Bumping this thread to report that...not surprisingly...the Azara is dead as a doornail. As is my Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' or whatever it could be. FWIW it was definitely hardier than 2-3 other Escallonias I'd tried...'Frades' being one of them...and had persisted since 2006, having variable winter damage each year but returning quickly in spring. I suppose it could still sprout from the roots, but the lowest stems, unlike any prior years, are like driftwood now. OTOH, both of them were some of the only Chilean shrubs to not mind our summers, and, when I'm in the mood again (not this year) I will probably reorder them. I think the novelty of having a plant from every continent is appealing; though I have a few Brazilian plants like Fuchsia regia (which might not return, but I doubt it...I've observed multiple times that even young plants put down roots 10-12") there was something really cool about being able to say a plant came from Chile. I might as well wrap up my antipodal/California plant deaths here: Grevillea victoriae - utterly amazing, looks better than some zn 7 rated rhododendrons. Is acting like it wants to be become a tree, so I've started limbing it up. Grevillea juniperina - more injured, but still alive Eucalyptus parvula - had been one of the better Eucs. for me. E. neglecta just gets roasted by the wind here. E. lacrimans was the hardiest but died after 14" of rain fell over 2 days one September. Anyhow it got to about 15' tall. After first round of 3F, was showing very little injury and foliage still smelled alive and was turgid. However, cold outbreak after cold outbreak took their toll, and the last time any of it seemed alive was probably late February. Then, the cold March finished that off. I suppose the roots could sprout, but I doubt it. Ceanothus 'Concha' - dead; had been in garden in since 2007 and showed light to moderate injury. In a raised bed on a south wall...about the best circumstances for it, because it protected it from winter wind and summer rain. Probably will retry, some day. I really wish someone would do more east/west crosses, or even just offer 'Henri deFosse' which is like a more saturated 'Gloire de Versailles' and would have been more likely to survive the winter in that same spot. Fremontodendron 'Ken Taylor' - dead, although it still had some green foliage until this week. (NB we are having yet another cold outbreak - the 15th since this winter started? But I luckily escaped freezing again) Was in a similar spot, but even more protected from rain by a wide eave on my garage. Even managed to bloom a couple years. I think it went into winter already dying, because last summer's consistent moisture - though loved by camellias and rhododendrons - was not to its liking and it had started to show leaf drop in autumn. Unlike the Ceanothus, I'm unlikely to repeat this experiment, but it was interesting. This winter was off-the charts cold. I've had, for example, a Rosemary 'Hill Hardy' since early 2006. Never shown a lick of damage. I was warned a few years ago by that seasoned impresario of midatlantic experimental gardening - initials A.H. for those of you in the know - that 1994 completely destroyed a giant rosemary of his. Mine was about 8 ft. X 6 ft. and 4ft. tall. So back in 2010 I pulled a runner from it and planted it right next to my house's foundation. (The mother plant was still somewhat sheltered, but about 8' from the house) Well, the mother plant? Utterly dead. I just took a chainsaw to it, to clear it out. The main stem had gotten to 5 inches wide, but even down in the layer of dead needles, the stems, trunks and runners were completely dehydrated and easily split open by pulling. Dead as can be. But the plant about 8 inches from the foundation still has some green leaves, albeit only 10-15%, and looks like it will probably pull through. (if the stems were killed, the green would no longer be, especially given the cold windy spring) A Cupressus arizonica 'Carolina Ice'? So cold and windy here that the foliage on the north side of it is burned! oh btw - not tree/shrub related, but on the antipodal front...a collection of rare montane Rhodophiala species has survived. Not the typical oxblood lily, but I do have one and it survived too. OTOH, it's looking like certain South African bulbs and rhizomatous forbs are gone, including some borderline priceless ones I'd rather not discuss in detail. This in a way is not surprising: eastern South Africa can have the odd cold outbreak when a front penetrates far to the south, but there isn't snowcover, generally, - Tiffendell ski resort has to make most of theirs and they are in the part of ZA most likely to have permanent snow cover. Winters can be so dry even in the montane areas that there are brush fires. OTOH, the southern tip of South America is much closer to Antarctica, and those bulbs probably come from places where, even though there is snow cover, the ground still freezes. So yes some things like Dieramas can survive the air temps taking a brief dip to 0F. While this winter had permanent, deeply penetrating cold, even with the snowcover, it was too unlike what they are used to. Cold, moist and frozen solid for almost 2 months, when what they want is mild, dry, and unfrozen.

Maybe I am being too windy and pedantic, but when I read Government warnings on the sides of bags of potting compost, orchid compost, azalea compost and any other kind of prepacked garden aid in which micro-organisms can harm me, I take notice, put on the recommended protective gear, - mask, gloves, general cover-up, and proceed with caution. So why did I see the young lady presenter proceed with no protection in showing us how to use potting compost, in a GA show a few months ago? People have died from illnesses directly tracked back to these packages, which is why there is a government warning. A poor example to set to even one person liable to this infection, telecast to millions. Am I being just too careful?I look forward to watching GA and any other garden shows on TV, as long as they do their homework.

I'm thinking that E.rhodantha and E.phoenicea would be hard to get in seed or plant form. Also, the latter is from tropical parts so make sure you have the right conditions. On the other hand, E. caesia and Corymbia ficifolia are both easily attainable and very attractive trees. E. caesia does have a tendency to blow over and be a little fragile but has a lovely white bark and lovely large colorful gum nuts. C. ficifolia is attainable in many colors including orange but color is flukey from seed. To ensure orange you need to obtain a grafted variety (normally grafted onto itself). The orange variety is called E. 'Orange Splendor' but there is also a E.'Dwarf Orange' which I assume is orange but only grows to 3m (hence the dwarf. E.'Summertime' is a red-orange. You can get pink, red and crimson verieties as well. Depending on exactly what you want either of these would be very nice. Excuse the nomenclature. Even though ficifolia is from the Corymbia genus the grafted varieties in nurseries are called Eucalyptus and then the variety name. Hope I haven't confused anyone. Sorry Artie but I think you could easily grow many eucalypt species including C. ficifolia and E.caesia closer to your house than 30m, especially the dwarf forms of C. ficifolia. Point no.1 is quite valid for a typical suburban block.

Thanks for the reply. Greg. So I suppose that means that Trigonia carbonaria is on the long list Australian natives due for extinction, together with all those plants which refuse to be germinated by anything else but their specific little bee. With the push to introduce bumblebees into mainland Australia (so we can buy cheaper tomatoes. They'll never escape from the greenhouses, will they - even though they've done it already in Tasmania!) we do urgently need government money spent on research into insect pollination of natives. The pollinators of the vast majority of our plants are just not known. Wooroonooran, your comment that "To do the right thing, everyone must plant only what occurs/ed in the Regional Ecosystem/s that occur/s on their property, otherwise they are introducing a plant to a new location where it shouldnt be" is very much to the point. My comments are: First - if we knew more about our local natives, we might find that there are more gardenworthy plants among them than we had realised, and choose them more where we're happy to have any old plant so long as it has the characteristics we want - feature tree, good screen, and so on. The difficulty, in such a large country, is finding the information as to what is locally native. One needs to be quite proactive to get hold of it, especially outside the capital cities. General books on growing Australian natives can leave us with a false impression. People who have picked pretty plants out of such books in the belief that they are doing the right thing by the environment, and then find themselves copping heaps from those with higher knowledge, are understandably cheesed off. Second, we all like to grow introduced plants. There is really no difference, in a ecological sense, between growing roses and poinsettias, Norfolk Island pines, Lord Howe Daisies, and Kangaroo paws in Queensland, or even in growing plants that ocur naturally just a few hundred kilometres away. We all try (I'm sure) not to grow the obvious weeds from other parts of Australia. It is more environmentally correct to grow exotic plants that we feel are not going to escape into the bush. However, as long as gardeners garden, there are going to be some apparently "safe" plants that will turn round and bite us on the bum 20 years later. We can only do what seems right at the time, keep an ear to the ground for new discoveries re weed potential, and be prepared to remove garden favourites when their dark side is first glimpsed, rather than insist on complete proof. Thirdly, much of what gardening is, is to plant things from elsewhere. I don't mind this where people can choose a Australian plant because they really want that plant. What gives me trouble is the "natives" that are planted in good faith by so many Austalians including me, because we are restricted to the easily available plants in nurseries. In the case of Eucalypts, a local native gumtree might do the job just as well, AND be...