Never see it here.

Only has a potted plant that you bring in during the winter. I grew some from seeds collected from a trip to So. California. They survived a mild winter here, but a normal or cold winter they will die.

I remember them fondly from my childhood in Phoenix but have never seen one here.

hi, issa, did you try over wintering on any of your larger plants?

You're flogging a dead horse.

Yes, I did over winter them indoors in pots. If I was into bonsai I would have kept them that way. But for various reasons I lost interest in them. So I planted them out. They didn't last long as our weather is way too cold for them.

Colvos Creek, a local nursery that sells mail order, sells another species of Schinus that is a little hardier. But it still isn't hardy enough to make it through the last three winters we have had.

These might be the closest you are going to get.

Here is a link that might be useful: Zanthoxylum trees and shrubs in Seattle

Schinus montanus and S. patagonicus have a good shot at being hardy here, but they look nothing like S. molle.

It might be worth trying to collect S. molle from the highest possible altitude at the southern end of its range; as it has such a large natural range there is probably some variation in cold tolerance and other climate preferences.

I see this article has appeared this month.

In short, no doubt practically all Peruvian Peppertrees are cold-tender, but apparently at least a few individuals exist to give gardeners in frosty areas, hope

Here is a link that might be useful: Peruvian Peppertrees in Seattle

Thanks all for your replies. Issafish, you give me a seed of hope, and ian, I agree. Aim for the extreme latitudes of its habitat. We have a roadtrip planned down the Oregon coast, and should I luck out and see any, I'm stopping. Bboy, thanks so much for the link. I figured if there had been any luck in Seattle, Aurthur Lee Jacobson would have had it listed in Trees of Seattle--and nope--not in my second edition, so how funny and terrific to see this article.

At the risk of being overly lengthy, I did find something quite cool at Swansons nursery. I picked up two Szechuan pepper plants Zanthoxylum (your second link, Bboy!--which makes the second cool coincidence as I hadn't read his article). The smell of the leaves is heavenly. My dad and I crushed one of the seed pods and the scent stayed with us throughout a long drive in the car. In his youth he was in the merchant marine and remembered transporting pepper from Jakarta, so he also has a fondness for that scent. Anyway, the plants look a bit spotty, but also durable, so we'll see.

Normally I'm not into trying to force trees/plants in conditions that are contrary to their nature, but in this case it's such an evocative scent for me that I would really love to have it nearby.

Thanks again.

Yes, the timing and content of Arthur's Schinus molle article was as though made to order. The horse has at least made it back up to its knees.

i am growing three Zanthoxylum simulans (i THINK, one green world was a bit confused the year i purchased them). i have them on a sandy hillside, in woodland shade conditions. they don't flower/fruit as profusely as ones sited in full sun, but they are doing fine.

they are in a spot with supplemental water, but i would not doubt them to be very drought resistant in the NW. i water that area when the plants in that border show sign of stress, and i have never seem the sichuan pepper trees stressed.

i also love the smell, the car ride back with the three trees and the AC on recirculating was incredible. my nose went numb.

speaking of nose going numb, my whole face felt numb after cooking peppercorn salt with this years harvest. see the link below.

eating the fresh peppercorns is um.. SOMETHING. great way to confuse visitors to your garden. they taste like pepper/citrus/novocaine.

they are very shrubby plants, i am trying to force them to tree form to get that trunk structure in some of the pics linked to above. they seem to take to pruning very well.

Here is a link that might be useful: making peppercorn salt