Ok I admit it. When I was a kid I was a stamp collector.
But I gave up scouring through the Australia Post philatelic magazine about the same time I stopped using my Malvern Star ten speed racer and let my VFL junior supporters’ membership lapse.
What I am saying is that I wasn’t the coolest teenager, which was a prelude to a few daggy tendencies in adulthood.
All of this is a long way of saying that I was excited (read, couldn’t wait) to get my own, real Wollemi Pine.
Pictures and Story by James Woodford I had a little bit more of an excuse to drool over them than most people as they have been a pretty big part of my life for almost exactly 15 years.
I was nerdy enough to actually write a whole book about Wollemi Pines and spend a good part of my journalistic career, covering the ins and outs of these incredibly strange and interesting plants (maybe I should take up stamp collecting again?).
Anyway a couple of years ago I was given a Wollemi Pine and decided I wanted it in pride of place on my front lawn. This was no mean ambition given I am married to a provenance stock purist called Prue. In other words if something isn’t a native to our area then Prue will not allow it outside of a small ornamental native garden bed at the rear of our house.
Still, like a planted flag denoting the seizing of territory I held my ground and won the argument. I dug a deep hole, watered it in and then did what my guide sheet advised, which was not to smother it with love.
I assured Prue that within no time at all it would be the pride of our garden – a dinosaur tree on the south coast.
She of little faith, though, constantly threatened to dig it up and move it somewhere less prominent.
“I mean look at it,” she would say heartlessly, even within earshot of the venerable but seemingly endlessly baby-sized ‘tree’.
But deep down there was a place I knew she was right: for two years my Wollemi Pine has sat there and done…well, nothing. It has been such an underperformer that my wife no longer sees it as a threat to world biodiversity and has even taken to paying it some attention.
Mind you my Wollemi Pine has more going against it than the fact it is genetically challenged and a “time traveller from the Age of the Dinosaurs”. Our resident male kangaroo is in conspiracy with Prue and every time a new branch appears he wantonly tears it off and leaves it on the ground as if to say: “What the hell is wrong with a good gum tree?”
The other night Prue came into the lounge room from her office. She had been researching the science (chuckle, chuckle) of planting her seeds based on the lunar cycle. Before I could mock her she king hit me. “You know there’s all these web forums talking about what a dud Wollemi Pines are?”
I was stunned into silence, then managed to ask a shaky question. “Really? People are actually unhappy with their Wollemi Pines?”
And sure enough I found criticisms from a range of people; from ancient tree enthusiasts, punter gardeners right through to that gnome of the Australian nursery industry, Don Burke. There were comments like this cruel blow on aussieorganicgardening.com:
“One could reasonably think that a species of tree that has survived for 200 million years, according to the accompanying care guide, would be fairly hardy, but this is not the case. These trees cannot handle heavy rainfall, drought, or full sun. They are easily stressed, and prone to phytophthora root rot, as well several other soil diseases.”
The next morning when I went outside and looked at my tree, and into my soul, I finally decided, sure enough it was true. My little Wollemi Pine is, like nearly everything I do in the garden, a source of mirth for other people.
But then I noticed that living on the top floor of my Wollemi Pine – a foot and half off the ground – was a little spider.
That tree may well be a dog but he is now home to other creatures. He is not just a botanical legend, a living fossil or a point of marital pride. He is now habitat and therefore even shaggy, ugly, stunted and tortured by marsupials he will be removed only over my dead body.
This piece was first published in the Sydney Morning Herald 14/11/09
Disappointing, isn’t it! I gave a Wollemi to my Dad for Father’s Day in 2006, and we were all very excited. Mum was worried it would fill the entire yard. Well, despite Nowra’s fertile flood plain, it died in August this year. Which makes me worry about ours, since it was planted in memory of our stillborn daughter. Still, I’d choose them again, just for the romance of the story (and yes, I do have your book, and have nejoyed it several times.)
Ours, which commemorates Val Plumwood, thrives on complete and utter neglect in the back of a tangled mess of Sydney introduced species like camelia, privet, camphor laurel and other woody weeds. It is undeterred by chooks, rabbits or possums.
live at laurieton mid nth coast nsw purchased the pine when released to the public got to choose out of i think about 30 plants the thing is thriving .I did ask the nursery people about it been onthe coast they didnt know themselves.Have kept it potted recently transferred to a bigger pot the biggest icould get have diffuctly moving it.Having bushwalked in the blue mountains when i was younger (a lot yonger!) and that region i reasoned to keep its soil and amount of sun etc similar semi shade sandy soil well drained regular watering no fertiliser lives in amongst tree ferns and palms will send apic.There is indeed some weird looking specimens available now commen sense tells you they are not going to do much.
Dear Mr Woodford ,
Has anyone spoken of the need to inoculate the roots with mycorrhizal fungi symbionts ?
It would be a very unusual tree indeed if it doesn’t need fungi on the roots to act as nutrient scavengers and protection against pathogenic fungi.
Presumably the trees were propagated from cuttings in sterile media . Unless some soil from the parents was mixed in the media the cuttings will be nutrient starved right from the start .
Ideal would be a custom inoculant isolated from the parent trees . Failing that the expert in mycorrhizal inoculants is Mycorrhizal Applications at http://www.mai-australia.com.au
Regards
Peter Marshall
Mine’s 2.23 metres James, about four year old and going great guns in the back yard up here at Katoomba.
The soil is sandy loam but I dug a deep hole in the back lawn and filled it with organic potting mix and placed a shade cloth around it to emulate forest protection from the full sun and from the strong gusty winds we get up here. I soak it about once a week through summer.
The glossly literature that came with it plugs it as a ‘living fossil’ and it’s starting to take on that wild scraggly look – wilder the better!
Dear Editor,
Me thinks thou dost protest too much, James. ( “From little things big things grow – if you can wait 200 million years” : James Woodford SMH Opinion Nov 14th, 2009.)
You are surely an undercover Wollemi Pine agent hoping your article deriding these amazing trees actually stirs up a fan club?
You are supposedly impatient with your specimen, and inspired by anti-Wollemi websites including Don Bourke’s. Remember, he only wanted a “home amongst the gum trees, with lots of plum trees” ….. no 200 million year old pines.
Mine was a gift from my wise old aunt on my 50th birthday; I hope to be still enjoying it on my 100th.. It gives me great pleasure every day. Now at the height of Spring, it is erupting with luminous growth. The waxy polar caps have gone, and new shoots explode like fern coils. Branches hug together in the mist, and droop in the heat. And yes, we have bubbly bark! Just come and visit us in Bundanoon James, and we will show you a marvel of nature. Or read a good book about them, written by one – J. Woodford*. Long live the Wollemi! And long live Woodford so he has time to celebrate the bubbles on his bark.
Maryanne Williams
Bundanoon
*Highly recommended – “The Wollemi Pine” by James Woodford, Text Publishing Company.
34 Garland Rd,
Bundanoon NSW 2578
Ph 48836686 h
48681717 w phone numbers not for publication.
(189 words excluding those in italic, referring to the article in News Review on Sat 14th Nov. )
hiya James. Mine is thriving in a large earthenware pot on the front verandah (lower Blue Mountains), adding about 33% of its height each spring. I’ll need to repot it Again next August or plant it in a sheltered corner of the garden.
Seems pretty damn hardy to me. I’ve even propagated two baby pines from leaves that were dislodged by some clumsy removalists from St Vinnies.
Try that next time the roos mutilate your tree. Just bung it in a pot of very free-draining organic potting mix for natives, keep it moist, in the shade, and celebrate appropriately if you find some new growth sprouting next spring. As long as the leaf remains green, there’s hope!
Hey James, I think there is a stamp with a Wollemi Pine on it if all else fails.
Thriving on total neglect. We were given one about 15cm a couple of years ago, put it in a small pot, sat it in a protected spot in the rockery, and apart from occasionally watering, ignored it. It’s now about a metre or so, and the roots have gone through the pot into the very indifferent soil beneath. The problem is, it’s growing about 20cm from the back fence, and a couple of metres from the house – not an ideal spot for a Wollemi! In fact, our very small garden is not an ideal spot for a Wollemi. However we would like it to go to a good home. If you, or any of your readers would like to try moving it, I’m happy to re-pot it and give it a chance.
I’ll go with neglect, it managed to survive 200M years in a small valley slightly to my north. Waratahs do best when planted on a brick/stone, most Oz flora spurns care – having had little of who knows how many millenia – and left alone will thrive.
Dear James, Santa gave me 3 for Christmas ’07. They have doubled in size due to the castings and ‘juice’ from my worm farm. With the rain over the past 2 weeks all 3 WP’s ‘bulbed and bubbled’ and the shot up about 5cm. They are also on the eastern side of the house and so receive full sunlight until noon.
Regards,
Bruce
James, am a big fan of you- since Dog Fence and Wollemi book, you are a writer of uncommon ability. This is to say that MY Wollemi pine is doing great, and in spite of one bird? attack when I thought it was ok to remove the wire surround. In paddock in Kurrajong, no water but that from heaven and nothing else. It feels like a great gift from YOU, or else we would have none. Why not try again? You of all people should be able to enjoy it!
we transplanted ours to the yard a year ago and it loved it – grew and grew especially with a bit of fertiliser. However just now it has started to droop. the lower branches are turning brown and dropping off, and it looks not long for this world. Help!!
Hey James! Loved your book, and have dog-eared it with the rereading. I am a nurseryman in Southern California, and have ten “Wollies”, all potted and growing strongly. When I got my first one, I followed the directions, and it sulked and did not do much. After looking at the photos in the book again, and also pics of the wild trees’ canyon from Wildlight, (Jaime Plaza), I followed my gut instincts and began watering and feeding them like a California redwood. Stand back!-the buggers exploded with growth and some are over a metre tall in a year and a half from a 30 CM start. I recall thinking just how that canyon with it’s ferns and vines and other trees resembled the ferny gullies of the redwood coast of northern California. In an email exchange, Cathy Offord seconded that sensibility and my instinct. My suggestion; mulch well, feed and water regularly, and stand back. And, by the way, next to the Wollemias on my bench, is a nice potted Bunya pine nicknamed “Prue”! These are really hard to find here in the USA. Best of luck with your little runt!