Gad to hear they are coming back for you. What trees are they?

Northern red oak has been a good one for me

Yes it’s very slow to start growing though... not sure why. Edmonton has started planting lots of them. It’s nice to see them downtown in the few spots that they are. Seem to do well so far. I have come across a few real bigs ones but not many. I think seed source is very critical like always.

Agree. Kind of slow-growing, but whatever. I've never seen another in the whole state of Wyoming :) mine's the only one.. for now.

Too bad really considering they should grow fine in your climate. Might be a little too dry for people that don't like to water though. I'm trying to upload the biggest ones Ive seen in my home town but this website gives me a lot of trouble uploading...

Since we are on the topic of oaks....how about northern pin oaks? They do well up here. I planted one in my front yard about 7 years ago and its still there but I moved from that house. Beauty fall color. Here's a few.

Do you find northern pin to be slow growing? I've got one and it's doing fine, but is even slower growing than northern red oak. The pin has been in the ground for only two years, so its third summer so maybe still getting established

It wasn’t slow for me. Medium growth rate. I have a little seedling red oak and it’s growing like 3 inches per year which is ridiculous. May be the competition with grass. I don’t know.

Man it’s been so hot for three weeks. Above average almost everyday. 27 (82f) yesterday and 24 (76f) today. Average high is 18 (64f) We have hit around 28 (84f) three times and all the trees in my area are still leafing out so slowly. We have a much hotter forecast than Los Angeles for the next ten days.

Can lack of rain contribute to slow leafing out? It’s been unbelievably dry. It’s barely rained one day since mid April. Have another ten days of sun coming up too. Fires are going to be raging this year. Yikes.

I remember on typical years if we hit 25 (78) in one day all the leaves are out if buds are big...even if it’s mid April.

My only casualty this winter was my previously-thriving sugar maple, which had grown to 25 feet. I think it might have succumbed to drought last year, though, rather than low temps, as it had small leaves and looked poorly all last summer.

Plant Love, I've also noted the slowish leafing out despite the rather sustained well above normal temps. We did have deep frost penetration this winter and the ground just might remain a bit cold.

David Calgary, what type of sugar maple? And yes drought is a killer... smaller leaves may also be hinting to lack of oxygen for the roots. I have a maple that I’m starting to think the same for. It’s in heavy clay. I think I may have to ammend the soul.

Another thing that causes smaller leaves is rough spring temps. We have had two terrible first half of April in a row so I can’t even tell what it is....

Did the tree try to sucker? Normally that’s an idea that it’s too dry.

It was a "Green Mountain" sugar maple. It lasted beautifully through seven winters and grew like a weed...and then suddenly declined last spring. There was no suckering. Leaves were -- again -- very small, and became shriveled and brown at the margins during the summer, and leaf fall was early and without any colour. I'm scratching my head over a potential diagnosis, as roots weren't disturbed and winter temps 2016-2017 were pretty mild. In addition, all of my other zone 5-6 exotics survived this winter, so I'm not sure what happened. I'm placing my bets on drought, as we had almost no snow in the 2016-17 winter season.

That’s too bad. Sounds like you may have ended up with herbicide on it somehow?

What other exotic trees do you have? I want to try an inferno maple. Awesome red fall color and super hardy. There is also lord Selkirk and unity which are prairie hardy.

A chinese catalpa, which has done quite well and flowers every year; a hackberry; a devil’s walkingstick, which has thrived in semi-shade (rated zone 5); virgilia (zone 6); fragrant sumach and staghorn sumach. My blackberry died back to the ground but is budding; I bought four bare-root exotics from Vesey’s last year, but doubt any will survive except the American Linden, as they all struggled to leaf out last year. The Linden would probably be half-hardy here, as there are many tilia x cordata trees in town and American Lindens are only somewhat less hardy. It’ll take another two weeks to be sure.

Winter wasn't kind to many of my test grafts in fruits.....wasn't really the low temp. but the prolonged/duration made it so much worse..the worst in over 6/7 years.

Not sure what is going on but several of my apple trees are super slow leafing out or only sporadically doing so (some branches have leaves, most not). Think trees might be dead or dying. These are by the way 6+ year old trees, mulched, well watered last year. One is a Norland and other a honeycrisp. My other honeycrisp, hardi-mac, spartan have no problems whatsoever... finally on the apple trees which did leaf out there are few or no blossoms?! Same with plums & cherries, basically no blossoms. Is nature telling me something? Thoughts?

Plant desiccation on the the cambium happens allot more without warm up's, it can be a fine line from one plant to the other, which makes us wonder yes, why is this one alive and next to it dead..can be many factors.. could be the placing...just a little more protected, a little more snow, less wind, snow drift, what rootstock & condition, different state of dormancy going into the winter etc. Which cultivars of apple etc. didn't flower? You might want to add your zone into your profile.

American linden is rated zone 2b hardy according to the plant search on all the tree nurseries. Seen lots of huge ones.

My northern red oak is putting out better growth this year. Some new shoots are up to 8", might get a bit longer too. Seems like it's finally getting its legs under it. Northern pin is not growing fast though lol

Amazing how differently all these trees can grow depending on site and soil. I’ve watched other red oak grow very fast... my red oak is leafing out unbelievably slowly but it’s coming. Seems to do that every year but this year is worse. And all the green ash trees in town are super slow. I think they hate cold April weather.