Monkey puzzle (Araucaria araucana)

I've to plant a couple of Monkey Puzzle Trees(Araucaria araucana) in a garden I'm working in. Going by the info and a scratch round the web planting is fairly standard (Dig hole at least 2x rootball, back fill with loads of added compost/leafmould, keep well watered for first 2 years etc.) Anyone have experience with them, how long to establish and any special requirements? Also growth rate in UK and how long before cones might be produced? Aparantly they are dioecious; different trees bear flowers of different sexes.

Any info appreciated

 

trawling the web is frustrating on this one, Frogesque! From personal experience - they grow fast!! But I can't get you data on it. I know you know your stuff well enough not to have to tell you it's not for a tiny garden! It really annoys me to see masses of them for sale in local garden centres, without any indication that they're far too big for normal gardens! And the number I've seen that are far too close to houses and walls! Mind you, same for all conifers. Wish you luck - I've been loking on the web for a while and come up with nothing I didn't know already - and I'm sure you knew it all too. Good luck mate!

 

Thanks for looking nixonf23

I did have a smallish one in a house I bought in Northern Ireland - I hated it and took it out. Chopped the thing up and burnt it on my coal fire. So much resin in it, it went like rocket fuel!

The garden these are going in is large and the owner has been warned about the size. This one's in a park near me and must be 200ft. high. :eek:

 

they take 3-4 years to really establish, but once going they really go!
had 25 on an estate i was in charge of with 600 acres of mixed woodland, and although they were approx 180' they were small by comparison to the wellingtonia's, but great looking trees

 

the places you work at, Rossco - are they privately owned? The only places I know of that are anything like the sort of thing you've posted as photos - they've definitely been display places of some sort! It's good to know there is still a demand for a good head gardener like you - there aren't many jobs going in that field, as a friend of mine was looking for ages, and could only find desk-based jobs, and eventually went back into working for a council. :(

 

Hi Nixon23,
yes all privately owned.
worked on 6 estates during my career.
after being a butcher for a couple of years, then in a professional band for over 2 years, went into horticulture in the early 70's as apprentice.
estate 1 was 1200 acres
estate 2 was 1000 acres
estate 3 was 300 acres
estate 4 was 500 acres
estate 5 only 30 acres
present estate 80 acres
moving shortly back to the large private estate 1500 acres as head gardener/estate manager, that will do me then til I retire, when ever that may be...

 

not much of a pension plan then! :( I know that's a big prob, not to metnion the low salaries typical in horticulture and agriculture - unless you're Alan Titchmarsh, of course!! :D :D

 

You've definitely done better than my friend who's in a similar position to you - he ahs to sort out his own pension, and doesn't get anything like that much - although he's done loads of training, and management courses too. But all this is really OT - sorry!