When my address bar at the top looks like this below:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/trees

I can enter a search word or words, and it lets me select to search 'in Trees'.

But if it looks like this below:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/trees

I can enter a search word or words, but it doesn't let me select to search 'in Trees' but does let me select other categories like 'discussions' and the results are, well, never what I'm looking for.

HTH

Put exactly this in the google.com search box

site:https://www.gardenweb.com toronado 2012

I got this old thread in the top results...

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1680941/metasequoia-defoliating-in-the-drought-bet-if-it-will-make-it

I was able to find this thread...

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

but not a couple others I remember.

As I state in that message, it seems like for whatever reason, the further back you go, the harder it is to find old threads, with 2011 or 2012 being a major threshold. Anything updated (bumped) after that might still be around; before then, less so.

It's a shame salicaceae never got back to us about that tree!

UPDATE:

you have to be able to remember unique (ish) key words in old threads, but this trick is actually very useful! I can't believe I hadn't tried this until now.

I was able to find the notorious Pinus maximartinezii thread of 2012!

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1894002/pinus-maximartinezii

PLEASE DO NOT BUMP THIS.

I finally found a thread confirming that stuff pre-2011 (in other words, not bumped since then) is still around, it's just very hard to find.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/1912299/amazed-that-i-could-root-these-plants