Firs are an alpine conifer. Prolonged heat and humidity will do them in. Hard to impossible to grow south of zone 5. Yes there are some exceptions but I won't go there.
My advice is to forget it.

Dave

Well, thanks for the response. I feared that would be the answer. Is this the consensus on the board I wonder?

I found an article written by a professor at the vocational school in college station, Texas. It said that abies concolor will grow in cooler parts of zone 7 in Texas. Not my zone, but definitely not zone 5.

I'm not trying to be the belligerent contrarian, but Ive seen phots of healthy dwarf alberta spruce trees growing in Florida Zone 9.

It's probably the warm nights and humidity. The champion tree for Washington grows here locally where the average high temperature in late July is in the 90's, but then the humidity is very low and the nights cool down to high 50s and low 60s.

Have you considered the blue China Fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata)? Or is that what you mean by Japanese Fir?

Pasadena is right. Firs need low humidity and a chance to cool down at night. If they don't have this they usually last 1-2 years. My last one expired this summer after trying several different micro climate locations to grow them in. Again high humidity and nights in the 80's was something they could not adjust to.

Dave

Not a true fir, but very similar (and closely related), is Keteleeria davidiana. That will do well in Texas conditions.

No dwarf cultivars, though. However, if you got a kilogram of seed and sow them all, there's a good chance of finding a new dwarf, and you could eventually make a fortune propagating it for sale to other fir-starved southerners. But first get your kg of Keteleeria seeds . . .

Resin

I've seen a Colorado Blue Spruce growing in Ft. Worth (Z-7).
The tree has afternoon shade and is doing ok, but growth is very slow and color just so-so. Owner stated they wouldn't do it again.
I've seen several deodar cedar that looked nice, but no fir trees.

I've been growing an Abies pinsapo in a container for 2 years now. It seems to be doing fine. It gets regular water and remains in shade or dappled shade. I really would like to know what rootstock it has been grafted onto. I bought it from a private collector via ebay.

You could try an African podocarpus. I bought a 5 gallon at Red Barn in Austin last fall and it has done remarkably well.

Spruceman, I feel your pain. The Meadows Farm guy also told me that firs don't do well here -- close to truth than spruces, but still not entirely correct. Even the A. balsamea at the National Arb is in beautiful shape -- it's one of their lushest, best-looking firs. I've got a bunch in containers on my patio. I've resorted to mail ordering.

Spruceman. Remember in my first post to this thread I said there are some exceptions. There are and I can name several even in KC just as you have in other parts of the country. In the midwest the climate is not conducive to grow Abies here. In some Zone 6 areas where heat and humidity aren't so opressive I am sure that in certain micro climate areas Abies will do just fine. My experiance with Abies is to just forget it south of zone 5 unless you want to take a hit in the pocket book. I woulden't even think twice about trying to grow it especially if I lived in Texas. I think I gave tcharles26 good advice.

Dave

There are too many exceptions to Firs to say that they cannot grow there. Firs and Spruces are my 2 favorite conifers and after alot of research and growing I've determined that Abies Firma isn't the only reliably heat tolerant fir. Here's a list of firs that would be worth trying. Abies Cephalonica, Abies Chinensis, Abies Cilicica, Abies Durangensis, Abies Firma, Abies Guatemalensis, Abies Hickeli, Abies Nebrodensis, Abies Numidica, Abies Pindrow, Abies Pinsapo var. Marocana, Abies Recurvata, and Abies Vejarii. I have grown five of those here in the Atlanta area so I think you stand a better chance of being able to grow one than most people will tell you. Also you can buy some Abies Firma seedlings for $0.85 a piece and then if you find a fir that you really like you can buy it and grow it for a few months before it dies and then graft a few branches to the Japanese Fir seedlings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Treehaven Nursery

"Abies Chinensis"

No such thing! Methinks you mean Abies chensiensis?

PS species names also take lower case

Resin

Anyone planted the China Fir before and have had at least 5 yrs of tree growth? I am looking for a fast growing tree as a privacy barrier. Planting in sandy loam in Colorado County Tx...Have had 20 degree to 108 degree days. The rains can be feast or famine.

Thank you for your feedback - regards, tstex

Here's a quick tidbit on the tree:

"Growing in Zones 7 through 9, the China fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata) is an evergreen tree that produces deep-green needles and can grow up to 70 feet tall. This hardy evergreen tolerates drought conditions and has few to no pest problems. However, it grows best when planted in areas with moist but well-drained soil"

Texas is a neat state in the sense that it's the only one that bridges eastern & western geographies and climates. In spite of the name of your county, it looks like you're more eastern than western. Anyhow the problem in (most of) Texas is going to be that Cunninghamia comes from monsoon-soaked southern China and would find droughty periods in TX, like the one you've recently come out of, to be intolerable. I'm sure there are some nice ones though mostly north & east of Houston but even there I suspect they are in watered garden settings or otherwise protected from dryness.
You could still try them, but you've been warned. Even here in coastal Maryland I put mine near a small rill so that it would have less of a chance of suffering dry soil in summer.

I wonder what tcharles26 planted. This is a very old thread.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Well of all of you guys that say to forget firs you are wrong! Abies firma doe very well in the Houston area. It needs water, but heat is no problem. Once the tree is established water needs are rarely a problem. The only reason it is not seen more in Houston is nursery availibility and people who have "fir-blindness". All firs are not cold loving alpine plants. Most are it is true, but give me a break people. If more people would give Abies firma and Araucaria augustifolia a try Houston's yards and gardens would be much more interesting.

"all of you guys that say to forget firs you are wrong!"

I never said Abies firma wouldn't grow in Texas! I just said Cunninghamia might not like droughts in TX, when they occur. Glad Abies firma is doing well for you. A picture is always nice.

"If more people would give Abies firma and Araucaria augustifolia a try
Houston's yards and gardens would be much more interesting."

That's true, or any number of plants they could grow but don't.

This 8 yr old tree is at Peckerwood Gardens in the Houston metro. It is not irrigated/ watered., It does need to be started in shade (at least for the afternoons) however.

Interesting. Looks quite healthy overall, though I wonder if the somewhat wonky habit is because the candles are getting hit by late freezes? Does Houston even have that problem? Obviously winters there are normally very warm...warmer than all but the southerly habit of this species. That could "confuse" it into growing too early, perhaps? Various references mention this as a problem for the species in the USA...of course our springs our much more capricious than Japan's. And, again, going back to what I've noted before about collection in foreign countries, it's doubtful the original seed stock of most western Abies firma came from say, the hills of Okinawa, assuming it grows there. More likely the hills convenient to an outer Tokyo metro stop!

edit: they do occur on Yakushima, which is pretty darn wet and subtropical! And mild in winter, though still not as warm and sunny as Houston is in winter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakushima

This part of Houston occasionally has freezes, the problem is that extended warm period followed by such a freeze are probably the culprit you speak of. I have seen at 10 other younger A firma and only the 4 trees that I know of in the northern part of the metro have the "wonky " issue.

Yep, that's what happens. A problem throughout the south apparently from TX over to NC down to FL. High winter averages, springs that warm up quickly, but the chance of late freezes. I've never had a problem with my 2 Abies firma - now up around 12-15' tall, but the even earlier sprouting Abies pindrow had the problem this spring. It actually hadn't sprouted per se, the bud was just swollen and starting to expand. But a light freeze of 30F killed it. It didn't set it back too much, I think some of the other buds were still closed. It was just the terminal one. The still tight buds of Abies firma were fine.

An own-root A. pindrow would be another one to try in the deep South, no harm if it's an inexpensive plant and if root rot is going to kill it, it will die in the first few years. By far the most subtropical looking fir.

David, yes, my Abies holophylla got hit by a mid-May frost this yr, killing the expanding shoots & hasn't grown much at all. Curiously, Abies concolor 20 ft away didn't have damage.

"Curiously, Abies concolor 20 ft away didn't have damage."

beng I think, generally, the Asian flora starts growing sooner in spring, because they don't have our capriciously changeable weather. If you think about it, unlike the flora of other places, we don't really have many early spring blooming shrubs that are native. Rhododendron maximum, for example, is quite late compared to most of the world's temperate elepidote rhododendron species.