Hi Everyone
I'm just in the process of converting an old barn. Obviously, this means finding a name for it and I wracked my brains for several weeks before the obvious name struck me. So now I am converting an old barn into a house called Wollemi Pines. The only question now is where to plant the trees to ensure they thrive, in the meantime they are looking content in the conservatory at home.
Toc

help please!
my tree has been attacked by a deer - one main 'trunk' eaten all round the bark; the other has had the top broken off leaving 4 inch stump- any ideas on saving my tree?

I am really sorry to hear about your tree. All may not be lost. The trees are known to coppice so I suggest that you prune your Wollemi Pine down to below any damaged material and new growth should emerge. Obviously it goes without saying that you will need to protect it from future attacks.

Here's another "Deer-like" damage problem (q.v.). I bought a second specimen this May (delivery promised by May 31st - as indeed it was) because the one delivered last autumn had been so successful. This new plant was purchased as a gift for the garden of a local museum (specialising in local dinosaurs). This example was obviously smaller and its despatch was geared to the Chelsea Flower Show. It arrived in the usual protective box but though these are ideal for normal (at least semi-) mature foliage, they are not suitable for young fresh - just emerged - foliage. I was therefore greeted - on opening it - with a small collection of bright green "foliage tips" in the box.

Apart from suggesting that young foliage plants should NOT be sent out at all (which would - of course - be commercial suicide), the obvious remedy is to send out plants with young foliage with entire plant encased within a polythene sleeve. These are standard items and commercially available from florists' suppliers.

In the meantime I will note how the shoots recover (if they do) on "my presentation specimen" and will try and defer handing it over officially until later in the season.

However, take this as a clear warning and slightly amend how you send out these young Wollemi Pines BEFORE they have been toughend up ! APH.

I also received one of these brilliant trees this week as promised. Looks fantastic!! Those new, green tips did seem a little curled when I removed the tree from the box, a couple had snapped as they are so lush and new, but now after a couple of days they have perked up and look great!! You would have thought the delivery drivers would read "Fragile - Handle with care", but they don't seem to care at all! Luckily the pot seems to be held really well in this funky box that it was packaged up in.

After over a decade I still feel amazed that 200ft tree, a metre across, an hours drive from a major city and in the heart of a much visited national park can go undiscovered by the world at large until only recently.
When you think that man has been to the moon and back and left his footprints there, it just makes me wonder what else is here on earth thats just waiting to be discovered and what may have been destroyed by mans activities in the rain forests and wild places of mother earth.

The W.P. is like no other tree I've ever seen but if I had to discribe it, I'd say it looks like a cross between a cuninghamia and a coast redwood.

I would like to know more about it's natural environment ie, does it grow close to the waters edge at the bottom of these deep gorge's and what aspect does it face inrelation to the sandstone cliffs ?

"wollamaroo" should look at these photos to answer some of his questions:
http://forums:gardenweb.com/forums/load/conif/msg050828087254.html

CORRECTION to previous message ...
Try http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/conif/msg050828087254.html

Images that I have seen show the trees spread throughout the gorge. The largest tree is estimated to be 1000 years old and has 100 trunks. They are growing in what is essentially leaf litter over sandstone in a deep gorge. Some seedlings have even been found growing out of crevices in the sandstone on the side of the gorge. The Wollemi Pine is a born survivor.