My wife and I are responsible for 35 acres of land in the mountains of Western North Carolina at approximately 3600-4000 feet above sea level. Like almost all of eastern North America, this land has been logged probably at least twice and altered in other ways by human activities. None of this land represents untouched "old-growth forest". Nevertheless, the forest on much of the land is wonderfully diverse and, for anyone who pays careful attention, is 'hard at work' re-establishing a more 'mature' forest with an impressive repertoire of beautiful understory plants/wildflowers, birds, mammals, amphibians, invertebrates, etc. A portion of our land was also cleared for subsistence agriculture (e.g., corn, potatoes, apples).

We have set aside a corner of an old hillside field to plant out 10 T. taxifolia that we purchased as seedlings from the Woodlander's Nursery; seedlings that were raised from cultivated trees on private lands far from Apalachicola.

Seven of our seedlings appear to be a year younger (smaller in height and less developed roots when removed from their pots) than those I helped plant at the two 2008 Waynesville locations and were planted at almost the same time. One of the smaller seedlings had a tag indicating simply "2004". I don't know if this was the season the nuts were harvested and planted or the year the seedlings germinated.

In the relative absence of detailed information for successful propagation of T. taxifolia, our personal attempt to steward a few seedlings towards maturity clearly falls into the hopeful "experimental" category. Although there are encouraging examples of cultivated, healthy T. taxifolia in the Southern Appalachians, there are absolutely no guarantees that all or any of our 10 trees will survive even a few seasons, let alone survive to reproductive potential.

For comparative purposes, our planting differs from the Waynesville planting in several ways. Firstly, as previously mentioned 7/10 trees appear to be a season younger (e.g., no roots immediately evident when first turned out of their nursery pots). The altitude of our property where our T. taxifolia were planted (~3700') is higher. The planting area is less rocky than the Waynesville sites (e.g., no trouble digging a hole without prying out rocks with a pick axe). I don't know our average, site-specific, annual rainfall; however, the rainfall in the city of Highlands (about 7 miles away) is I believe greater (e.g., 80-100"/year) than that in Waynesville.

All of our seedlings have received supplemental lime amendment to increase the soil pH at planting (hydrated lime) and a subsequent application (dolomitic lime) and commercial planting soil (Miracle Gro) was also added to further improve soil tilth. A pooled, untreated soil sample from our property was measured at pH 5.6 (Clemson University Agricultural Service Laboratory).

And, significantly, we made the choice to plant the seedlings at various stages out into a meadow-grassland environment; all of the seedlings are either on the edges of the meadow or at varying degrees of additional exposure into the southwest-facing meadow. None of our seedlings were planted in deep shade, in contrast to almost all of the Waynesville seedlings (to the best of my recollection).

This last choice for planting the T. taxifolia in a more open environment was intentionally made in hopes that greater access to sunlight, although perhaps more traumatic to seedlings at first, might ultimately promote a shorter time to maturity and seed-bearing, as well as hopefully promote a more robust tree structure than those few T. taxifolia that I have seen growing in Torreya State Park (Florida) deep in the forest. When we purchased our ten seedlings at the Aiken, SC nursery (quite a ways further south and lower in altitude), I was impressed that all of our seedlings (including the Waynesville seedlings) appear to have orignially been grown under full, often very hot sun along the same rows with the other nursery potted plants. I am sure that the Woodlander's staff kept everything watered on a regular schedule, which probably helped to offset the rather extreme sun exposure.

Woodlander's seedling T. taxifolia obviously do well at the nursery, and owner Bob McCartney said he had not used any special pH soil amendments with the T. taxifolia, and the seedlings were planted in a pine-bark based planting medium. I would be curious to know the pH of Aiken, SC water.

All or our planted seedlings are surrounded by 2" x 2" mesh, 24" high, circular wire "cages" to help protect them from accidental injury. I clothes-pinned fiberglass window screening to one side of the cages with the intention to attenuate the summer afternoon sun, at least for the first season. One seedling that got significant shading from partly overhanging, senescent Canadian hemlock limbs didn't get the summertime window screen treatment.

All of our T. taxifolia seedlings were planted on the edge of a man-made grassland that is shaded well into mid morning by Blackrock Mountain (~5000') and the edge of the forest (to the East and North). As mentioned previously, our most shaded seedling (one of the smaller, younger cohort) gets constant (but light) shading courtesy of senescent Canadian hemlock limbs on the forest edge. Two more seedlings are planted at the edge of the forest but with full afternoon sun exposure; one of these is one of the older seedling cohort. Another of the older seedling cohort is planted in the meadow but gets variable afternoon shade from a medium sized Carolina hemlock about 20' away. The rest of the seedlings, including the 3rd seedling of the older cohort, get no additional afternoon tree shading. With the local drought conditions for 2008, I hand watered all the seedlings on a reasonably regular schedule (no more than a gallon/seedling every two days) until such time as the soil moisture increased (e.g., tropical storm Faye). All the seedlings survived the drought and put on varying degrees of new growth.

Late this fall I removed the window screening when it became clear that snow could attach to the one-sided screening and threaten to act as a 'sail' for tipping over the cages in strong winds. I anticipated that winter sun would be less intense than summer sun.

I left the mountains for a two-week period in late November, which also happened to coincide with some bitterly cold weather (minimum of ~12F). When I returned I was surprised with what I saw. It was clear that the younger cohort seedlings, with the exception of the one seedling planted under the Canadian hemlock bows, had undergone significant 'browning'; apparent loss of green from most or all of their lower needles. All three of the older cohort looked as green as I had left them and, as mentioned above, so did the one young seedling under the shade of the Canadian hemlocks. The fact that the one small shaded T. taxifolia continues to do well did not suggest that the browning was necessarily a function of soil moisture and/or temperature alone (which should be similar for all of the planted seedlings). It was interesting and probably significant that the 3 older seedlings exhibited little or no browning, suggesting that browning is somehow a function of seedling size, and/or root development, or perhaps depth of freezing and active root depth, and/or ability to recruit moisture from the soil.

I corresponded with Jack Johnston and I looked for references to coniferous winter browning; I immediately found them (e.g., http://www.mnstac.org/STA/2004/Winter%202004.pdf). I learned that winter browning is not an uncommon phenomenon, especially for seedling yews and hemlocks in areas with more extreme northern winter climates. And that browning may be a partial function of winter sun exposure coupled with inability to successfully translocate moisture via the roots. I am not clear how severe or significant browning will be for the long-term wellbeing of the T. taxifolia seedlings I have planted. However, it would appear to be stressful and undesirable at best.

The subsequent plan has been to provide the T. taxifolia seedlings with at least some shelter from the combination of cold winter sunshine and perhaps wind. I cut the bottoms out of large, black plastic nursery pots (~12" high) and staked these open-ended pots upside-down around each seedling (except the nicely green seedling near the hemlocks). And I further tried to partially barricade the seedlings from the winter elements by making a triangle of split-rail fencing (cut in half lengths). Hopefully, this will provide the winter shelter the seedlings apparently need and will allow them enough sunlight from above to promote some growth, and still ultimately allow them to mature further in a light-rich environment.

The 'bright side' of these observations (including that the older seedlings have fared much better) hopefully suggests that, as the seedlings grow (assuming some or all survive), winter sun exposure, will be less of a concern for these young trees in the future. I have learned an important lesson in cultivation of conifers which people from further north would have anticipated: browning of the smallest T. taxifolia seedlings can occur under exposed sun and cold winter conditions.

Overall, my simplest goal is to provide a 'mini-refuge' for the T. taxifolia germ line for future generations. Like most of the Eastern North American forest, our forest continues to undergo substantial change/decline — especially due to introduced diseases and insects imported from overseas. As native species wither before our eyes, it would be a wonderful added plus if T. taxifolia were to provide even a small coniferous ecologic niche within our forest; a niche that has perhaps been absent for several thousand years. If in 10 years my wife and I have a small, reproductive population of T. taxifolia, whose seeds we can share with others, then I think we can more confidently consider ourselves as true "Torreya Guardians". We are ever hopeful.

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COMMENT FROM CONNIE BARLOW, Dec 2008. During the first 3 weeks of December, my husband and I housesat at the site of the second Waynesville plantings of 21 seedlings of T. taxifolia. Our south-facing hillside also experienced very cold (18 degrees F), and snow. All the seedlings that had been planted in deep forest, though now in almost full sunlight (owing to full deciduous canopy and understory) look green and healthy. Three of the four (all the smallest) of those planted in the sunniest lower slope of the driest side had already experienced die-off of some of the lower branches well before the cold. And their upper green leaves bronzed, while remaining apparently quite alive and flexible. Lee Barnes, in a site visit, explained to me that the bronzing was probably anthocyanins produced to shield the leaves from an excess amount of sunlight. Another botanist had told me that sunlight is mostly a problem for T. taxifolia right after it has been planted. New growth will be adjusted to better cope with intense sunlight.

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JUNE 2008 BRIEF REPORT BY RUSS REGNERY: This year's new growth is really beginning to develop now on my 10 trees, some faster/more than others (as perhaps expected). In general, the trees planted adjacent to the forest edge are uniformly doing well. In general, those trees most exposed to sun (and perhaps more importantly, winter wind, etc.) were seriously stressed this last winter and are still working to send out new growth. By far the most successful tree (judged by lots of new growth) is one planted out into the meadow but in partial afternoon shade of a Carolina hemlock...it seems to be really taking off without supplemental shelter. Last summer I started the trees out with some built-in partial shade from fiberglass window screen and I recently decided to reinstall the screening again for the most exposed trees this summer. With this few trees and all the uncontrolled variables, it is impossible I think to make serious correlations between exposure and growth success. However, the success of the one tree suggests that these trees do have the potential to grow outside of a true forest canopy. It will take several more years to get to the seed-bearing stages and truly evaluate which trees have done best. Most of Jack Johnston's T. taxifolia in north Georgia are reasonably exposed to overhead sun, if I remember correctly, and the last time I visited Jack, his trees were putting on lots of new growth.

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