Having read all the postings ,i will add my bit,I live a stones throw from the beach in Port Macquarie ,and yes I do get frost in my backyard,I have been down to -5 on 3 occasions,rare? yes but it can happen,Now i mainly grow Vrieseas but i have found the plants that suffered the most where the plants with DRY root systems,as the air cools it loses the ability to hold moisture,but the plants still transpire,eventually the rate of transpiration is greater than the plant can supply moisture through its root system as the pot is dry the roots virtually suck in air , the cold then starts leaf collapse (going limp) then airlocks form in the leaf veins ,with moisture depleted the plants is doomed ,the damage is done before the frost get to the plant, its just the final straw,ever notice that in a group of plants there is one or two that suffered and not the rest ? bet that was a plant with dry roots. i know some plants are very cold sensitve and there is little you can do there,but it will be more suspect if the roots are dry. this sounds like it should happen in warm weather But moist air holds warmth so the rate of transpiration slows down.If the humidity is say 90% the plant wont transpire , You ever noticed that a lot of vegies go limp in your fridge ? but if you put them in WET the dont.yet your fridge is COLD This year it was cold but my back yard flooded (and the plants) 5-6 times the plants in my building stayed much drier (cause i could 'nt go out in the swamp) they suffered ,not badly but they did just the same ,the worst place for wet and cold is along my drive way where the best lookin Vrieseas are mocking me ,i have done some dilebirate tests on this and for ME it works, dry roots ? cold damage follows ,i am not saying this will work for you but you can easely test this, and it my not work for all genera, but my Ae.Chantinii's are ok with it ,but they suffer if the roots are dry,anyway i thought i would just mention it , best of luck ,i sympathise with all that lose their precious babies. Jack

I have two toona's growing, one actually is a root cutting from the other. Here's how it went for me. I bought a toona and planted it in my front yard, but I was quite busy and lost track of it. One day I remembered it, realized I hadn't been watering it ("Woops!....GULP!"), so I went to check on it: dead as road kill. I dug it up and was going to toss it in the woods, but instead I just stuffed it into a flower box I'd made. It was around October or so. I left it there all winter (zone 5, Kansas), and late May the next spring I noticed it had come back! When I went to dig it up, the root system was pretty deep, and I didn't quite get all of it. I proceeded to plant it in my front yard, where it's doing quite well today. In any event, a few months after I'd dug it up, I happened to notice a new sprout coming up from whence I moved it. Sure enough, it was a toona sprout, and it's still growing there today. It doesn't get a lot of sun in that particular spot, but it's a hardy tree and it's survived several winters, so I suppose it's there to stay. The tree in my front yard is growing juxtaposed to a Paulownia tomentosa (aka, "Empress Tree"), neither of which is particularly common here in Kansas. I've got a jujube (Zizphus jujuba) and several Asian pears growing out front, all of which generate a lot of questions from passers by. When the Paulownia was first sprouting (about 15 foot from the ground up in one summer), my neighbor wanted to know if it was a tomato or Hostas, and what kind of fertilizer I was using to get it to grow like that! 8-)

"if this accurately represents tree hardiness, a number of trees deserve colder ratingscolor>" Let's look at which trees those might be.... From experience (three winters) I would say Picea breweriana is quite happy in my zone -- versus the Z6 designation above. Especially this year, the new shoots are extra long ! By contrast, I would probably move Pinus thunbergii from Z6 to Z7 -- no end of grief with this one (yet). My Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata Aurea' is doing a lot better, despite being rated the same Z6. That Z8 rating for Sciadopitys verticillata seems totally out of whack with what I've been told recently on this forum, although I have no experience with it myself. Z7 for Picea sitchensis seems a bit overblown too.... and probably likewise for Cephalotaxus harringtonia. And Pinus contorta rated Z7?! ....give me a break ! Not easy to find a reliable list, that's for sure.

To Flick111: Suggest you ring the local CAB and ask for a Herb Society contact for Wellington or Hutt Valley. I know the national herb people put out a journal - 'Dittany', but I'm not sure if it's indexed. Check in the main Wellington Public Library; they've probably got back issues and woodruff may have been the subject of an article. For Penny NZ: Oriental lilies (not the asiatics, which are pretty but have little scent), Viola odorata, Michelia doltsopa. If you haven't already found it - try Carne's nursery at the south end of Masterton, and the High Street Nursery a little further up the road on the same side for several 'see and sniff' sessions... Recommend you take a notebook and no more than five dollars, just in case.