My experience.... sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Wait and see! I've also noticed a correlation between freeze cracks in the trunk and excessive soil moisture. It happens a lot less on well drained soil with no supplemental water.

Thanks Ian. I really appreciate your responses and expertise. It's interesting because when we first planted the yard was dry. The day after we planted late December 2005, the temp plunged to 11 degrees in this yard, lasted for 3 weeks. And everything got huge freeze cracks then, dry yard. We had not met Frank yet and there were no Eucs planted then.

We had an arborist helping us plant and lodgepole stake and he said it would be a disaster because very cold weather desiccates trees and they need to be watered well first to protect them against cold. We never forgot his advice even though the storm in Dec05 came too fast to have time to water.

The only Euc that did not sustain terrible damage this December was the very tall camphora that's actually sitting in a creeklet. It's a swamp tree.

My yard guy is here today and has pruned the Eucs. Huge pile of limbs out on street, yard debris pick-up came and got it all, 1st time in 3 weeks because of all the ice. So things are looking up. Now it's just a question of whether these trees can recover.

And the poor magnolias ... charlie brown trees now.

>>We had an arborist helping us plant and lodgepole stake and he said it would be a disaster because very cold weather desiccates trees and they need to be watered well first to protect them against cold.

I learned this in school and keep hearing it in other places but I think it's a major oversimplification for most plants.

First of all you have to consider where a plant is native. If something comes from a climate that is wet in summer it's usually beneficial to its overall health to water it. But there are even exceptions to that. For example many of the hardy eucalyptus come from a summer rainfall climate but they are also adapted to very infertile soils... growing on these soils slows them down in the wild. Brought into cultivation they are usually going to be on more fertile soils and the way I see it we have to 'slow them down' and harden them up by keeping them on the dry side... compensating for the greater fertility of our soils in gardens (and even if your soil isn't great it's probably better than what most eucalypts get in the wild).

Secondly I would differentiate between watering before a freeze and watering all the time. Watering all the time encourages lush growth over a long period that makes plants reluctant to harden off in winter and thus more vulnerable to freeze damage. Watering before a freeze makes sense though because it's true - the combination of cold winds with very low dew points/humidity (such as we get here during an arctic blast) and often frozen or partially frozen soil further aggravates freeze damage by dessicating the plants. Many Southern Hemisphere plants turn out to be less hardy in the Northwest than they are rated, simply because they get dessicated before they meet the actual temperature limit of their hardiness as it would be with higher humidity and no wind. So anyway... to me a sensible approach for many plants is to 'grow 'em tough' most of the year with little or no water/fertilizer, then water them well in the days before the freeze hits. (This was never necessary for me in Olympia because my soil was very moisture retentive and was always pretty much soaked by November... except in 2002 when it was dry through October. But a lot of people with better drainage have dry pockets in their soil through late fall.) Exceptions to that method exist too... for example most cacti and succulents in our climate should be kept as dry as possible in winter and watered only during their period of active growth. And some plants are higher maintenance and simply won't perform at all without more water and care (I try not to grow too many of these).

Some may disagree with these findings - that's just what I have to conclude based on my observations.

Ian, your explanation sheds light on this, thank you so much! Very valuable.

Yes, our soil is extremely rich, a couple feet of 4-way-blend and horse manure, sifted finely, on top of heavy clay, formerly a swamp and leech field. We have a worm bin and compost all the leaves and grass, so there's layers of very healthy worm castings over everything plus lots of worms.

We put cottage stone retaining walls around the entire perimeter of our 75' x 150' property, and raised beds throughout, dug 5 creeklets and lots more little waterways, with lots of flagstones and dams and erosion control vertical rock slabs. Water control is working: between the high winter water table and the melting snow / fresh rain, the whole thing turns into a standing lake in rainfall and then drains within 24 hours, but with that water table (yesterday) 4" under, subterranean lake.

However, in the summer, because it was raised, it gets really dry and is on a bit of a slope so the sun really beats down here. Many of our first 200 trees died the first summer because they fried, not enough shade or water even though I watered. So set up sprinklers and hoses and pretty much just water all night every night moving sprinklers all summer. But that was only supposed to be for the 1st 3 years while all these trees / bushes were getting established.

It stopped raining here in February, very scant by April last year. Quite frustrating because it's such a deluge in winter when the plants are dormant.

Planning to not water nearly as much this summer since it will finally have been 3 years since the initial batch was planted, can hand-water the last 100 or so plants by hand. And there's a little shade here now but the neighbor's trees are all dying or dead and gone because they don't water. Ppl here still think it rains cats and dogs incessantly but actually except for winter it's usually just a fine mist, barely caterpillar spit.

So utterly lovely in May with riot of dazzling colors and flowers to keep Spring going as long as possible with watering. I like it when it's overcast and cool and that deep lush growth keeps coming and coming and the flowers stay plump and vibrant.

All 3 Springs I've experienced here, been shocked to dig and find my soil bone dry by March when it's a lake in January. Finding a balance between drowning and baking is a challenge.