Torreya taxifolia
in northwest Grand Rapids, MICHIGAN

private landowner, John Czerney

• JOHN CZERNEY lives near Marne, Michigan. It is northwest of the city limits of Grand Rapids. He has 2 specimens of Florida torreya. He affiliated with Torreya Guardians in 2025, when the PHOTO below was taken.

 
JANUARY 2025 REPORT

The Torreya taxifolia at left is 54 inches tall. It is growing in a fern bed in John's backyard.

Situated north of a hemlock tree and a Norway spruce, this torreya accesses enough sun to grow in a Christmas-tree-like pattern. It is also "close enough to the house to reach with a garden hose during severe droughts."

The other specimen was planted to the side of his house and is rarely if ever watered. It is under an oak and near the arborvitaes. It gets morning sun, but shade for the rest of the day. Even so, it is "somewhat taller and fuller-looking."

The prevalence of deer in the lower half of Michigan compelled John to install fencing around each torreya.

Despite Michigan's cold winters, John has never observed any cold-weather damage on this pair. He writes,

"Fortunately the torreyas handle the cold weather well. I thought about giving them a wind break by shielding them with burlap. But after the first year (with forgetting to erect the shield), I haven't worried about them in the winter ever since."

ABOVE LEFT: March 2025 photo of the same torreya as at top. The background large tree is a Norway Spruce, about 25 feet away. Consequently, in the SUMMER it gets morning light till about 11; it is sheltered thereafter. Evenings after 5 are dappled. More light is available in the SPRING.

ABOVE RIGHT: Closeup of some winter-kill leaves, 17 March 2025. John wrote: "A few needles here and there got a little frost burned. This is the first time I seen such damage on either of my two torreyas. It was colder than normal here (and windy). I don't have a thermometer that records high and lows; I did see -10F, which hasn't happened here for quite some time. (It may have gone even colder.)

TREE #2

TREE #2 LIGHT CONDITIONS: The conifer in the background is an . It doesn't really shade the torreya much. Most of the shade comes from the oak near my neighbor's garage. In the summer, the torreya gets sun all morning till around 11ish. The sun returns at around 5:30, lasting till sunset. And there is a lot more sunlight when the oak loses its leaves.

This one is unusual in that it has two developing trunks. I don't know if they are from different seeds. (Curious if they will end up being different sexes.)

Before planting at this location, an Ukigumo Japanese maple was growing there. That cultivar isn't as hardy as many other Japanese maples. Every year the maple had some winter damage; some years it was minor. Eventually one spring it didn't make it.

Ukigumo is listed as a zone 6, sometimes 5. If zone integrity is similar for both species, I'd have to conclude that the Torreya is much hardier."

Beyond the backyard, John owns an additional 2.5 acres of woodland, which he intends to keep feral for nature. "There used to be many green ash trees there, but those are all gone. Now it's basically, maple, walnut, cherry, and oak."

HERBIVORY DANGERS: "There are both rabbits and deer. Some days there are numerous deer lurking around. They seem fearful of the loose fencing.... Whether with luck, there's no deer damage. Knock on wood!"

• EXPERIMENTS WITH OTHER TORREYA SPECIES: A year before acquiring the Florida torreya seedlings, John planted one of the Asian species, Torreya grandis. Native to central east CHINA, John's specimen is still alive but "hardly growing." In contrast, the northernmost Asian species, Torreya nucifera, has long been planted horticulturally in the northeastern USA with great success, as it is native to JAPAN. John writes,

"Years ago I planted a California torreya. It survived many cold winters, but it was even more stunted than the Asian species. I never figured out why it wouldn't grow well here."
As with several other Torreya Guardians, John is a conifer enthusiast who enjoys experimenting with exotic genera. He reports that Chinese swamp cypress (Glyptostrobus pensilis) does well, if watered during a drought. Other Asian experiments include: Cryptomeria, temple juniper, dawn redwood, Japanese umbrella pines, many ginkgo cultivars, and many types of Japanese maples. And for the South American Monkey puzzle, he reports:
"Though I keep trying, I can't get them to live past 5 years. It's really quite disappointing, as I believe it's spring that kills them."
Similar to our WISCONSIN torreya grower (Mike Heim), John also experiments with species native to the southeastern USA: big-leaf magnolia, fringe tree, pond cypress, and bald cypress.


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