It's good that the original poster sought clarification, but, frankly, this is rather tahrsome to have to clear all this up. That link Resin kindly supplied is quite annoying. I don't want to have to read through a bunch of narrative, even if color coded, to get the information I need. It's as though failed novelists in the UK become amateur weather statisticians. I had to do a lot of digging around to find that in the "cold" winter of 1963, for example, Kew was only -9.6C. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/mtullett/1962-63/january_1963.htm (why can't this chart list the typical large English cities with which a non-native would be familiar? and sorry this circa-1996 technology web board won't automatically html-ize the link) During the fearsome winter of 1947, it got down to a whopping 14F. http://www.winter1947.co.uk/ At this point a couple things. I was aware the odd terrible frost pockets anywhere in the "interior" parts of the UK have been down to temps slightly below -18C as often as every 20 years or so. (I'm discounting the ridiculous valleys in the highlands of Scotland where no one actually lives that have set the UKs record lows. It's so cold in those places you can't even grow anything interesting in summer) These cold events are duly noted in at least a couple English gardening books I've read or perused. I believe Graham Stuart Thomas brings up such anomalies somewhere in his writings. But they are exactly that. It would be incorrect to assume that any random point in southern England had been below -18C more than a couple times in the past 100 years, if at all. And as for the little ice age, and periods before 1850, the original poster mentioned the time frame of the last 150 years so that is what I was dealing with. Also it is my understanding that the accuracy of records from before 1850 or so is generally held in lower regard than modern ones. If, indeed, mature Cedrus libani died all over the UK in the early 18th century, that was truly an incredibly and devastating winter. However I would give pause by saying, has anybody actually read of bit of a newspaper from that era? The way people thought about things - discounting the great minds that live on textbooks - was different. Many of the great cedars would have been on large country estates, if they had foliar damaged I can imagine the landed gentry having their men cut it down immediately for firewood or shipbuilding or what not, rather than having it blacken the landscape while waiting to see if it would sprout again from the top. Let's put it this way, if the cedar was important enough to be written about, it probably belonged to someone important. (I'm just raising this as a possibility, I'm sure many really did die, and that the Land of Angles, once every 500 years or so, will have a winter to reminds its residents that is a lot closer to the Arctic circle than to the tropic of cancer.) But to the matter at hand, Pinus pinea. I had to tediously scour the NCSU webpages to find the report of their freezes. I saw this tree in 1997, and it looked great. At least 30' tall and forming the characteristic flat top. http://www.ncsu.edu/jcraulstonarboretum/publications/newsletters/ncsu_arboretum_newsletters/News12_85-07.html You are welcome to review yourself, but for both a 2' tall and a 14' tall (the tree I saw in 1997, surely) Dr. Raulston reported "10 - no damage" for relatively young trees after a low of -19C one night, followed by -22C the next night! Then in 1994 this tree survived -17C. So we have, in a less than 10 year span, the tree survive temperatures that are no less than 3C colder than what we can assume is a "worst case" (I'm making a rough weighted average of -20C) for most of Southern England over a 30 year or greater span. And 10C colder than the records I can find for Kew during 2 of the legendarily cold winters of the entire 20th century! Remember the post originally remarked on that lovely Kew tree, which is one of my favorite trees in the garden too. (although I was last there in 99) So my supposition that the weather in the past 150 years in Southern England is not particularly taxing of Pinea pinea, compared to other ones, is a correct one. Sadly the tree is no longer at the arboretum. If I remember where it was correctly, I think it had to be removed for the new visitors center. Of course it might have perished in a hurricane, or one of the massive snowstorms that central Carolina is paradoxically notable for in the past decade. Resin, as always, your contributions are greatly appreciated. It does not surprise me that Quercus ilex is considered a hardier tree in the UK, as I am aware it is more common. However my experience is the opposite. When I grew both I found Pinus pinea to be hardier. The report of Pinus pinea being damaged by temps in the single digits F. in the PNW somewhat amuse me, because my small plant with a mix of mature and juvenile foliage withstood very near -18C without any apparent injury. I think this could be another case of plants not hardening as well as they would in a hotter climate. Unfortunately the new owners of parents house immediately cut it down because they didn't want a tree so close to the house. It was on a south wall which probably did help a bit, but the Q. ilex was on a nearby west wall. Of course one shouldn't draw conclusions from one plant.

That was a nice February break. How was it? Any new must haves?

No one said Great Dixter! Christopher Lloyds garden! I find that garden amazing because it has been evolving for so long under him and his father before.A bit more masculine than Sissinghurst, more Harold less Vita, nice edwardian feel to it. Agree with Laura that Scotney is lovely - it helps to have a little romantic castle as a centrepiece. Chatsworth gardens stunning, and at Castle Howard you cant help but feel that you're walking around the set of Brideshead revisited. The gardens along the North west coast of scotland and the isles are amazing. Gulf stream means that all sorts of improbable plants grow there and you find gardens full of lush exotics in the middle of otherwise barren landscape. So my list has to be: Hidcote, Sissinghurst, Gt Dixter, Chatsworth, Biddulph Grange (high Victorian eccentricity), Brodick castle(Isle of Arran), Inverewe (Scotland), Bodnant (this is a real gem! in N.Wales) and Powyss (Wales), Stourhead and Stowe, and Studley Royal/Fountains Abbey. So thats my list! Scott.

Margie, the island is a great spot. Bob moved to Austin & I think took most of his plants with him, too bad, he had a good selection. You can always come by the house, right now some of the crinums are blooming, the brugs look awful, I haven't cut down the avocado yet, the ragoon creeper has plenty of blooms, gingers are all up, but none are blooming, thunbergia erecta is in bloom, white coral vine blooming, thevetia looks good, some of the bromeliads are blooming, the nepenthes have pitchers right now, a lot of the cacti are blooming, plumeria looking good and blooming... Tally HO!