective, we may have 6 weeks of 80 degree weather with a few days in the 90's, and even then it cools off at night to the 60's.

How many days over 90 do you get in Georgia? How many weeks in the 80's? How many nights does it never get cooler than 75?

It's past the summer solstace now and we've had three days in the high 80's--a freak of nature here. Otherwise it's been in the upper 50's to 60's at night and mid 70's on a good sunny day.

All the best.

FireVicar

a wide variety of (deep) southern natives can be grown here---from southern magnolia and baldcypress and even live oak. many s.e. natives (and certain southeast asian species) need irrigation here because of our dry summers while western natives like madrone, western redbud, california buckeye, and western dogwood cannot take the combination of high heat and humidity plus heavy soils that seemingly are common in many parts of the deep south.

Sorry friends for the lack of response. I was sent to PA for work and lost my internet privileges for a few days.

FireVicar,
I'm not sure but I'd guess that we probably have 2 - 4 weeks with temps over 90. As far as temps in the 80's, they start in May and end in October. How many nights does it never get cooler than 75? 7 - 10 days.

Please be aware that these are just guesses so I could be way off base. However, I have attached a link to give you an idea of the weather.

Ratherbgardening,
I appreciate the offer for the maples. However, I might be better served if I tried to germinate seed. Do you have any seed?

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=533690&refer=

For what it's worth........

I found this website of a private landowner who operates an arboretum about an hour and a half north of me. He was a number of Northwest natives in his collection. I emailed him to see how they were performing. He replied, "Yes, many trees do in fact prosper here and some such as Acer macrophylla, just won't even live."

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.coxgardens.com/index.htm

As a southerner transplanted in the Pacific Northwest I would say the biggest thing I have found here is the lack of warmth and sunshine to grow certain things I took for granted back home in Louisiana. Just to name a few of the simple things that I took for granted back home are marigolds, which I started from seed back in april and are JUST blooming now. My zinnias started at the same time are not even close to blooming. Tomatoes are for the most part just beginning to set fruit. My cucumbers are only about 4 inches high...no fruit.

On the positive side, Hydrangeas which bloom in May back home and only for a short time are blooming now and will continue to do so for a lot of the summer (I think because of the LACK of hot humid days).

There are several things we do grow in common that always remind me of home when I see them. Especially magnolias, camellias and azaleas.

Getting back to your actual question though, my former mother-in-law back in Louisiana, was a fabulous gardener and always willing to take a chance on plants that weren't necessarily suited to her climate. She would just try to creat a microclimate of sorts within her garden. For instance she always wanted a blue spruce which obviously doesn't grow naturally in the deep south. She planted it in the coolest spot in her garden on the north side of the house. It seemed happy there, although she only lived in that house with that spruce for about 3 years, so who knows what happened to it. She also tried ferns that were native to the northwest, rhododendrons and other things that were unavailable at local nurseries. I also traded plants with many folks around the country and received and grew things that I wasn't sure would be suited to the hot climate, but by putting them in "cool" spots they did ok.

This may be a complete generalization, but I also am finding something to be true up in this part of the country. There are many nurseries that offer a MUCH wider variety of species plants than I found back home. I think the point I am trying to make is that there may be a lot of things southern gardners could be growing, but aren't because apart from mail order these things are not marketed widespread or even available.

The summers in most of Japan are a lot like the summers in the Deep South and the winters in Japan are a lot like the winters in the PNW. My theory is that plants from Japan that do well in the South are the ones that like or need the heat and humidity of the summers, and the ones that do well in the PNW are the ones that like or need the wet winters here.

Nightnurse, I certainly wouldn't dispute that the summer in the PNW is much less hot and humid than the South, but we have had an unusually cool and wet spring and summer so far. Up here, we have to exploit micro-climates to grow hot season plants. Even this year, I already have zinnias blooming that I started from seed and tomatoes almost ready to eat in my very warm back yard, so don't be too discouraged.

I'll have to comment on the big leaf maples, of which I have several on my 2 acres. They grow into an extremely large tree which is always striving to grow more trunks up from the ground and take up more room. They put out large quantities of seed every year which come up everywhere attempting to turn my entire yard into a grove of blm's and which must be pulled up every year. The branches are weak and big dead branches fall off the tree in a windstorm.

Can you grow the fern-leaved Japanese maples? Many of the Japanese maples stay smaller and have lovely red or variegated leaves. I have only seen one seedling Japanese maple and didn't recognize what it was before I pulled it up. I keep meaning to try to grow some from seed but haven't done it yet.

Apple and pear trees do very well here. How do they do in your area? I wish we could grow pecans, but it's not hot enough here.

Hemnancy,
Your experience with big leaf maples is similar to our experiences with the native red maples. The seedings come up everywhere. But they are not nearly as bad as Loblolly pines, pinus taeda, which will take over an unmowed field within a few years.

Fern-leaved Japanese maples are so common here that they border on boredom. It seems that every house has a Bradford pear and Japanese maple. The local nursery carries about 50 different cultivars.

Apple and pear trees do fairly well in the northern part of the state (zone 7a & b), but do not thrive well in south Georgia (zone 8). Our major problems with fruit trees are insects and fireblight. Pear trees prone to fireblight, such as Bartlett, die within a few years. I have a Moonglow pear, a Gala apple and two Granny Smith apples that perform fairly well. It seems that these trees get some fireblight, along with my Nanking cherries, about every other year. I prune it out and the trees are fine.

Don't lose any sleep over the pecan trees. In general, the trees are messy, hard to transplant due to a tap root and don't start producing well for about 15 years. I planted three, and two died. I removed the other one and replaced it with a sequoia sempervirens because it had not grown in four years. That being said, I believe that Georgia leads the nation in pecan production each year. They do like the climate, although they are not native to the state. You are better off buying them from a store than trying to grow your own.

Southern species of palms will grow in the North West but they grow at a much slower rate due to the lack of Summer heat and the cooler night temps. I must admit one of my large Rhapidophyllum hystrix seems to be very happy despite this inconsistant weather we've been having. It has hoards of nice suckers and it is currently sending out two new fronds. My largest Sabal minor is sending out another flower spike. Cheers, Joe