Wind resistant evergreen trees???

My friend has property in the Point Arena area of California. There is almost always alot of wind. I have heard that the Norfolk Island Pine is a good candidate, does anyone know of any others?

Your help is greatly appreciated:-)

"California Native Plants for the Garden" suggests Pinus contorta ssp. contorta, Pinus radiata, and Pinus torreyana as trees for seashore conditions (they would hold up to both wind and salt spray). If your friend lives in a windy area but not right on the coast, several that it lists as being good for windbreaks are Calocedrus decurrens, Cupressus forbesii, Lyonothamnus floribundus, Thuja plicata, and Umbellularia californica (although I would stay away from this last one if Pt. Arena is an area where Sudden Oak Death is a problem since it can be a carrier for the fungus). There are also some plants that can be either large shrubs or small trees such as some species of Arctostaphylos, Heteromeles arbutifolia, Garrya elliptica, and several Rhamnus species which would also do well under windy and/or salt spray conditions.

Those are just the California natives--I'm sure there a bunch of non-natives that would do fine too.

I think the best are some of the natives to that area or near that area. Giant Sequoia, Redwood, Monterey Cypress. With our recent severe wind storms I am now able to say the trees that faired the best in full exposure were (don't laugh) the palms (Trachycarpus fortunei & wagnerianus). I certainly didn't expect this but they came through the cold snap, the super-heavy snow and then our almost hurricane winds looking like it was a slightly slow day. There's a section in the Western Garden Book p. 135 "Plants for Windy Areas" which you might want to take a look at. Just north of Point Arena in Crescent City I saw a very nice Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus asplenifolius) at the Chevron which was across the street from the beach. It looked good and considering its from Catalina Island it would be subject to seasonal windstorms. The book lists Eucalyptus but I've found they can suffer "blow-down" here if they are not planted in rocky soil. They list some good ones like Arbutus unedo, Ceanothus, Thuja and even though our Pseudotsuga menziesii suffered some limb breakage, they came through. Pseudotsuga macrocarpa (Bigcone Douglas Fir) might be something to try. You might want to also post this question in the Pacific Northwest Forum as many of us have fresh comments on what takes coast wind conditions.

Also add Bishop Pine (Pinus muricata) and Mendocino Cypress (Cupressus pigmaea), both local natives in the Point Arena area.

I'd suspect you are too far north for Norfolk Island Pine to be fully hardy. The related Monkey-puzzle (Araucaria araucana) would succeed there, and is very storm-resistant.

Resin

My suggestion would be for your friend to seriously consider the natives for this particular application as listed by ecrane and Resin. They've already been able to stand the test of time and survived quite nicely. Money doesn't grow on trees these days and trees are expensive.

Thanks everyone for your help. He did plant a thousand trees already, Cypress, Bishop Pine, and Wax Myrtle. We were just hoping for more variety the better:-)

We tried Redwoods and Firs, but the poor things just could not make it, the existing firs on the property are bent at a 45 degree angle!!!

Again, thanks for all of your suggestions and I will keep you posted!!!:-)

You may want to add Pinus contorta var. contorta as I've seen it in some tough, constant strong wind sites on the west side of Vancouver Island.