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Growing Firs in Texas

Nicholas Freelen

last year

I’m wanting to grow a fir tree in North Texas. From my research, I think A. firma should do ok here and I plan to order a few to try. That being said, I much prefer Fraser Firs. Would there be a chance at all that a Fraser or Canaan fir grafted to a firma rootstock would survive? Or would it be more feasible to just move to a cooler climate? Our summers are ridiculously hot and humid, but I don’t mind giving it a shot and babying them as needed.

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Comments (3)

Embothrium
last year
last modified: last year
You might want to try this tool. For instance searching Region A for "abies" returns Abies concolor and Picea abies. (The initials stand for EARTH-KIND Plant Selector - Texas A & M University). ekps.tamu.edu
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
last year
Or would it be more feasible to just move to a cooler climate?

==>> thanks for the chuckle... ive known a lot of hard core plant people.. but none of them were willing to move due to their obsession .. but if it is a true obsession.. you may have to ..

what you are suggesting is called zone pushing... its usually us up north trying to squeeze and extra zone of two to get more exotic plants ... and what usually happens.. is ma nature ALWAYS wins ... it might take year ... but eventually she will ... the one really bad winter.. that one year with miserable heat.. or drought... which cant be overcome by some foo foo exotic that really doesnt belong in your yard ... no matter how much you water ....

nothing to lose.. give it a go.. and keep us posted ... welcome to the forums...

ken

ps: i wonder if the amer conifer society website has anything useful.. i dont have time to look for you .... but here is the link: https://conifersociety.org/
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Useful to repost at this point, the Rushford phylogenetic grouping of firs... (via Resin): Group 1 bracteata. Group 2 alba, cephalonica, nordmanniana, borisii-regis, bornmuelleriana, nebrodensis, equi-trojani. Group 3 pinsapo, numidica, cilicica, tazaotana, marocana Group 4 firma, homolepis, recurvata, pindrow, gamblei, chensiensis, holophylla, beshanzuensis [kawakamii]. Group 5 amabilis, mariesii. Group 6 spectabilis, densa, delavayi, forrestii, fabri, fargesii, squamata, chengii. Group 7 sibirica, semenovii, nephrolepis, sachalinensis, veitchii, koreana, sikokiana, [kawakamii - moved to group 4], lasiocarpa, balsamea, fraseri. Group 8 grandis, concolor, durangensis, coahuilensis, mexicana, guatemalensis. Group 9 procera, magnifica. Group 10 religiosa, vejari, hickelii, oaxacana. Common industry rootstocks (per me calling around and asking nurseries) A. balsamea, A. concolor,A. grandis (PNW market especially). So as you can see w/A. koreana, 2 of those are out of group, as Abies firma would be. Many of these groups have common cultivars yet contain no species commonly used as rootstocks. Certainly A. pinsapo 'Aurea' always ends up on another group. FWIW I think most of Group 4 is quite heat and humidity resistant, though only firma is the one with a proven track record in the southeast. (even north Florida!)
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maackia
last year
Here’s an older thread that seems to have some relevant info. Abies pinsapo is mentioned a few times. BTW, A. fraseri does very well for me here in z4 west-central Wisconsin, but that might not be good news for someone in Texas.

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