I have one I planted at least 14 years ago at my parents house in Bothell, Washington. It is around 15-20ft tall now. Never gets damaged by cold, and it is cold there. I have never had any Eucalyptus make more than three years there. Quercus hypoleucoides makes a fool out of virginiana though! There is one I grew from acorn right next to Quercus virginiana, and it is maybe 40 feet tall now.

-Brian

Thank you Brian. That's encouraging testimony! Does spanish moss grow up here? I want to plant more eucs but it's scary. The ones I have are exploding in growth, must take pictures of them. It's so hot here now, baking and sultry. They like that. Please post a picture of your Quercus virginiana! Thx

As they have grown have any of your trees declined due to increased shade from nearby trees? It's so fiercely hot and sunny here I can't imagine too much shade, but want to know from experienced folk with older trees.

Also, have any of your trees that grow over your roof experienced leaves or branches frying because of sun heat bouncing off the roof?

Hi cascadians

I have tried Spanish Moss up here one time. My uncle is a resort owner. At least fifteen years ago he bought a couple more resorts in Austin, Texas. My Aunt and Uncle had never been there, and my Aunt thought the trees were diseased, so she sent me a sample of the "stuff" that was killing all of the Oaks on the golf course. It was Spanish Moss, and I told her it does not hurt the Oaks etc.. I took the sample she sent me and tied it to a Maple tree in my parents yard. I think it lasted for a couple of years, but without the heat and humidity, of the South and Southeast, it just sat there. I don't know if it was pulled off by a bird, or some other animal, or if it just shriveled up, but it is long gone. I will look for pics of the Oaks. Since they are at my parents house, I can't go and take pictures of them right now unfortunately.

Quercus virginiana does great here. The evergreen oaks in general are an underused group of species. Q. chrysolepis is probably the best all around for the Pacific Northwest if the look of something like Q. virginiana is what you are looking for - it is a bit more drought tolerant. I agree though that one can't really ask for anything better than the silver leaf undersides of Q. hypoleucoides or the bright blue of Q. oblongifolia.

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Q. hypoleucoides

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Q. oblongifolia

I don't garden in your climate, but it strikes me that maybe you should consider that the occasional heavy wet snows and ice storms you occasionally get up north could play havoc with dense foliaged evergreens that aren't genetically programmed to resist these kinds of weights on the often horizontally growing branches. I'd suggest that limb breakage such as you would get with Magnolia grandiflora is the biggest problem.

Spanish moss will grow well enough here in California if it gets irrigation to wet it down occasionally, but it is also too tempting for birds and squirrels to tear up and take away for nests, and small clumps often disappear even if you do water it. In moist enough conditions, won't the native mosses and lichens give a similar effect in your area? In fog belts here in the SF Bay Area, we have native stuff that often looks a dead ringer for Tillandsia usenoides/Spanish Moss.

Ian, those are wonderful pictures of your 2 evergreen oaks! Wish I had planted those too. Agree that oaks are very desireable and worth the slightly longer growing time. Alas, even though I did a huge amount of research before planting, some things were learned a little late. Will replace trees that croak with evergreen oaks if the spot is right.

Thanks for the info Bahia. Didn't think of the snow factor. I'll have to prune my Quercus virginiana strategically so it will fit in its spot between the house and garage and then limb out over the roof, so perhaps the shorter lengths will help the load, don't know the physics of weight bearing. It's not misty enough where I am for the mosses and lichens to really drip, and the 1000s of birds in the yard would make short work of that spanish moss so thanks for that education. Will have to gaze at pictures for the spanish moss effect.

Found a cool picture at wikipedia of a southern live oak, oooooeeeee, such a great tree!

Well the big Q. chrysolepis at the Ballard Locks took a hit in last winter's heavy snow; it was severely damaged and had to be removed. Ironically one would think that of the evergreen species that one would be more accustomed to snow, since it would certainly see plenty of that (and often wet) in the higher altitude parts of its range. Other than that I have never seen problems with snow load on evergreen oaks, though admittedly there are not a lot around here to observe. Here is a pic I took of Q. hypoleucoides I took in the Pinaleno Mts. in 2004.

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Wet snow is indeed the bane of Quercus virginiana here in Seattle and indeed many of the broadleaf evergreen trees such as Magnolia grandiflora. I have seen young Southeren live oaks trees with all the branches stripped off next to individuals with major broken branch damage. Quercus suber, cork oak can suffer the same damage but I have not seen that happen on the few Q. hypoleucoides that can be found here.