Don, he wasn't my first parrot....He could be likened to finally getting a Porsche, if you're into cars. I brought him home when he was 5 weeks old.... about mid-April, 1999. Here is his baby picture when he came home. I'd been going over to my friend's house (the breeder), to hand feed him when she pulled him from the nestbox. I continued to hand feed him, with what is called "abundance feeding" so he weaned himself, at 22 weeks old, without feeling deprived. He weighed 600 grams as a well fed baby boy, and he weighs that now as an adult. He has beautiful feathers, no fat, great muscle tone especially in his breast which allows him to fly efficiently.....but consider that birds are so aerodynamic, with hollow bones, hollow feathers, they eat moderately frequently, also poop frequently and do it almost EVERY time before they take flight....which is a clue to imminent flight, by the way.

The most recently posted Long Island street view is from 2012! No proof they are still there after the 2 polar vortex winters. And the other recent winter that was very cold in New England but not as much down here. (2016 IIRC: well below 0F on Martha's Vineyard. Have no idea how LI fared) They often look out of place in typical residential settings but I think those twin Seattle trees suit the house and are well taken care of so I give them a pass! Good catch GG. I am actually wondering if the NW DC, Bethesda, and Baltimore trees survived this horrid summer...by far the most humid I can remember. We barely had any comfortable dewpoints throughout September, not until the last few days. USUALLY cold fronts start pushing in some crisp weather by the 2nd week of Sept. It was a constant steambath since May. And yes it is humid compared to the PNW, but constant dewpoints 70F or above are not normal at least up here. There's a reason you see at least a few old ironclad rhodies in the DC/Baltimore area, but none in the deep south. And other than the late June/early July drought/heatwave - just long enough to be a nuisance - incredible rainy spells, one after another. I'm lucky to have only lost a couple important rhodies to root rot. OTOH it was nice to not worry about watering the 6 or so new planted camellias in my garden. They are so thirsty in the first year!

As Don said, it's not the cold that kills alot of plants - it's the constant moisture. I have a neighbor that has cannas planted 12" deep, on the south side next to his house, and he never digs them. They multiply each year and he has a very large area of them, all started 10 years ago, when he forgot to bring two tubers in. I was told by a greenhouse grower in my area that he has had great success with elephant ears, by putting plastic over them (leaves them in the ground), and piling manure about a foot deep over the plastic. His ee's are HUGE and multiply rapidly. He has never dug them to overwinter them. I would just experiment with covering the crowns of different things, mulching them deeply, and see what successes you have.

That's a bigger daphne than I've ever seen in my life. European nurseries seem to be rather afraid of daphnes--the British are obviously braver--and they're hard to find, especially if you're budget-minded (i.e. cheap) like me. Fortunately the only commonly available daphne here, Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata', is also one of the most fragrant, beautiful, long-lived, and easy to grow. And, good to know, you can grow it from cuttings. An absolute queen among shrubs, and highly recommended for those with suitable conditions. My parent plant is now about twelve years old and is about 3' x 7' x 5'. I pretty much leave it alone, having sited it correctly at the start, and it thrives marvelously. It has several cloned babies about the place. My not being able to grow camellias, azaleas, and blueberries, is somewhat compensated by my garden's suitability for a number of daphnes. What I've been able to scrounge together over the years are the 'Aureomarginata' mentioned above, our native D. laureola, laurel spurge, successfully dug up and moved from nearby woods (this is nicely evergreen but not striking, and is invasive in parts of the western U.S.), D. mezereum, also native, but I had to order it from Germany; and D. 'Eternal Fragrance' and D. x burkwoodii 'Carol Mackie': the former thriving, the latter puny but it hangs on and grows, though slowly. They're dreamy plants.