I tried Douglas Fir here and it collapsed and died
of heat stress in July. Much more heat tolerant is
Pseudotsuga sinensis although it has had some cold
damage here but should be good in Zone 8. Another
possibility is using Douglas Fir from a New Mexico source
which should be more heat tolerant.

Hi these species should do well

pseudotsuga japonica
pseudotsuga sinensis
pseudotsuga willsoniana

The only time I tried Douglas Fir, it too died in the heat of summer.

A fir that does well here is Abies firma. There is a 30 ft. tall, 20 year old specimen at the Huntsville Bot. Garden.

Mike519

i have several abies firma....some pushing 25 ft. they never flinch in our summer heat.

i guess im looking to expand my palet as conifers go. i have actually had some success with picea rubens on my shaded north slope...that has triggered the urge to try more spruces and firs.

Ditto to Blue Yew, go for the Asian douglas-firs, they should all do very well in hot, humid conditions - similar climates to what Abies firma likes.

Resin

Here's one of my Douglas Fir's that I planted at least 35 years ago... it came from a nursery in Silverton, Oregon that is no longer in business....I'm assuming it is the coastal variety...it's around 28' high with very thin foilage resulting from today's overstory.

Looking down stream.
{{gwi:695039}}

Bark
{{gwi:695040}}

Here's overstory....100'+... 1 of 2 Metasequoia
{{gwi:695041}}

very nice...i hope i can get mine to survive with summer shade and good drainage. thanks for posting.

also....i just noticed i cant spell "palette" SP-2 LOL

It cannot be the heat that kills them it, it must be humidity. There is a grouping of these planted near me, they are remnents of a Christmas tree farm and are over 20 years old. By the end of summer they look a bit beat, but in spring bounce back.
Pseudotsuga macrocarpa handles heat even better, but is harder to get established.
The trees that in thier natural habitat experince high temps do not have much extended heat and humidity.
I agree the ones from asia would likely do much better

I have a couple of P. menziesii glauca here, and they easily take 100F. The big difference is that we do not have hot + humid weather. I also have germinated quite a few. I have killed 2 P. macrocarpa already, as arawa mentioned, they are hard to get established. Mine were very small, so I guess it was my fault for planting a 5" seedling in an unsheltered location. I germinated a few P. sinensis last year, they are breaking bud now. They grow farster than my P.meziesii.

osprey

I am in Nashville. I planted a dwarf variety last spring and it made it though last summer just fine. It was a mild one so we will see what happens this year. :) Since I bragged on it I'm sure it is a goner.

FYI. There is a 50 footer in Knoxville. It is plenty hot and humid there.

Looks like they grow bigger upstream....Asheville, NC list one 84' tall with a 100" circumference!...Might it be at the "Biltmore"???

Quite a few years ago, perhaps more than 10, I was shocked to see an oddly "boreal" looking conifer near Tyson's Corner Mall in Virginia. On examining the cones I was sure it was a douglas fir, because of the distinctive look. It had an open conical form, somewhat like the picture of the tree above. Not quite as tall, maybe only 20', but healthy looking. I kept thinking I'd look for it again, but, seriously, malls are maddening enough just trying to shop at them, I'm certainly not going to search for a tree on its grounds. Also that mall has had so much work done it could very well be gone. It was planted on a steep bank, which might explain why it hadn't died of summer drowning, which I suspect is a probably cause of death for them.

Of course, I mean PROBABLE cause of death.
This tree is north Georgia looks happy though a bit thin. It had more sun when planted though. Would they be shade tolerant as young plants (including the Asian species?) I'm looking for a shade tolerant conifer with a conical versus narrow (i.e. Thujopsis) form. I already have Abies recurvata...which I've heard is very shade tolerant - and have seen one that matured successfully in shade.

David,

"conifer50" could verify the liklihood of Picea engelmannii as it's natural habitat occurs in the shade of other Rocky Mountain, conifers...

I'd think other good possibilities for you are:
Abies balsamea and Abies x phanerolepis (balsam x fraseri)

Dax

Thanks 365. Asheville seems like it would be a perfect climate for at least the interior strain, as it's rather dry by southeastern standards, only 34" of rain a year I believe. And the summer heat & humidity is tempered by the altitude. They are in a rain shadow: the wet side of those mountains, of course, have the wettest climate east of the Mississippi, with up to about 85" of rain a year.

I know this is an ancient thread. But the problem is just what Pseudotsuga species you’re growing. Pseudotsuga menziesii is only going to thrive in the cool northeastern US and the Western US. In Georgia, Pseudotsuga japonica, sinensis, and wilsoniana are going to do much better for you in the long run. They come from a hot and humid summer climate much like Georgia and thrive in the heat. They are less cold hardy than Pseudotsuga menziesii. But, I think zone 7/8 is decent enough for them. I bet they could even survive zone 9!