I am in Zone 5 but on the boarder of a zone 4... Bruce County Ontario..........
and if this tulip tree could survive the brutal winter the last 2 winters.........it is can survive anywhere........
they are using the genes and hopefully be able to plant them out in the wild here ..........they are not native to this area at all......but a species of Ontario.........so they are hoping the little ones make it just fine like the Mom........
they needed to find the oldest tree they could in Bruce to try this and this county is huge.......

greene said:@patweppler, What is your climate zone? I don't see the info on your posts? Thank you.

Zone 5 but almost a zone 4....... but I have a micro climate around the tulip tree that might be putting the zone up a bit........

patweppler said:happen. Since the tree here is not to grow in this zone and they are not sure how this tree grew to be this old in this zone......... .

The tulip tree in the arboretum in Ottawa (USDA Zone 4) was planted 118 years ago. There are a few also in Quebec but I don't know their history. So it seems it does happen.

This is exciting stuff! Like a super-tree.

patweppler said:that is cool..........
so how did you do that? just planted them......
someone from the ministry of natural resources told me that is you take the tulip seeds and plant them outside in straight sand and put that pot on the south side of the house for the winter......they should come up in the springtime..........as seedlings. the sand apparently works good....... I have not tried that but might do that this year for the heck of it and try it.....
I am also going to try to take a new cutting and then root it and see if it will grow.........but again not sure that will work but going to give it a try..... They said I need at least 12 inches of new growth to do that and since younger trees grow much faster then the older ones........that might have to wait until later this fall........if I can get it too root will plant it out and protect it and see if it makes it to next year.... or not in the springtime.....

my tree will go to my grave far more important then me.......guaranteed..hahahaha

I will post a link tomorrow to the local paper here so you can read the write up on this tree here..........some pretty cool info from the conservationist.....

hopefully will see if we get heritage status on this tree later this week....... I also ready that germination is super low on the amount of viable seeds in the pods...so really glad to here that you got two seeds to germinate there......

I collected them in Fall and planted in a pot with well draining potting soil, adding a lot of perlite. The harsh winter did the rest. I made sure the soil never fully dried, and come late spring two germinated. I gave seeds away last year, perhaps this fall I could send to you or the society? I could get a photo of the tree for you now.

Here is a photo of the tree, and one of my seedlings. Taken with my phone so a little blurry.

that is cool............
I would love to try to get some of mine to start to germinate here too
might see if I can get a seed or two from the pods that are out here.......there will be 1000's of them come the fall likely
they are coming to test the viability of the seeds in the pods here with the conservation authority in the summer ......... they test it before they come to get the pods in the fall ..........first..
apparently they are concerned that there would be more much viable seeds if I had 2 90 year old trees side by side.......then they could pollinate back and forth
but in my case there is only one tree and it is relying on the bees to do their thing.......

According to the bee forum on here the tulip trees put out an ultra violet that the honey bees can see........and also the scent of the flowers.....
there was tons of bees here when the flowers were out........
both honey bees and bumble bees............ most of the bees have left no
the flowers are falling but the tree stayed in bloom a good 3 weeks here..........

Here is a photo of the Tulip Tree by me, its so tall!

When I lived in NJ, we had some tulip trees, one of which needed to be cut down./

I was AMAZED that such a tall tree could have such soft, punky wood!

The bark was harder and tougher than the wood. The wood practically dissolved into jello in my woodpile in one season, but the big tough slabs of bark lasted intact on the ground as long as I lived there.

It's a fallacy to think that the wood of a tree should be more resistant to breakdown than the bark that protects it.

Tulip trees do have soft wood, but while flexible, it is still strong enough to hold up the tree! There are many examples trees whose wood rots, and often leaves the outer collar of decay resistant bark behind. Did you ever make a candle from a hollowed out birch branch?