Re: Brachychiton acerifolius

They are native in coastal New South Wales and extend in the wild up the eastern fall of the Great Dividing Range to altitudes where I would expect minimum winter temperatures as low as about minus 4 C (say 25 F), though always in dense rainforest. When flowering in early summer you can look across the rainforest-filled gorges from miles away and see the scarlet crowns dotted here and there.
In the immediate Sydney region they are all planted and seem to grow well in some of the further inland suburbs where, again, minimum is occasionally as low as 25 F -- but you don't see them above about 700 metres in the nearby Blue Mountains, where minimum temperatures get no lower but the growing season is much shorter.
 
Tony Rodd
Sydney
----- Original Message -----
From: n*@plantsoup.com
To: m*@ucdavis.edu
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2002 2:38 PM
Subject: Brachychiton acerifolius

The Brachychiton acerifolius are making a terrific show right now in
San Diego -- bright red flower clusters, some on bare trees, others
on trees that are starting to leaf out.  Truly spectacular.  I would
love to plant one but after last year's cold winter, I am concerned
about their cold hardiness.  Some resources ahve them hardy to 32
degrees and some to 20 degrees.  Can anyone vouch for their cold
tolerance?

Nan
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Nan Sterman Plant Soup (TM)

205 Cole Ranch Road
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