It was a Christmas gift from their great-aunt but when they arrived home my children (then c.9 and 10 years old) handed it immediately to me—a small Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) with the potential to grow to 40m. The ancient pine species had been discovered in 1994 and its exact location kept secret to keep away poachers as there were so few specimens in the wild. The officially propagated plants had just come onto the market. Here was one now in my care.
The advise from the local nursery was ‘keep it in a pot and that will restrict its growth’. So that’s what I did, in a pot on the shady south side of the house (front garden) under a Kentia palm (Howea forsteriana).
The Kentia is a slow growing palm and I always thought the Wollemi would get ahead of it, but no. It tried, bending, bending to get to the light, but no. Frond by frond the Kentia stayed ahead.
In Autumn I began to worry the Wollemi was actually dying. Not far away I dug a shallow hole (it was not possible to go down deep) then lifted the pine out of the pot and plonked it in, packed earth around its mangy root ball. With its radical off-centring bend it needed to be supported. Then water. More water. In its new position it should get more light but still have enough cool shade.
So far it has survived but the summer hasn’t come yet.
