Cedrus deodara ‘Eisregen’, and Cupressus nootkatensis ‘Sparkling Arrow’ for conifers. Absolutely makes my toes curl! I have purchased the Cupressus and it’s still tiny. Haven’t yet got Eisregen.

Persicaria 'Golden Arrow'. Rouge brings it up every year, and doggone it, I can't find it around here! It's alluring, but not in my garden.

Iochroma always makes me salivate. Traded for some plants one time but just received cuttings which did not root after making the postal trip from California. I see that seeds are available but I don't always have success starting those. I seem to want plants that push the envelope on zone hardiness.

Betsy, I too was bitten by the Iochroma bug. Just a word of warning though, although they are not impossibly heat sensitive, at least here in Maryland, they aren't like typical southern Brugsmansia such as 'Charles Grimaldi' either. Which love hot weather. Mine grows better in mild weather of spring and seems to stall, at best, in hot weather. Also have not gotten it to bloom. I think it's one from Annie's Annuals called 'Mr. Plum'. It's in a bigger pot and seem to have responded to feeding in early spring so hopefully I will get some flowers in fall.

Google shows some cultivars are grown in Miami (!) so it might vary by cultivar and Mr. Plum is just best adapted to the chilly Bay Area like a lot of Annie's plants.

Some of the original threads - please only bump if you have a good reason to: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/2808967/wow-i-think-this-deserves-a-thread-golden-live-oak

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3761179/last-try-identify-the-octopus-spruce

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1723032/bretschneidera-tree

That Octopus spruce is what I’d consider exceptional. Where is it and why has it not been grafted?

Im in WI so alluring plants that I can grow would be Shagbark Hickory!

Persicaria 'Golden Arrow'. Rouge brings it up every year,

deanna, I mention it again for this season but very disappointingly it has been ravaged by the beetles :(.

From a young age, I've always liked Sequoiadendron giganteum, although I don't think I've ever witnessed one in person.

I've hiked the Redwood parks of NW California and saw large Sequioa sempervirens in their natural habitat. Very impressive!

But never tried to acquired seeds of either species to propagate them, for obvious reasons.

Just something I've always liked about them and that was before computers and the internet was available so maybe you could call it 'instinctive' ?

Stewartia spp. I had never seen one before joining Gardenweb. Last year, I started hundreds of seeds indoors only for a crazy terrible spring that resulted in all around poor germination outside... But, I will start hundreds more seeds this year on or about Sept. 20 and pray again that one awesome zone 4a loving mutant sprouts!

Good luck, Addison!

I'm going to self-bump to revisit this thread idea.

If anyone has managed to track down a long sought-after plant, tell us about it. Or, if you became aware of a really interesting plant via gardenweb, let us know.

Alas, I'm not closer to finding about more info about mine originally posted above...except with the caveat that I have obtained a Glyptostrobus pensilis [hyperlink to trees and shrubs online]. It isn't a bald cypress that turns bright red in the autumn, but it's a similar deciduous conifer that does. And it can have a really unique tufted appearance so it's got that going for it, too. It survived the recent cold winter, as a small plant, with 0% stem dieback, so the long standing rumors of its tenderness seem exaggerated. The delicate thread-thin leader picked up growing right at the very tip after almost 0F...no need to prune out anything!

I didn't discover it here on houzz/GW, per se, but one of my obsession plants remains Larix mastersiana. The way I foolishly moved it to a sub-optimal part of my yard will remain my single greatest gardening mistake ever. But I had a new high stress job around that timeframe 2015 or so, and it was sucking up brain cell cycles I guess. (how I could afford the later trip to Australia, though) If I'd stopped to think about it, I would have put it on the slope where I've now planted a Larix principis-ruprechtii...and where it has survived the overall hottest+wettest July we've ever had. This is a general tip I'm learning...if you plan to pursue a horticultural obsession with rare plants form cooler climates that would be prone to root rot in your own, invest in a property with steep slopes!

My long term project is for as many Larch species as I can get to grow here, to cross (they will mostly be Asian species, of course) and then test the seedlings for root rot resistance. With the goal of created a seed strain that people can use for ornamental planting in the middle latitudes of the US east, without worrying about them suddenly dying. L. mastersiana and a couple others have the picturesque semi-weeping appearance...I'd like their genes to contribute. But oh well, I'll make the most of what I can grow here. Of course, the fact L.m. died at all is a warning sign, but that was a wet summer and the farmer higher up on the hill than me had done some regrading that forced a lot of water into a certain part of my yard. That's right where I'd planted that poor thing! (it has since been redirected to a swale) It had survived the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012, so I'm sure if I'd put it in a better spot, it would still be alive. Point is, they will always have to be planted on well drained soil...which is true of any larch that's survived in the Philly to Boston corridor area. It's just that the problem with the Asian/European larches currently available in the US is a severe lack of genetic diversity, so I'm hoping to remedy that by crossing with wild-collected Asian ones.

David, my 40 ft Japanese larch looked fine early in the season, but now looks very tired w/alot of needle-loss for some reason. I thought perhaps sawfly damage, but couldn't see any evidence of that. I've had hot and dry stretches (even tho the total rainfall is average), and don't think it likes that. Kinda regret not planting a native eastern larch, tho it too might not have liked my outside-its-range location.

To add to your baldcypress-like statement, my experience w/pond cypresses shows that they are not nearly as attractive as the standard baldcypress -- their foliage is just way too scant compared to the lush fernery of the nearby baldcypresses (tho the pond cypresses do color very well in fall). To be honest, the baldcypresses are superior in appearance/texture (IMO) to the nearby dawn redwood, tho the dawn redwood's stature and trunk are impressive.

No foliar issues with Larix here, so far. Fingers crossed.

There are some amazing pond cypress on the campus of Swarthmore - but I agree with you some of them too bedraggled and thin. It could be that cultivars look better, after all that's why they were selected. I have 'National Road' and 'Debonair'. And, to loop it back to Larix...the 'National Road' is planted as the backup to one of my Larix if something should befall it, since both are intended to shade my most prized rhododendrons.

Ben, in googling 'National Road', I discovered your hilarious 'unsimulated' comment on this thread.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5977415/national-road-pond-cypress

David, over the yrs, pretty apparent that my pond cypresses' foliage has gotten gradually thinner w/lower branch death (certainly not from shading). They do have nascent male tassels visible in winter and some cones too -- none on my baldcypresses yet. The baldcypresses do sacrifice lowest limbs (and dawn redwood too), but that's definitely from shading.

Great story, prairiemoon. I do remember woody, but not as well as some former participants.