Nice tree, we have an extensive thread on this one but spelled differently.
Autumn is starting for us I guess just the opposite for you?

Here is a link that might be useful: Wollemi Pine Thread

Whoops. Sorry for the dyslexic fingers. Yes it should be Wollemi.
Posted to that thread a couple of months back with a picture taken in April 2013. This photo was taken yesterday. All the posters were from USA and I was hoping some of the global readers might have some additional information.
As far as climate is concerned, I am located in western Sydney where I regularly record temps of -8C (17F) for a few days in winter and highs of 40C (104F) in summer. Not knowing their exact location, but knowing the general area, they could experience both lower summer and winter temps with the possibility of snow some years being at an elevation of about 2000'. Being in a deep, steep walled canyon, though, they may well have a very different micro climate. The geology of the area is sandstone, so they would be growing in quite low nutrient sandy soil, unlike the alluvial clays (or should I say natural concrete) plus lots of added organics, that I have.
Sad to read that they haven't done too well in the States. I am not suprised, though, Their almost uniform genetic profile and their isolation must leave them at risk to a host of potentially lethal fungal diseases and other pathogens.

Fof

The Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam planted a Wollemi Pine in 2005. The plant was killed by severe frost in the winter of 2012 (although it was wrapped with straw mats). I believe temperatures dropped to -10 C. to -15 C. for a few days.
A new Wollemi Pine was planted in 2013.

The Hortus Botanicus in Leiden has its Wollemi Pines in tubs which are brought inside in the winter.

This post was edited by GardenPrince on Sun, Oct 26, 14 at 17:53

Well, if you have frosts that low in "western Sydney", you're definitely in a cold pocket but in any case those are probably radiational freezes and not advective ones, so not as severe as what is usually experienced in a continental or cooler maritime climate, like the low countries. After all, it doesn't happen very often but the Dutch can sometimes hold a massive ice staking competition across their canals...NOT something that can happen anywhere in the inhabited antipodes.
And, yes 104F sounds warm, but those AU heatwaves are again, very dry events and as such do not fuel growth of ravenous root rot organisms, as happens in the southeastern USA, where dewpoints stay well above 65F/18C for months at a time and single rainfall events of 6cm+ are not uncommon in summer. Hence, the reason Wollemis are not growing well even in the parts of the south where the winters are mild enough for them. A poster here at gardenweb has grafted one onto Agathis, permitting it to be grown in north Florida.
(A final reason they could be hard to grow, and this relates to an argument I had about today about monkey puzzles in the DC area, is much of AU to my knowledge has highly nutrient depleted, saliceous soils with relatively open structure. Contrast with the dense, rich mafic or felsic clays of the US SE. This helps foster the root rot organisms. As for the argument: a noted horticulturalist was arguing with me that "he sees Monkey Puzzles all over Silver Spring" so they must not be hard to grow. Well, I never knew this but the reason it was called Silver Spring is because there was once a spring, and it had little flecks of silver in the water. Those are bit of mica schist. In digging some plants out of his garden, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was literally like digging the plants out of vermiculite. So, this might help mitigate the rather obvious (to people not living in Silver Spring!) problem of them having root rot and decline in the eastern US. I've tried a couple in my day, and I've seen with my own eyes, a large one in Columbia Maryland die at the end of a particularly wet summer. So, I stand by my assertion that the vast majority of them planted on the US east coast died of either heat & wetness south of DC, or cold much north of it. But if you're in Silver Spring, by all means, plant one! I seem to recall becoming aware recently that the one at Rehobeth Beach has vanished. I'm pretty sure it died (but could be wrong), so sandy soil is not an elixir of survival, either. Maybe the mica schists of Silver Spring have just the right mineral mix to keep them happy in a non-optimal climate. And, as I've pointed out before...sandy soil doesn't mean that the coastal gardens of the SE US are filled with Rothschild rhododendrons from England, or monkey puzzles trees! [or Wollemis for that matter] None have been documented south of Norfolk Botanic Garden: feel free to correct me if I'm wrong...)

Actually, the (only) natural habitat for the Wollemi in Oz is under threat from Phytophthora, and drastic steps are now being taken to save them...

Here is a link that might be useful: Survival of a Species

Beautiful, beautiful! The Grevilleas, too.

Rareness could be due to root rot susceptibility, with water molds having been tracked into the valley since discovery. Franklinia also has a water mold vulnerability which may have been involved in its having nearly died out at the time of discovery.

Thanks Shax. Very timely. (The article is from last month)

I think they've always been aware of this because IIRC the first popular articles in 94 mentioned the need to keep the location secret because of the threat of pathogens. But I guess it was hard to keep it _that_ secret. And, pro-SOD, people might not have realized how virulent water molds could be for larger plants. They were more seen as a pest of greenhouse and food crops.

Oh, but, as to your specific point of response. Well, my understanding is they even have a Wollemia planted in Brisbane. So, even though that's fairly hot it hasn't died of root rot. Either they are treating it, or the weathered granitic soils mean the water molds are not as virulent as they would be in parts of the US SE. Similarly standard Cordylines grow all the way down to Fukuoka in Japan, where presumably the volcanic soils keep them from rotting as they would in the South.

A site has to become inoculated before infestation and visible damage occurs. Susceptible trees and shrubs can and often do grow for a long time before being lost.

Yes but you'd expect a botanical garden in Sydney or Brisbane to have a far more cosmopolitan population of plant pathogens than the isolated Wollemi valley. And somehow they are still exhibiting the species in those areas. (not to mention all the ones in private gardens like our OP's)

bboy and David...It's been correctly surmised since 1994 (when the grove was discovered) that Wollemi is defenceless and likely susceptible to pathogens. The original site is only accessible by abseiling into a deep ravine, a unique micro climate in an extremely remote area. It's not surprising that few, if any people had previously visited there.

Potential theft/vandalism was also a legitimate reason for keeping the location secret. Sadly, these trees were totally unprepared for the 20th/21st century.

I really hope this new initiative preserves these unique trees, because I've heard of very few people successfully growing Wollemi out of their habitat for any length of time. (I admit to failing several times myself, and my place in Oz is less than an hour from their home.)

thefof - Kew's oldest outdoors Wollemi has now reached 9 years. It is 3.1 m tall and has apparently survived temperatures of -10c. They are quite freely available here now but I don't know how many survive in private gardens.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kew's Wollemis

"I really hope this new initiative preserves these unique trees, because I've heard of very few people successfully growing Wollemi out of their habitat for any length of time."

Yeah, as floral said, this wasn't my impression at all. I'm pretty sure they are growing already in the Bay Area - I'm almost sure I saw a fairly big one at one of those celebrated zn 10 gardens - and all along the south and west coasts of the British Isles. OTOH, the assumption that mild summers means water molds can't be virulent is abruptly disproven by the situation with Larix kaempferi in the UK, which are being killed on a massive scale by a new (to NW Europe) species of Phytophthora. In the case of those, I suspect that like the Wollemi, they had inbreeding depression.

@shaxhome - thanks for that link. I was totally unaware of this development. As david correctly recalled, right from the beginning, it was made very public that the location had to remain a secret, because of the threat of pathogens. This did not prevent some canyoners and/or bush walkers who discovered the location either by acccident or by deliberately searching it out, from publishing the location on the web. From what I have been able to discover, yes it is a bit remote, but not so remote that you cannot walk in and out again within a long day. You're not actually correct, when you say it is only accessible by abseiling into the canyon. This is how John Noble entered the canyon when he discovered them, but they are also accessible by bush bashing through the canyons.
@david - yes our frosts are radiational freezes and it is far from being a 'pocket'. I live in the middle of the Cumberland Plain :-). The east coast of Oz generally has its highest rainfall during the summer and autumn. We get quite 'warm' conditions during this time, with mean daily rainfalls for Oct to April of between about 60mm and100mm, with the rain falling as very heavy falls 2-4 days a month. When it rains, it RAINS!!!!! That is why I built a mound a couple of years in advance, prior to planting the Wollemi.
Yes the soils here do tend to be fairly shallow, very leached and low in humous as the predominant organic recyclers are termites and fire. Apart from Tasmania we have very few deciduous trees like in USA and UK, when the fallen leaves are recycled by fungi and bacteria. It is a very variable country. Don't forget we are actually larger than the USA, if you exclude Alaska and Hawaii.

One of the things I have suspected for a while, is that the lack of resistance to Phytophthora and other pathogens is not due to inbreeding but rather to their never having encountered them. From the genetic information I have come across it would seem that out of the 3 known stands, 2 are genetically identical with only slight variations differentiating the third.
I wonder if we are even more fortunate than we realise. These trees are able to reproduce by coppicing and by "cuttings". Although seeds were found few, if any, saplings were. The seeds have since been shown to be viable so the lack of saplings must have a light/moisture/environmental cause.
My suspicion is that we have just 2 individuals which have managed to keep the germ line going, for millions of years, through coppicing, with part of one being transported, probably by floods at some point in time, which managed to establish a second stand. Wouldn't that be a fantastic situation if it turned out to be the case, if we could ever prove it.

Thanks for the additional info thefof. Whether it's through inbreeded depression or having only 2 clones in your population, the net effect is similar, lack of genetic heterozygosity. In higher animals at least, the immune system is one of the first things to go, as anyone trying to save the cheetahs can attest to. Of course we don't characterize plants as having immune systems per se, but they obviously have some means to fight off organisms they've been in a millions-of-year evolutionary battle with. I suppose it's a bit of a form follow function question; plants over a wider area have to have resistance to a wider range of pathogens.

Thanks, Gardenprince and floral for the feedback. Beaut link to Kew. Will definately be revisiting there soon, when I'm next back in the UK.

Thanks, Gardenprince and floral for the feedback. Beaut link to Kew. Will definately be revisiting there soon, when I'm next back in the UK.