shastensis, According to Dr. Bob Zybach of Oregon the old growth in the Northwest was comparable to today's old growth over a century ago in the settlement era. He studied fire history in the state of Oregon and believes most of the trees were second growth when the white man came. Zybach has said reports of Douglas fir in excess of 300 feet are mostly stories that cannot be documented, and he has said that the city of Vancouver BC was a prairie before the white man came. I think his views are the minority opinion. He was a reforestation contractor for 20 years, so I value his input. Most estimates I have seen suggest between 70 and 90% of the biggest and oldest Douglas fir forests have been logged in the past 130 years. In some places like Southern Vancouver Island up to 99% of old growth fir is said to be gone. One need only look at the hundreds of old logging photos of giant fir and cedar to get an idea of how large the lowland forests once grew, and in places like present day Seattle, and Vancouver BC. To deny all of this pretty much tells me one would have to be a lobbyist for the timber industry, but that is just my gut feeling.

Here's a link to a great site with planting lists for North, Central and South Florida. UFL Planting Guide [This is address in case the link doesn't work: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VH021] Kate

From the above link: Average landscape size: Grows 6 to 8 ft. tall, 5 to 6 ft. wide in 10 years; slightly larger with age. It's not of course going to grow 7' tall in 10 years and then never get more than slightly larger afterward - there is nothing about one of these being only 10 years old that makes it suddenly start growing in tiny increments. And there doesn't seem to have been a huge difference between what has often been presented as "Compacta" on the market here in the past and the typical species - you are going to have a long wait for 20' in either case. It is true that recently I have seen some material that might in fact be more true to type 'Compacta'*, with small leaves, a small looking habit and a mere sprinkling of flowers. And the appearance of clonal uniformity - unlike the apparently sometimes seed raised material of the past, with mixed flower colors (some pink, some white) in the same blocks, other variation evident. *As described by one print reference I have here, at any rate

This reminds me of a jade plant we found in my wife's grandfather's house when they were putting it on the market to sell. The house was setting for a few years with out heat and when cleaning out the cellar, we found a stem of a old dead jade plant that belonged to his wife. She had died many years before and he never did anything to it for at least 15 years. That stem was still hard and dried. We watered it and it sprang back to life. It was special to my wife since it belonged to her grandmother. Had for many years till our cat clawed it apart.