I haven’t visited these forums in some time and actually rediscovered this thread doing a google search on some rare plants (go figure). Since we have a lot of trees and not a lot of resources and time to protect them, most of my losses are due to deer/rodent herbivory. Instead of dwelling on all of the plants I haven’t been able to keep alive, I’ll mention the highlights and surprises here. I went go in depth on too many so ask if you want more details and I’ll try to keep an eye on this thread and respond back when I can. I have been in Arizona since May and I’m basing the updates from this past growing season on my mother’s observations. -Strongest growing maple is Acer lobelii by far; arrived as a stick broken in half during shipping en route from Colvos Creek Nursery in Washington state and has grown at least 3 feet a year. It towers over all of the other sticks in my maple collection at about 15 feet. -Acer davidii grosseri hersii (what a taxonomic mess!) is the strongest growing snakebark and a new addition since the original post I believe. I don’t give it any “help” nutrition-wise and it has grown 2 feet each year; excellent striped bark turns crimson with the onset of cold weather and the leaves are a mix of red, orange, and purple in the autumn. From Forestfarm and while they are awesome, I have not yet keyed this plant to confirm its identity; either way, doing awesome for a snakebark in a clay-dominated alkaline soil in an exposed area. -Acer rufinerve gets no fertilization either and has some years where it sits back and grows little, and other where it takes off. Apparently this year it grew over 2’, so it now stands about 8’. Bark is excellent, although it doesn’t change to crimson like some of the other snakebarks. Can occasionally develop minor signs of nutrient deficiency but not a big deal. Leaves are amazing both texturally (coarse) and by color in the autumn, a mix of red, orange and violet. -Acer henryi looks like a Boxelder and grows like one in upstate NY. After a rough time establishing and a nasty bout of sunscald, it now grows about 2’ a year and has excellent red and violet autumn colors, with violet usually dominating. -Acer longipes is notable because I was able to get one through a winter (low -13F) with the only damage due to herbivory. Supposedly sprouted up big time this past summer. Not many experts seem to place much faith in its hardiness and it may have been below the snowline at the time of the low temp. Time will tell. -Acer mandshuricum, Acer triflorum, and Acer maximowiczianum all suffer through chlorosis. A. triflorum does the worst, A. maximowiczianum the best. A hybrid from Forestfarm between A. pseudoplatanus and A. griseum has done very well, with violet-backed leaves and red fall color. Hybrid vigor and no cold or soil issues. -Acer oliverianum is starting to pick up steam and has yet to be damaged by temps as low as -16F. Might be benefiting from the protection of a nearby hedge. Fall color is usually reddish-orange; it is deeply shaded. -Calycanthus raulstonii ‘Hartlage Wine’ is a huge success. Massive flowering in the second year and completely hardy. Grows very fast and gets leggy unless trimmed. Flowers are gorgeous and large, with virtually no scent. Numerous visitors that have seen the plants have subsequently scoured google for a dealer. The intense color has even drawn some hummingbirds. Seedless. Highly recommend. -Magnolia grandiflora ‘Bracken’s Brown Beauty’ gets defoliated by about January when the truly consistent cold temperatures begin. This about the time that the soil freezes for good as well, limiting the plant’s ability to care for the leaves no doubt. At times, it looks like a fancy houseplant with shiny green leaves growing amongst the snow. No cold-dieback although it is not yet established and grows only about 6 inches a year max so far (haven’t got an update for this past season yet). It is late to leaf out in the spring. -Have a Stewartia malacodendron that apparently did very well in a shaded and very rich sand lens in a protected area that gets partial shade. It is big enough to be above the (likely) snow line and I will be very, VERY interested in seeing if it overwinters. Perhaps more updates later (and as I receive them!)

Thanks all for your replies. Issafish, you give me a seed of hope, and ian, I agree. Aim for the extreme latitudes of its habitat. We have a roadtrip planned down the Oregon coast, and should I luck out and see any, I'm stopping. Bboy, thanks so much for the link. I figured if there had been any luck in Seattle, Aurthur Lee Jacobson would have had it listed in Trees of Seattle--and nope--not in my second edition, so how funny and terrific to see this article. At the risk of being overly lengthy, I did find something quite cool at Swansons nursery. I picked up two Szechuan pepper plants Zanthoxylum (your second link, Bboy!--which makes the second cool coincidence as I hadn't read his article). The smell of the leaves is heavenly. My dad and I crushed one of the seed pods and the scent stayed with us throughout a long drive in the car. In his youth he was in the merchant marine and remembered transporting pepper from Jakarta, so he also has a fondness for that scent. Anyway, the plants look a bit spotty, but also durable, so we'll see. Normally I'm not into trying to force trees/plants in conditions that are contrary to their nature, but in this case it's such an evocative scent for me that I would really love to have it nearby. Thanks again.

arbordave, that's about as big as my Sorbus alnifolia was, maybe a little bigger. (bought from the last year of trade at Arborvillage as 'Red Bird - seedling') It had just started producing berries. The next year, it got an absolutely massive case of fireblight with over half the crown being "burned" out. I cut it all out, but the next year it happened again. Since I don't want to have to permanently spray it, I had to cut it down. It had never shown even a bit of disease problems before and I'd assumed it was resistant. Hopefully won't be a problem for you in the airier climate of SE MI. Many Rosaceae have trouble with the humidity here, when I bought the house I had to cut down a massive crabapple that was full of fire blight and probably scab. Knock on wood but Cotoneaster frigidus seems either immune, or to just get small, self-limiting cases of it.

"nonnative trees don’t provide any ecological/ wildlife benefit to your area." This is complete intellectual rubbish, and I deeply appreciate that gardengal and floral already started helping me 'take out the trash'. "Natives are always best" or "only natives are helping the environment/ecology", etc. is the latest pseudoscientific, virtue signaling nonsense from that certain slice of the American booboisie* we all know and love. Except when we don't. If Christian Lander had written 'Stuff White People Like' 10 years later, "Promoting Native Plants" would surely have been one of the items! (It kind of was at the time, of course, but just a bit below his radar. My brother, who in a curious twist of fate was actually a friend of Lander, teased me about an encounter with a certain leftist but beloved AP American History teacher of ours in high school, whose first question was asking me if I used native plants when I had a chance encounter with her 10 years after graduation, and told her I was into gardening. And btw I'm not saying anything about my own 'politics' with this characterization...I would point out my high school had a couple teachers I would similarly characterize as 'right wing but beloved', like Tom DeLay's wife! Although she was more beloved as the country's winningest cheerleading coach LOL.) For starters I can do no better or worse than direct readers to this brilliant essay: http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/1998-58-1-an-evolutionary-perspective-on-strengths-fallacies-and-confusions-in-the-concept-of-native-plants.pdf No doubt if SJG were still around, he'd still be effortlessly dealing with these dolts. That being said, I'm ALL for regulation of the actually threatening, dangerous exotics, which is surely < 5% of them. I drive around Cecil and Harford counties and want to enact a very punishing fine on the morons who are letting their rural property be overrun by Asian bittersweet, which is the 'kudzu of the mid-Atlantic, but scarier'. There's a stretch of the highway that runs up the left bank of the Hudson that I spotted driving to Canada in 2016. The Celastrus literally destroyed an entire forest. It was like something from a dystopian film set. I wish I'd pulled over and taken a picture of it, but it's dangerous to gratuitously stop on a highway and I'm risk averse so I didn't. Likewise I think everyone needs to be a responsible player. I'm actually actively considering, more than 50% of the way there in fact, the deaccession of Zanthoxylum simulans from my garden...because it's a bit more spready than I would want it to be. And obviously, the seedlings are a PITA to pull! * google it...hail the Sage of Baltimore...seen here predicting you know who