we have rain right now, light, changing to a snowstorm tomorrow..but that's ok..i hiked back into our woods today. There were a few bare spots showing here and there but mostly there is still ice and snow..but the snow on the level is about 8" deep so you don't sink down like in deep winter.. I have a woods 600' deep by about 800' wide behind our garden property, and we sold property to our west this last fall, and they began cutting out trees in the woods..well i'm sure they don't respect our property line as it isn't fenced..so this spring before they cut any trees on our property i need to get wire and mark our property line..i have 600 feet unmarket s to n and then all across w to east..but the s to n is more my concern than the back..as that is our line between us and them that will likely get trespassed over. so i walked back about 300' along the woods line..and was taking note of the good trees..this is mostly a nurse woods of aspen (poplar) trees and the baby hardwoods growing there are just now getting a good size..it was pulped off about 30 years ago, and messed up really bad..and they stole our hardwoods when they pulped it off and ruined the forest floor really badly. we had to allow the aspen to regrow and nurse the hardwoods to full size..there aren't a LOT of hardwoods yet that are full grown, but there are some that are getting to 30 and 40' or more now..but only a few. i found a beautiful pair of maples one 90' and one 110' back into the woods (note to self to save) and then about 250' i noticed several good size young white ash trees.. I was only walking the property line..not farther in our property so those were just the ones i notices near the line..where they might get cut down by the new neighbors..so i'm thinking (before they come up from Detroit next time as they don't live here yearround)..i need to get some colored wire to quickly mark as much of our property line as i can this spring..and then hopefully get some fencing up later on when the wet is dried off some..SAVE THE TREES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kerrican2001(z9b CA), nonaberrie(sf bay area), sandylighthouse(7), fruithack, teajm_yahoo_com Can you tell me more about fig trees? Ive never noticed them up here in the SF Bay as much as I did in Venice/Santa Monica in LA. Which varieties do well here? Do they grow tall? Can they be pruned so that they grow tall and stay narrow? I have a small front yard that is mandated to have a tree and I just cut down our existing one and am considering putting in a fig tree on both sides of the driveway. ( I started a separate thread in this subforum for it as well)

Here's what I will toss out. I did some research in Alamogordo and there was a cold snap as you can see in the first picture. The airport is maybe 5 miles from most of Alamogordo. If you go to www.wunderground.com you can view archived weather history on "view calendar forecast" on the local station's page, e.g. type in Alamogordo it allows you to see weather history. I just wanted to point out -13 F was recorded at the Alamogordo airport in early Feb. 2011 and lots of palms made it through that winter. Several days of negative degree nights and not a whole heck of a lot of recovery during the day. Most that died were Washington Robusta (Mexican fan palms) as they were seen dead all over Alamogordo, Las Cruces and El Paso. Mexican fan palms aren't a good choice in this area unless they're a Cali/Mex hybrid because the snaps in New Mexico are just too cold for them. You would be lucky if you got 20 years before they succumb to the cold. I would bet any Washington Robusta in Albuquerque would probably be toast in a few years. A better choice might be the Washington Filfera which is the California fan palm. They have been seen to survive -20 F and pretty sure they would be able to survive anything Albuquerque could throw at it. The Washington Filfera rarely get leaf full leaf burn until it drops below 13 F Very few canary island date palms seemed to have died down in southern NM which was interesting. They are proving to be almost as hardy as the California fan palms. In 1962 there was a -7 snap in El Paso and there are many date palms that are 60+ years old many planted before the snap and are still alive today. However it looks like the few Canary Island dates planted in Alamogordo made it through the winter there in a south facing exposed location in temps as low as -13 which if this is true this might be a new cold hardiness record for these palms which shows how remarkable they are. There's not a lot of information about them in this area because they haven't really caught on in popularity until recently. Most of the newer neighborhoods are stocking the canary island date palms in Las Cruces and they seem to be doing fine. The trick might be that you need to grow them from seed put them in a pot and leave them outside until about 10F then bring them into the garage on nights any colder than that, put them outside in the day when young. After they outgrow the pot in a couple of years plant them outside and your tree will be adapted and used to the cold. I think that's why some of these palms are doing ok even despite the incredibly cold snaps. Even the exposed palms seemed to have made it down in southern NM. Anyways if you check out the image of Alamogordo street view if you look carefully in the top left corner of the street view picture shows a date of 2013 which is after the big 2011 freeze. They look a little ratty as some single digit nights were recorded in 2013 as well. These palms were there before the freeze as well and I'm guessing they're almost 30 years old so they've probably seen some incredibly cold nights over the years. I wouldn't be completely sure a date palm would make it in Albuquerque long term because the snaps in Albuquerque tend to have slightly colder day time recovery, maybe with some mild winter protection like with Christmas lights (non LED type, but the incandescent type) you could have a small one tucked up against your warmest south facing wall with some black gravel rocks beneath it (which absorb heat) and a few large black rocks positioned near the palm to re-radiate heat at night to the tree in the winter you could get one to survive at least until a big freeze maybe 20 years or so. I would imagine it might just survive the cold snaps Albuquerque based on the cold snap data from Alamogordo in a good sheltered location and maybe with a small amount of protection could make it. If a crazy cold winter came up you might need to do some bagging or have a fold out greenhouse to put over it just to be safe. There is a rule of thumb in areas that are on a slope but not too high in elevation but maybe a few hundred feet above the bottom of the valley floor you might see 3-4 degrees in warmer temps on the coldest nights which is going to give you an advantage. In southern New Mexico all the palms in sheltered locations like against a south facing wall seem to get very little leaf burn during the winter despite the very cold nights at times where as the ones out in the open seem to be totally burnt which is telling me that the sheltered location makes all the difference. There are many nights that fall into the single digits every couple of years in Las Cruces and that you're possibly looking at +5-10 F degree micro-climate increase. As far as palms go in Albuquerque I would give it a go and maybe if you are aware of a super unbelievably cold night bust out a small radiator or parabola heater to direct heat at it or get some heat tap to wrap the bud and top of the tree to raise the air a couple of degrees which would likely be just enough to make it through the cold nights or another trick is depending on how your house is built put it near a south facing bathroom exhaust vent. If the vents are on the side of the house then at night just turn on your bathroom vent that blows toward the palm and that would probably help too although not as much as heat tape. This is a good video for showing the freeze damage in palms in Las Cruces which recorded a -5 night. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81fxNatT2lQ

We redid all of the flooring at my old showroom in a "quilt" type pattern in order to display multiple options. Slab foundation, conditioned warehouse type environment, but not pinpoint humidity control. We chose an $16 a square engineered bamboo for a glue down application, as engineered wood was the choice of rest of the 29 selections in the wood section. It had only been down a month when it began to buckle. We had left expansion gaps and used a metal edging strip between the flooring types to separate them. It shouldn't have expanded as much as it did. But it did. We removed the metal transition edging and cut about 1/8" off of it all the way around. Then reinstalled the transition strips with almost 1/2" of space between the bamboo edge and metal edge. Come fall, it laid down, but was still cupped. Then it shrank. While still cupped. Unbelievable, right? And it had big enough gaps that it was a tripping hazard. We put up a Caution sign and moved some displays around to keep people off if it. It eventually laid flat with only minor gapping. Spring rolled around again, and it started cupping again. And we ripped all but a small bit of it out. We used that small cupped bit to sell against bamboo. The account managers still there probably still do the same thing. Bamboo simply is not stable. I'd much rather someone consider a domestic maple or ash if they are looking for a light wood floor. Or even a lightly whitewashed rift and quartered white oak. That is a beautiful choice that straddles both contemporary and traditional. It is also much easier to live with.