Stewartia is a beautiful choice for a tree in your yard. I grew up in West Seatttle and have many fond memories of gardening with my mother who stuffed many plants into a typical small lot. I still shop at the West Seatttle Nusery on California Ave. They have a great variety of plants adapted to grow in our area. I would not be surprised if they do not have a Stewartia this time of year. Although we can get away with planting now, you are gambling that a hard freeze may come along and kill a newly planted tree. Also there is a very good chance that when you dig down more than a foot you will run into clay. Seattle is built on glacial till, a mix of gravel, sand and clay pockets. An older yard that has been worked for years most likely has lots of organic matter, but dig a hole for a tree and you will find our not so dirty secret. I suggest that you dig a test hole and see how it drains. My thought is that with all the rain we have been having, it will not drain well at all. Try the squeeze test on the soil you pull out even if it does drain within an hour. If it does not crumble it is just too wet. The local nurseries donÂt buy fresh stock until around March. I would wait till then and plant a healthy tree that hasnÂt been sitting around a nursery for a season. You could even order one ahead.

I'd agree that waiting a few weeks will bring you a far larger selection that attempting to track down a good looking Stewartia in January. These are rather popular trees and any good sized retail nursery in the area will carry them but the few selections remaining at this time of year will be picked over and generally not the best choices. You can expect to pay a decent price for one with some size to it as well - well-formed and well-grown ones of any size are not inexpensive.

There is little to fear about planting one now, should you find a suitable specimen. A hard freeze is highly unlikely to kill a newly planted tree hardy to this area if it was planted correctly - landscape installations take place throughout the winter in this area with few problems. There is a concern about working an overly wet soil. You can damage soil structure by compaction when working with too wet a condition - best to let it dry out some if planting now is a necessity.

And while I am a big fan of smaller neighborhood nurseries (like the West Seattle nursery, Magnolia Garden center or Fremont Gardens), these are not the places I'd shop for the best tree selection. They are just too small to have a decent selection. Try one of the larger, full service nurseries in the area, like Wells Medina, Swanson's (although they are becoming very skimpy with their tree choices), Sky, Emery's or Molbaks. And I have to add that of my collection of Stewartias, the best formed one (and also the best price) came from FlowerWorld in Maltby, but that was a good 10-12 years ago.

You can see a big one at the Washington Park Arboretum, in the Camellia area. In 2006 it was 42' high, with one of its two trunks 2'8" around. There is also one more than 36' tall at Evergreen Park Cemetery, one over 31' at Seattle University, and a 30-footer at Kubota Gardens Park. See TREES OF SEATTLE - SECOND EDITION for details.

Here is a link that might be useful: Trees of Seattle - Second Edition