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The discovery of Wollemia nobilis caused a great deal of fuss around the globe, and slowly plants became available
to gardeners. I tried to buy one when they were first released, but there were waiting lists and all the rest of the publicity
generating nonsense that I got rather jaded, and then ended up with this one almost by accident. It's long term future in the UK is still uncertain, but it has prospered in the first few years. I was a little worried when I planted it out - it is rather exposed at the top of the garden, but it doesn't seem to have been damaged by wind.... ...or cold! It grows with pleasing rapidity. When planted it reached up to the point where my own two trunks join to become one (that was put with uncharacteristic delicacy). Now it is a tousled toupe of leaves, mocking my baldness from the same height. It was three feet (2011), now it is six. The first plants that I saw were at Kew and their website says: "The extraordinary wollemi pine dates back to the time of the dinosaurs. This living fossil was thought to be extinct for two million years until a small population was discovered in the Blue Mountains of Australia in 1994. Today, the species is critically endangered and restricted to fewer than 100 trees in Wollemi National Park, Australia." Trees and Shrubs online says: "Wollemia is proving to be much hardier than expected, perhaps partly due to the fact that it undergoes proper winter dormancy, with the apical bud protected under a resinous secretion often referred to as the 'polar cap'." |
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| 3rd February 2009 | ||
