I've also noticed more male "puzzles" than female specimens. Yes, the females litter the ground with seeds for an extended period of time. One puzzle owner gets a hobby grower to clean the yard from these seeds. I notice that laurel seeds germinate with ease in random locations. I actually keep some seedlings because they are deer resistant. But puzzle seeds seem to require help from gardeners. I have planted a small BC-grown Puzzle tree that is being compared to a Dinosaur tree (Wollemia nobilis). The Dinosaur tree started growing at a later date but is faster, especially in warm, dry summer weather. I'll hand out cones to elementary school science classes if the tree produces. That might help spread Dinosaur trees in Greater Victoria if they do well. I'm assuming they do well here but time will tell. We need a full La Nina to El Nino cycle to confirm. Well, it did start off with a La Nina spring. This spring was good for me because I could move many plants later and the summer started with more moisture. The little rain we get in summer was timely. So I'm happy. But sensitive rhodos were lost in hot weather. I hope that you don't loose plants in the dry heat. I used to prep for frost at our latitudes in Ontario because frost was a few weeks away. The first weeks of Sept would bring frost... and important ones by summer's end. Over here in Greater Victoria my concern is how some plants or trees cope with summer drought. I no longer get big thunderstorms with 50 mm in a day. Our rain falls during winter but I can strangely make use of it by growing things like kale. The plan is to adapt the yard for all-season gardening. There's a lot of cemented patio surface to get around so rubber boots are no longer required for winter. Plants & trees are planted in linear rows for ease of summer irrigation. No lawn space because summers demand too much lawn watering. I rather use less resources, time & energy growing laurels, photinia & palm trees. I welcome you to visit the garden when you drive down to Victoria. Cheers Here is a link that might be useful: Male (mature) Monkey Puzzle

I see trees in Victoria sold under false pretense also. Since Washingtonia palms are cheaper than Trachycarpus (hardy) palms, some nurseries in Victoria will sell them. People see cheaper trees and purchase them. For the life of them, some can't see the difference between the two. Washingtonia is marginal and causes confusion when it is lost while Trachycarpus is mint next door. Some gardeners quit on some exotics because they have failed. -Because they have simply planted the wrong thing. It's like San Fran has palms but they don't cultivate coconuts. People assume that nurseries will sell the right stuff. Many plants in Victoria are sold with the wrong label. Some nurseries don't even know that they have false labels because they don't know their plants. They just sell them. Victoria is great for granny plants or English Gardening but I find them very inadequate with exotics. Shopping for plants in Vancouver is quite interesting. There I can chat with nursery people who know about the latest plants and exotics that can be grown in zone 8. Prices are also better. I know a hobbyist here in Vic who grows Puzzle trees from local seeds and the nurseries double the price on his baby Puzzles. He also grows Windmill palms from local seeds. Some in Victoria think that these palms have sterile seeds. Probably because they don't realize that it may take 3 months to germinate. Many in Victoria don't experiment. Sometimes you must learn for yourself. I was told (before I had moved here) by folks in Ontario that there were no Sequoia specimens in BC. The plant world is so big that it's amazing what we don't know. Even about the zones and possibilities within our own country. I show photos of the BC coast to people in southern Ontario and they are shocked or think that the pictures cannot be true. Is BC that far from the rest of Canada? Maybe the information age will draw us closer? Cheers Here's a garden in Victoria with proper exotics: Here is a link that might be useful:

Bboy - if your reply was in response to my comment above, I was just mentioning that they survived -10F which is a cold winter for my area. We rarely go below -5F. I wasn't calling myself zone 6 because this year or last lined up with the range of average lows for zone 6. I completely understand the averaging of annual extreme minimum temperature readings over many years being the basis for the USDA zone system. I reviewed 60+ years of temperature data from my local weather station (I'll be surprised if the monkey puzzle trees survive long term for me though because I don't see them tolerating 4-6 weeks of temps in the teens and 20's F with overnight lows dipping into the single digits or occasionally below 0F, which is pretty typical for us. They would probably have a much better chance if we hovered in the high 20's to low 30's with less often and less severe dips in temperature. We'll see how they fair!

These things grow like, uh, weeds down in S. Florida. Last time I checked, it rains a lot in S. Florida! In fact, I bore direct witness to the intensity and capacity of a good Florida downpour while down in January, as 5 inches of pure liquid sunshine came down in less than two hours. That's just a lot of water. But my point is-and yes, I know about the drainage characteristics of a soil composed primarily of crushed seashells and sand-these very trees are able to grow well in that moist environment. This tree-the very one we're talking about-had its future compromised before it ever got placed in the ground.