Does anyone grow any nothofagus trees on the BC coast? Can they even survive here? I have been planning an exotic south American garden, with monkey puzzles, gunnera, etc etc. I would love to get my hands on some of the other trees from the southern cone. Drimys Winteri is another one that I would love to get my hands on.
UBCBG has Nothofagus artarctica growing in the garden. See Visiting Garden in June(Alpine garden) and We don't see these plants on streets and in parks
I also just saw a photo posted of Nothofagus dombeyi from VanDusen Botanical Garden. Nothofagus dombeyi-03
Most if not all of the S American Nothofagus should do well for you; the ones that are least likely to succeed are N. alessandri and N. glauca (they are probably also unavailable, too). The others should all do well - give them plenty of space, as some can reach 30 m tall in 40 years.
There is a small Drimys winteri at the front entrance of the Garden--planted under the chitalpa. I had to go out just now to see how it was handling these sub-zero temperatures. It looks OK so far, but we'll see how it fairs next season.
This is a plant that I have always wanted to get my hands on. I have heard they don't do well with cold outflow air on the mainland, but the location I plan to plant is on the northwest coast of the island where it will be much more oceanic than the lower mainland. I managed to grow eucalyptus globulus outdoors for 3 seasons until they were killed in an unusual 2 foot dump of snow.