I guess the summers are too hot and the winters are too cold. Propably great trees for the pacific northwest though

Nothofagus alpina is also quite cold hardy

In the northeast they are more like the antifagus...compared to American and European Beech. Need cool summers & warm winters....maybe on Martha's Vineyard, Cape Code, or Yarmouth, Nova Scotia one might have success?

I had thought I saw them listed as zone 6 years ago, but that was likely sunset zone or meant something else. I am sure they would never make it in any colder than zone 8 or 9.

repost error....

This post was edited by smivies on Wed, Feb 12, 14 at 10:47

The fellow who used to own Arrowhead Alpines and died once wrote in his catalog that there was a grove in Grosse Pointe, MI - zn 6b and a fairly reasonable 82/62 in summer - until it was cut down by the city. I forget the exact species but maybe Nothofagus antarctica. Well, believe it or not. He seemed subject to hyperbole but not outright lying. It could have been a grove that was sprouting from the base in some years or something.
But I tried a couple over the years...one strangely enough sold by Camellia Forest, who really had no business offering it...and they both died in the heat of summer. I'm pretty certain one was N. antarctica from Forestfarm, and CF was selling the Roble beech. So, yeah, probably another one not to waste your time on. I've tried scores of antipodal shrubs, forbs and trees over the years. Ones from Chile are the most hopeless of all, especially with respect to surviving heat & humidity. Escallonia 'Apple Blossom' is the toughest and I've had one since 2006...though at the moment the winter has done a real number on it and I'm not sure how much of the top is going to survive...I've lost any other Escallonia I tried in winters much milder than this one.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Wed, Feb 12, 14 at 20:33

The entire non-tropical Southern Hemisphere is basically a huge Seattle outside the deserts.

Darn shame, since some of the coolest plants in the world come from there.

On the east coast, you *might* have some luck somewhere like Chatham, MA on Cape Cod, for the absolutely hardiest plants - July temps average 75/63, Jan 38/24, cold, but I think the record low is -6F and they're zone 7a/7b with 47"/yr of rainfall.

That's about the only climate on the East Coast that somewhat resembles the type of climate common in the Southern Hemisphere, and even that's more continental.

"The entire non-tropical Southern Hemisphere is basically a huge Seattle outside the deserts."

It's a bit more complex than that. Especially since huge swaths of it are definitely non-tropical, but essentially freeze or frost free. Most of the inhabited parts of Australia, Tasmania, South Africa, and even New Zealand can produce at least some of the standard citrus varieties in their gardens. That is not true of the greater PNW...only the mildest parts along the southern coast of Oregon that are a transition into the coastal California climate. Also, some places in the southern hemisphere are ralnfall all year, like Sydney, some are summer-wet/winter-dry like Johannesburg and Durban, and many are Mediterranean winter-wet/summer-dry

Yes if you absolutely wanted to grow maritime climate/cool summer plants on the east coast, the MA Cape and the islands are almost your only bet. I was scanning the mountains of North Carolina on Wunderground during the big freeze, and alas all of the places with truly cool summers - and remember with the sun strength at that latitude, you really do need them to be cool to grow mild-summer plants - hit -5F or below. You just can't "beat the system". But the winter cold and wind on Cape Cod limits your palette. The only Eucryphia that might survive, for example, is E. glutinosa, the deciduous one. I've gotten a few of those through winters, but never through more than one summer and usually not even that. Years ago Fairweather gardens sold cuttings of an Austrocedrus found on Martha's Vineyard IIRC. I've heard reports of Meconopsis, albeit the somewhat tougher orange Welsh poppy not the blue poppy, growing in abundance in gardens there. Somewhere on the web there's a slightly ludicrous account of a monkey puzzle at Polly Hill Arboretum that dies back in colder winters but has been around since the time of the eponymous founder? Seems fishy to me but I haven't bothered to email them about it yet. But look on the bright side, assuming my Escallonia returns from the roots, at least _one_ Chilean plant will grow in the milder parts of the mid-Atlantic. A lot of the country couldn't grow even a single shrub from Chile. The only places to have matured a monkey puzzle are from Washington, DC, through Wilmington, DE, to Philly. Each one likely representing 100-200 in the same general area that were planted and failed, though...they probably have special genetic characteristics. We ought to find a way to clone the ones that have survive here, but that will never happen. At this point I just like the novelty of having a plant from every continent (bar Antarctica of course) and have given up on growing the more spectacular plants from antipodal climates. If someone ever crosses an Australian Eucryphia - the only one that could possibly take our summers - with Eucryphia glutinosa, I'd probably try that in my garden.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Thu, Feb 13, 14 at 0:03

There is Eucalyptus- just saw online some fairly big ones in AL, I can't remember now. Plant Delights sells Eucalyptus neglecta, I thought about getting one myself. The alpine species should be good pretty far north like Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. niphophila, there are others. They are not in the same wow factor as a Eucryphia though.