Wollemi Pine Seeds - Looking to buy

So rare is this tree in the wild it is virtually the equivalent of finding a dinosaur walking round in some hidden valley.

Wollemia nobilis..the story of this recently discovered conifer(1994) is wonderful.
Found by ranger Mr Noble the location is kept a secret to this day.
A nursery in Australia has propagated every tree and shipped them round the world....they have Plant breeders rights for it.From 2005/6 it was possible to buy one in UK.
Yes, the price is very steep but the profit goes back to protecting/saving these trees...more below

Trees have both male and female reproductive bit...but maybe you need to have cross pollination to get viable seeds...I have no idea.

Good luck with creating your new wood.
More below....
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Quote Westonbirt.....
"It was decided that the best way to keep this extremely rare and unique tree safe for the future, was by breeding them on a large scale and to spread the species in botanical gardens everywhere around the world. In 2005 the first propagated small specimens were sold by auction house Sotheby's for hunderdthousands of dollars. In the royal botanical gardens of Kew the first European specimen was planted, guarded by a steel cage to prevent theft by enthousiast collectors."


WollemiPine.com - Wollemi Pine Watch newsletter Issue 1

Quote from above link....

"The Wollemi Pine is protected by the New South Wales (NSW) Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. It is listed as endangered at a national level under the Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and is on the directory of Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (RoTAP). As of December 2000, the Wollemi National Park (where the Wollemi Pines are located) was added to the World Heritage list as part of The Greater Blue Mountains Area.

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How to Recognise a "Certified" Wollemi Pine

Royalties from the sale of the Wollemi Pine will be invested in the ongoing research and conservation of the Wollemi Pine and other rare and threatened species. It is therefore important to recognise the official "certified" Wollemi Pine symbol and look for it when purchasing a Wollemi Pine in 2005/6. Only by buying a "certified" Wollemi Pine can you be assured that you are assisting to fund conservation efforts to ensure the ongoing survival of the Wollemi Pine.

The symbol (pictured left) was designed to signify the Wollemi Pine coming back from a fossil to a living species. In fact the Wollemi Pine has been dubbed a living fossil as it was thought that it had been extinct for millions of years until the living plants were discovered in 1994. "

 

Hello, I’m also looking for a seed - I am planting a Cretaceous garden in a primary school. Just wondered if anyone is selling any please? TIA

 

Before you even consider going down this route have you considered whether the ground is suitable for a tree that comes from Australia.
I have seen it growing in many gardens but always very sheltered, often shaded.

Would it be more educational to plant things that the children could be encouraged to grow at school and at home..... for UK wildlife?

 

Ah thanks, the children are very keen - we already have a wood, nature garden, veggie patch, flower beds etc., they even won with a garden at RHS Chatsworth pre Covid. The reason I’m specifically after this though is that I have been awarded a Royal Society grant to deliver teaching to address the question ‘ was T rex just a big chicken’ and am creating a Cretaceous garden with gingko, ferns, cypresses, magnolia etc and so a Wollemi would fit marvellously in time and space.

 

I can only think of Ebay, but maybe not the best time of year, as any good fresh seed will be bought up.
Unless you can buy direct from Oz.

 

Aden, and any others although this is almost a year later , I have several different seeds of supposedly exotic trees, from a friend. who bought them from eBay 18 month ago. I have had no luck with majority of germinations
it's an area I've not gone into.

But I did manage to germinate a golden horn tree last year from the one seed I was given.I somehow managed to over winter and it is now getting new leaves I also have some paulownia seed and over wintered a sapling which I'm not sure about yet as it's deciduous


Would you like to try them ?

 

What's a golden horn tree @Purple Streaks .

 

I will find the full name and try to get a photo of mine but how do I get the photos from the ipad on to here?

 

Presumably just hit upload file.
Other than that I dont know as never used an I pad.

 

I know golden horn as xanthoceras sorbifolium and if it's that then it's a lovely tree. They have rowan like foliage, hence the name, plus nice white flowers.

 

That looks to be a really nice smallish tree.

 

The Wollemi Pine will "survive" in the UK, but grow and be happy? NO!
I was living in Sydney when it was discovered, and I knew the "general area" of the Wollemi SF where it was found. I researched it as much as I could. A fascinating plant.
Here is the one I grew.


Any time I go to any gardens or abroritums I always want to see their Wollemi(s), if they have.
I have seen them at Kew, Tresco Abbey on Scilley Isles, Eden Project, Glendurgan Gardens Cornwall among others. To be 150% honest the only ones that looked happy was the one on the Scilley Isles and the one at Glendurgan. The rest were not happy chappies.
Our climate is just not suitable for them, and to grow them in pots is just not practical. The will grow pretty fast under good conditions and can grow to 40m, so they would have to be kept as very potbound almost bonsai trees. Cruelty to a Noble tree!!

 

Hi pete and Thevictorian that is exactly what it is,
was from Chiltern seeds.
It is a Hardy shrub /tree also called Shinyleaf Yellowhorn. The soft foliage is like miniture ferns.
The one outside is from the seed i was given it seems to have survived better than the one left in the greenhouse . This one in greenhouse also another seed from chilterns which I was lucky enough to germinate.
It was the largest of 6 smaller seeds .the smaller seeds are not doing very well. I'm still waiting for germination to happen !!!!

 

They have them [Wollemi pines] in Inverewe Gdns in Wester Ross [the most northern UK garden with them] and this week's episode of Beechgrove showed them in Crarae Gardens [Inverary] in Argyll, where they'd discovered some about 20 years ago and they're doing well. Both in well sheltered sites, for obvious reasons!

 

They seem to grow quite well in parts of England actually. Here are a couple of photos.

The first is from a garden in Lincs. open to the public.




..this one is from a photo I took around 2008.. in a garden in Newmarket, Suffolk, planted in the open. It was supplied to the owner by Alan Titchmarsh, who left it outside his property where it remained unnoticed for several days in a bag before being discovered. I've no idea if the tree is still in this garden as the owner passed away some time ago.