An especially windy site? A hard winter in terms of cold, warm spells, amount of precipitation? The Easter freeze? Any and all of the above may have contributed to it. Wait and see, is all I can suggest right now. I do think it will leaf out fully in the next while, but.... Do make sure it isn't too dry around its roots, despite being supposedly "well-established".

Those spring buggers pretty much *decimated* several flats of tender seedlings that I'd set out to harden off. They ate all curibits and punkins to a nub, Most everything disappeared virtually overnite! Newbie, do not succumb to thinking they are Cute. Lacking other predators - it's kill-or-Consequenseces. This time it's serious. Do not be fooled! It's now fall, and THAT means it's Slug-egg-laying season. As if that wasn't bad enough, the BIG boy hermaphrodites are having orgies on my property, and WORSE - they also out there devouring my WISC 55 tomatoes, just before they turn ripe. I'm drawing a line. Time to get out the Sluggo and dust the perimeter. I hope it's not too late, as I'm planning for more Dahlias in Spring, and I *insist* on a more diverse palate of veggies next season. The buggers got my multi-color eggplant & pepper seedlings, Okra and much more. I *will* win in '06! Hey mindsmile: Thanx for the Slug-bait recipe! I'm a cheapo & prefer not to buy bait, but I'm also among the many Oregonians who think using a decent microbrew on depraved Slugs is nothing short of Alcohol Abuse. No matter how gratifying it is to discover 5-6 bodies dead in one's pool of beer, that method just doesn't cut it in a prolific organic garden with ample mulch, compost and planting (er, Slug-birthing) mounds. Slug-Death it is. Survivors however, do have permission to winter over in my compost piles. By Spring, however, it's Last Rites for Sluggo. I'll be back.

There are home growers with fruting trees in coastal influenced parts of San Diego and Los Angeles, and I know of a grower in the central valley town of Modesto who has gotten Lychee to fruit and grow, even with the occasional frost and assumed too cold winters. Given a long warm growing season with plenty of heat and enough water to keep humidity up and protect from drying winds, it is possible to grow lychee in areas where it wouldn't seem possible. I don't know of anyone who is successfully growing a fruiting lychee tree in coastal northern California, the lack of heat units in summer probably is a more limiting factor than our less than ideal winters with wet rather than dry c limate as they would prefer and get in habitat. So, I'd suggest that lychee in the PNW is on par with growing a mango tree and getting it to set fruit. If you want to eat your own lychees, you'll likely need a heated greenhouse and be prepared to do a lot of babying. Or move to Modesto and plant in a tract home in your east facing side yard. The long summer heat with daily temps above 90F and relatively early spring warm-up, and relative frost protection provided by 4 foot side yard setbacks and deep alluvial loamy soils seems to allow the impossible fruiting of lychee in northern California. These sorts of summer temps and humidity provided by extensive irrigated crop lands surrounding Modesto would seem a close approximation of coastal southern China summers. I know the owner of this tree has said he does try to protect it from freeze damage when it is expected to drop below 28F, but it only suffers modest leaf drop at temps above this level for just a night or two, with no attempts at frost protection. Personally, while I love fresh lychee when traveling in SE Asia, I think the efforts to get it to fruit for me in the SF Bay Area outweigh the rewards, and it would be an awfully expensive exercise for a limited amount of fruit.

Seattle is considered very marginal for CMs to bloom. I guess if you have them next to a hot parking lot it's the best bet. I am gambling on a whole slew of CMs in my yard in Vancouver WA and I am quite encouraged by the results so far. The purple magic dwarf ones blooming great. Nice bloom on one Tuscarora. Some small flowers on a couple of Midnight Magics, even though they are very young plants. Catawbas didn't bloom, but I will give them another year or two. My Natchez didn't bloom, but they are known as easy bloomers and there are ones in town that bloomed great, so I am confident these will do well, given time. The only one I am very doubtful will bloom here is my Cherry Dazzle. As to dying in winter: yes, small branches can freeze to death in winter. If a plant is too small, the whole thing might die in winter. I have a bunch of small ones in pots I will pu in the garage from nov to February for one or two winters, and then plant outside. As long as they are big enough they should grow like crazy even if the little branch tips die in winter. I had some small ones I planted last fall and they died to the ground in winter, but lo and behold they grew back from the roots this summer and one even flowered.