There are lots of differences besides vegetation: As a person born and bred in Baltimore ( 40 years in NH and MA) I never ever miss the humidity of a DC/Balto summer. It is insufferable. However, east coast MA & NH have equally hot spells and humidity, just not week after week after week.. As you know, Md and DC are 4 season climates....there is certainly spring (long) summer (hellish) fall (just fine) and winter ( just not so snowy so often so long) You would not miss the drivers who have never learned to drive in snow. On the other hand, you'll have to learn. You will lose two months of real warm weather gardening and the long lovely springs which encourage azaleas. New England springs are rather short and violent.....here today, gone tomorrow. But beautiful, for sure. Oh yes, it can snow on May 1. You will miss reliably delicious tomatoes you can grow yourself, the operative word is reliably and soft shell crabs ....real crabcakes. (though you have to search as far and wide down there as you do here for the authentic lump crab) You can get Bud here. Maples we have, but the oaks down your way are fine. I miss the southern graciousness and friendliness that linger in more southern areas. Many parts of New England are more racially segregated than the greater metro area. I continued to be startled by that whenever I went home or visited DC. Maybe I wax nostalgic and inaccurate, maybe times have changed.....but around here one rarely "stops" by for a beer or a drink after work, people don't "drop in" or "drop by" . At least where I live, nobody hangs out on their front steps or front yard, though you'll certainly get a wave from the neighbors. Sure, we chat when we get to know each other, but I honestly think people are more reserved here. Maybe in part because we're holed up so long in winter. I feel very homesick right now.

I just thought of something though. There are some places in Europe which may have calcerous soil, and white oak, Q. Alba (if I recall correctly) like slightly acidic soil. That may be the reason why Q. Alba isn't seen in some European places. I have 2 Q. Robur here and a baby Q. Cerris, so they must be able to cope here in slightly acid soil, and our trees need a lower PH, this is my guess. But if there are peat bogs there must be areas near these bogs that could support a tree that likes things acidic or neutral. These bogs must have affected areas nearby with rain run-off helping to buffer the high PH, unless I don't know what I';m talking about, which is likely. Another thing to mention to those in Europe unfamiliar with US summers. I can only speak about Pennsylvania, I suppose. Even though we are far up north kinda, it can be mostly 80 + F, sometimes 90 + F, which would be 27-33 C. Mostly in the 80's F, so high 20's C. I wish we had cool summers. I usually wait for it to be pretty cool out to do much work outside.

Splaker, I suspect you'd get more responses if you started a new thread. Anyhow, I have found Korean Firs to be hardy in z4 WI, including Silberlocke. Mine grows near a large native White Pine on a peninsula-shaped spit of ground surrounded by asphalt and concrete. While researching siting this plant, I read in various articles that it tolerated moderate shade. It's doing fine, but I think it would like a bit more sun. It came through this past winter-from-hell looking good and is producing a nice crop of cones. Now I'm hoping we don't get a late frost that will wipe them out, which is what happened a couple years back.

3 Toona sinensis seedlings - free to a good home. Best for zone 7 or higher. Parent tree survived for 15+ years north of Detroit with little to no dieback (I had been hopeful that the tree would prove to be zone 5b hardy), but after the winter of 2013-14 it suffered significant dieback. Regrowth was strong in the summer of 2014, but the property owner decided to remove the tree later that year. These were grown from seed started in the spring of 2013. Pots are too big to ship, so if you're from zone 7 and plan to travel to MI this summer and would like to pick them up, send me a message offline.