A family, not a genus: any Citrus, outdoors.

O dear, this is a puzzle - naming just one beloved genus out of so many. Because anything requiring acidic soil is such a hopeless dream, I am almost grateful to have been spared the inevitable madness, had I been able to grow meconopsis...or rhododendrons...or nomocharis...or enkianthus...or luma apiculata...or even the lovely camellia 'Cornish Snow'

. I am resigned to this. Same as accepting the lack of many primulas (which will never be happy in the dry east). However, there are a couple of not unrelated small trees which have absolutely broken my heart because they seemed almost, tantalisingly possible (at least in my fevered delusions) And lord knows, every few years, I have to give myself a stern talking to...I am never going to grow either the lovely styrax (any of them) or snowbells - halesia. There is a New Zealander (hoheria) which I covet, so maybe there will be delicate white blossoms in my future.

Something about white tree and shrub flowers is my default setting - the standard for all my woody desires.. And of course, I sympathise, David. Eucryphia has been up there (along with stewartia since a holiday visit to the Caerhayes Estate. (O, the magnolias!) It's not like there is any shortage of choice...from acradenia to zenobia (and I have lingered in deutzialand for years) but sadly, the common crabs, cherries...not to mention the numerous rambling roses, have never really got me as desperately desirous.

Yep...citrus. So frustrating. The only chance of even a sniff of a lemon requires a mild winter and a paintbrush to catch the early flowers (always a shortage of handy pollinators under glass ) in March. Later in the year, I (might) get a late flush of blossom when the nights get longer, but no chance of any fruit setting or (wild fantasy) ripening. Even shuffling them in and out of the greenhouse is a bit hopeless...although the (few) flowers do smell lovely. Dunno why I am still persisting with my sole Meyer lemon despite yet another failed year.

"Although in a place where you can grow Embothriums, I don't know why you'd bother! "

Precisely!! And the red of a fire tree in full bloom far outshines any of the colors of a crape myrtle fickle enough to flower in our too cool summers.

Mine is very ordinary - Loropetalum, especially the purple leafed ones. They simply will not overwinter here. Not sure why....suspect that too may relate to too cool summers. For purple ever"green" foliage, I have to resort to heucheras or Pittosporum County Park Dwarf.

And David, I will think of you every time I visit my library during Eucryphia season. 😊

Tectona.

Lordy Jay, you surely win the obscurity award! I challenge anyone to top that! Never heard of them in years of following the flickr or instagrams of rare plant enthusiasts in mild climates.

Like all of them lol!

Let’s go with magnolia.

Gardenia. Oh boy, that scent. If I'm not in the South at the right time I'll never smell it again in my life, unfortunately.

Ditto, Deanna. Growing up we had a row of gardenia shrubs that were given no special care. Every summer the flowers packed their bushes . We had little saucers placed about the house…next to my bed!…with the blossoms floating in the water and scenting the house. Ahhh. Somewhere on gw /houzz there is a funny post on the impossibly horrid effort of trying to succeed with them….Though, obviiously not written by a southerner.

Something more realistic would be Spigelia. specifically marilandica and alabamensis. Alabamensis is coming my way. Now I need to simulate a limestone glade. I will order marilandica. Another genus I wanted to grow was Gentianopsis, and I managed to pull it off somehow.

Fringed Gentian, Gemtianopsis crinata

Pam, are your Salish Sea Lagerstroemia really not blooming well these last two summers? It's been so incredibly hot down here, they just bloom like mad. Hard to imagine it hasn't been hot enough to make 'em bloom up there as well! And they're incredibly popular here, I think all of my neighbors have planted one.

A genus? Well I'm growing Ensete in a container this year and its drop dead gorgeous, would love to have that persist in the ground.

Thanks art, I don't recognize your ID. I'm going to guess you are in the Portland area?

Klark, one rarely ever sees crape myrtles in the Puget Sound area, let alone in bloom!! Summers here are just too cool to encourage flowering, even with the selection planted in the heat sink parking lot at the Center for Urban Horticulture. Hard to find any better local nurseries that carry them. Ones that I have worked at never did but it's been a few years now :-) The only local crape myrtle I have ever seen in bloom is 'Natchez'. There was one at Emery's that bloomed relatively reliably and I have heard from other horties that this may be the best bet for the PNW.

And the island is measurably cooler than the Seattle side of the Sound and the Willamette Valley has more climate extremes than either.

tbh, I'd much rather enjoy hydrangeas - looong bloom season, don't requite much heat, better colors (IMO) and they flourish here.

Basically, I wish I could grow anything that's native, flowers and doesn't like shade. That said, if orchids weren't so tricky, I'd have lady slippers, goodyera (I might end up with some luck with that) and so on.

The true cedars (Cedrus). Atlantica, deodara, libani -- none work in cold world Wisconsin.

I'm 1 hr south of Portland, in Dallas, OR. The newer dwarf and black-leaved Lagerstroemia are being planted a lot here, I'm growing Black Diamond Purely Purple. It is easily the blackest plant I've ever grown. I have a ton of Hydrangeas too Pam, they did incredibly well this summer, but I have to protect those on the east side of my house from the morning sun+heat, its just too intense down here in the valley.

I was comparing the climates of Dallas and Seattle @ wikipedia. The summer nights in Dallas are actually a bit chillier, presumably because of Seattle's proximity to the waters of the Puget Sound. Dallas and Sebastapol, CA both have summer highs average 80F or above, which is kind of the threshold for seeming (to me) like a warm summer climate. But both places can easily grow Gunneras and subsection Cinnabarinum Rhododendrons because of the cool nights.

I also have an Unobtainable :-) Or at the very least, a very difficult to find - anchor plant, Colletia paradoxa. I have yet to find a mail order source and a former colleague that is a nursery buyer has also struggled to find a wholesale source. A weird and ferocious looking plant to be sure but one that calls out to me. But apparently one that is not widely available commercially.

Ok Pam, now that you mentioned Colletia, have you been reading thedangergarden.com by Loree Bohl? I've been reading her blog, dedicated to dangerous plants. She also wrote a book, (Fearless Gardening?) I don't typically like spiny plants but I do plan on trying an Agave or two next season. I grew an Agave in Edmonds and it did very well.

Ah yes Colletia. The only place I've ever seen them was on Isola Madre. A menacing looking plant, to be sure! I feel like Cistus might have once had them - might want to give Sean a ring.

Maackia, aside from hardiness zone, you need SPACE for Cedrus. Gorgeous trees!! Stunning! Also one of my favorite genera of tree. All seem to to get quite big. In suburban NJ, zone 7a/b people plant these in small yards without realizing how massive they wanna be. I myself fell in love with the genus, now I am looking to remove a C. atlantica from my yard. Considering their North African origins, at least C. atlantica (now considered either a subspecies or even a variant of C. libani), is also surprisingly tolerant of high humididty in the East. Was out on Long Island and saw large ones on estates and botanical gardens. Nice if you happen to live on a Dowtnon Abbey estate.

maackia, I believe there are (or used to be) specimens of C. libani at both Hidden Lake Gardens and the Nichols Arboretum. Did you happen to see either when you were over this way last week? And there is supposed to be a hardier than average C. libani at Purdue University, that they have named 'Purdue Hardy'. Per Google street view (as of 2019) it still looked pretty good

I understand they can get big as I’ve seen some grand arboreta specimens. I once had room for trees of this size, but no longer.

Dave, I thought I covered every square inch at Hidden Lake, but I don’t recall seeing a Cedar. Nichols was such a mess from the storms I only saw a small part of it. I have not seen the Purdue tree, but several years ago news got out about it, and it seemed every Midwest tree enthusiast was out to get one. Was it ever marketed?

Cedrus would be right up there (and closer to reality) with my first choice.

I learned about Tectona in school as a child. I was enthralled by the almost black, hard wood as the teacher passed some samples of the wood around the class to look at.

But growing out in the yard, cedrus would be much more charming.

;-)

Deanna, Gardenia is one of my all time favorites! I won't be able to grow it outdoors here either, but what I did do a few summers ago, was I bought a small plant and used two of them in my outdoor pots for the summer. It was HEAVENLY! I did try bringing it in the house to overwinter, but I just don't have conditions they like. And this season I was going to do it again and I got busy and forgot! Next year for sure! They do grow well outdoors in a pot here, because it's plenty hot and humid enough for them.

Martinca - I remember that thread about how difficult they are to grow, but I thought it was as an indoor houseplant? They aren't hardy enough here, although like Camellias there may be some varieties that have been recently developed. But in the south they are no care at all, as you pointed out.

Before I had children, and no outdoor garden my mother loved Gardenias so we tried to grow them as houseplants. We did finally manage to have success with them, but it really was a project! [g]

Martinca and PM, it was a thread about keeping them as houseplants, and it was HYSTERICAL! That was one of the best, along with ”Dog in elk” and the one about Balloon Plant, AKA ”Hairy Balls.” Gardeners are just great.