cannot speak to heat tolerant conifers sad to say but i thought i would speak up for the surprising adaptability of Mexican conifers (Mexican oaks as well) to seemingly very different climates and localities. i have had gratifying success growing a number of species (likely mostly from areas with a summer rainfall maximum) here in the summer cool and dry (winter very wet) pacific north west (oregon coast)---including pinus montizumae, p. patula, p. pseudostrobus, p. estevezii,, cupressus montana, c. guadalupensis, and podocarpus matudae---.wonderful trees that once established seem to do well with little or no additional care.

I purchased it as P. Pungens 'baby blue' (you know the tags, "blue is cool blue is cool blue is cool blue is cool blue is cool"). It was only after a year or two that I noticed its branches were weeping. I think I planted it Nov 2014, but maybe Nov 2015. I do remember when purchasing it, it was different (I looked at every single one they had, probably over 200) but weeping never crossed my mind even though in thinking back I remember it looking about what it currently looks like. When I compared it to my 7 or so other P. Pungens 'baby blue', it was clearly different. I guess it would be considered a seedling with a mutation (or a mutated seedling?) ? The baby blue are grown from seed.

" I agree, larches are a bit open foliaged for xmas trees " I think you forgot that in northern hemisphere winter, they'd be a bit non-foliaged for xmas trees. https://westmoorarboretum.org/european-larch/ Funny about the cockatoos taking a few years (decades?) to figure out how delicious Pinus pinea nuts are. Are there other examples of the native parrots taking that long to learn about a new, northern hemisphere food source? I can see them being more common in South Australia simply because of the perception that the climate is more 'Mediterranean' there, which it is...but they would be fine in almost all of Victoria. I did see a couple but, not widespread. I have 2 small ones newly planted, so fingers crossed for a mild first winter to help them get established. One in North Carolina survived -9F in 1985, but I suspect they are going to be struggling for their first few years up here.

My friend said a lot of smooth trunked eucalypts are still standing in her area after the vic fires. Wish I could grow grevillea rosmarinifolia , but the kangaroos eat them down to nothing. We had a fire lit by a fire bug around midnight a week ago after a very hot day, with fierce winds blowing through the valley. Luckily I was still up and noticed the huge orange glow above the forest and rang it in - it was a kilometre away, very scary. I've been researching fire retardant plants and tearing my hair out, the lists are so contradictory, especially now that I've found the Tasmanian government site. They reckon many of the plants listed as fire retardants are in fact highly flammable eg acmena smithii (lilypilly), casuarina cunninghamiana (river sheoak), elaeocarpus reticulatus (blueberry ash) corymbia maculata (spotted gum). But I've spoken to someone who said fire swept through a friend's vineyard and was stopped by a line of lillypillies. Also I tried burning fresh lillypilly leaves on a big bonfire one year and they didn't want to burn. Surely there's a reliable list out there somewhere done by someone who knows their stuff? For now IÂm going by the ACT government list (type in Âfirewise home gardensÂ) and the Country Fire Service of South Australia list, in the hope that after their bush fires, theyÂll have done some decent research. If anyoneÂs interested, I have compiled a list of most commonly mentioned fire retardant plants, with a code indicating who recommends them, whether the Tassies reckon they are flammable, and whether they are weeds  an amazing number of them are! Do you want me to post it? These are the other results I got testing plants on my bonfire. Acacia iteaphylla (flinders range wattle which many lists say is fire retardant) burnt pretty easily. Acacia vestita and acacia elata (cedar wattle) were slow to burn. Acacia floribunda and a. cognata both flared up very quickly. The needles of casuarina cunninghamiana flared into flame quite quickly but immediately died, and the wood didnÂt seem inclined to burn. Eucalyptus leucoxylon took quite a while to catch, then just kind of melted  however it often has quite a few dead branches on the tree so this could be a fire hazard. Corymbia/euc maculata burnt like leucoxylon. Callistemon little john and c. dawson river weeper didnÂt catch quickly, and didn't burn with a whoosh. Hakea laurina (pincushion hakea) didnÂt catch very easily. Leptospermum nanum (red) flared up very quickly. Japanese bamboo was terrifying, it exploded, sounding like gunfire going off all over the valley, although admittedly it was dry, as weÂd cut it down during an evacuation alert. Does anyone know if rosemary actually is a good fire retardant? I've seen it on quite a few lists; some say only the prostrate form is fire tolerant.