I've always wanted to grow this tree too, but like you have never known anyone to try it. You would think that it might survive in very dry soil conditions such as higher ground in the pine barrens, except for one thing: our hot and humid summers. If you try it you'll have to let us all know the results, whether like Douglas's Dogwood it is just impossible to grow. If you check, I think you'll find there are several varieties of madrone. I seem to remember seeing madrones in the mountains of Texas and Arizona, and I'm not sure whether the one in the Sierra Nevadas is the same species; it's worth checking. These other madrones wouldn't be adapted to cool summer fog conditions, and might just handle our weather.