AusBonsai

G'day from the USA! I haven't been around the forums much for a few years, I moved away from Phoenix where all the Aussie native trees were readily available, and now I'm living in Utah, where the winters are too cold for most of that... But hopefully not all, because I'm still quite hooked on Australian trees. I've been looking for a while and trading some emails with Jarryd Bailey to see if I can find some Australian natives I could grow here, and finally found some stock to try.

No trunks, I'll have to grow them on. Pictured here we have leptospermum lavigatum (woolly tea tree), leptospermum rupestrum, a few callistemon (can't recall the exact species), and nothofagus cunninghamii. All should be cold hardy(ish), but I shelter my trees fairly well in the winter anyway, so I reckon they'll be fine. The need for protection will keep me from dropping in the ground unfortunately, but I'll be potting them up as they grow and do the best we can. Wish me luck!

I think you will struggle to keep them alive for the long term at regular winter temps of -5C. But good luck!.......

Good luck with those trees.
I know you guys are used to keeping trees sheltered through winter and doing the Bonsai Two Step in Spring to protect trees that are not quite cold hardy to the area so I suspect there's a good chance of these doing OK.
Lok forward to seeing what happens.

very interested to see how they go, I think you have a good chance at success. seem like you have the right choices, our mountains here in Tassie seem like they would have pretty similar winter temperatures to Utah depending on your local microclimate. some nice plants both the tea trees and the nothofagus cunninghamii have lovely small leaves, and in cold temperatures I have seen them get even smaller, I reckon it will turn heads, up you way as they are quite unique.
Liawenee TAS in July of 6° / -2° C ( 42.8 / 28.4 F) lower elevation then actual mountain terrain which these plants can grow
kunanyi / Mount Wellington in July 4° / -1 C ( 39.2 / 30.2 F) very coastal so is a bit sheltered from the cold

so it definitely seems possible, some other suggestions would be Eucalyptus coccifera, if you want Eucalyptus that has a good chance at coping with those temperatures. I have seen banksia marginata grow in alpine environments (weirdly alongside nothofagus gunnii), it would definitely be less cold tolerant then Eucalyptus coccifera, but would be best bet for a banksia, however it does seem to have distinct forms so am not sure if it is a particular genetic.

please keep us updated!

I also thought of Tassie and other alpine plants for cold hardiness. The problem will be finding them in the US. Maybe seed will be the best approach for some of those less common species.

It’s definitely been a journey to identify the right species to try, and then source them. I had a list of about ten, and these are what I’ve been able to find. I’m working on making sure I have all the right forms to get some seeds going this next spring. Any recommendations for seed suppliers?

You could try a snow gum (Eucalyptus pauciflora) as it should be able to tolerate the temperatures but also it gives you an interesting bark, smallish leaves already (and my limited experience with it responds well to ramification), but also because of the alpine environment they are in you have a lot of scope as to the styling of the tree and making it look very realistic.

They are easy to grow from seed if you can at least get those. By nature they are a slow growing tree.

https://www.wildseedtasmania.com.au/

I have had good success with their seed (apart from the conifers which could a me problem). And are good about stating provenance which a lot of other places aren't. I believe they do international shipping

lackhand wrote: ↑July 30th, 2025, 7:00 pm It’s definitely been a journey to identify the right species to try, and then source them. I had a list of about ten, and these are what I’ve been able to find. I’m working on making sure I have all the right forms to get some seeds going this next spring. Any recommendations for seed suppliers?

I have used a few different seed suppliers.

One that I have used with particular success is localseeds.com.au