awesome score! Dinosaur food. You have one of the holy grails of conifering. Best of luck with it.

~Dave

Pot is way too small, be sure to pull roots open when planting. The biggest one I have seen in my area is falling over now - after multiple years in place - its main roots coiled like wires and therefore unable to hold the top erect.

I pulled it out- no coiling roots yet but it needs to be re-potted. I will definetely loosen the roots. Still can't believe it. The SO just looked at me as I gazed at it- he just doesn't get it.

Question- do I need to lime it?

I have two here on lime free soil doing well fantastic
plant.

Huge score! Glad your mission went well, I remember the story.

Dax

Need for lime should depend on what your soil is like. Maybe it is suitable already, might need to be sampled and tested to find out.

Soil is probably acidic where the one I referred to is, it often is here. But the tree does not have the best foliage color. No idea if it would look better with lime or if it just needs some nitrogen, a common deficiency in my area.

ok.. i dont get it either..

whats the big deal [besides of course.. ITS A NEW CONIFER!!!]

is this one of those dinosaur conifers.. or something???

just because .. as potted.. you dont see any circling foots ...

doesnt mean.. 1 or two pottings ago.. they didnt circle ...

ken

Congrats on your new acquisition. Certainly a beautiful conifer that few have. Got one of my own last week that I am going to plant soon. Just hope I can keep it happy and alive.

I hope I can keep it happy too. It will have to live in a bigger pot until we move next year. It will not touch the soil here- heavy and slow draining. Killer for sure. The lime question is that they say it grows on limestone rocks- I will be moving to an acid pine soil type and wondered if lime is needed.
ken_adrian, don't know exactly what you mean. The roots actually where circling around the top when I took another look. I loosened them well before re-potting. Most of the roots were in the TOP rather than the bottom- I kinda found that strange. If they circled several pottings ago they will have to stay that way and grow new roots where I loosened them. Not going to tear up the entire rootball to check either! Please be nice- I'm excited about this! I already have a Torreya taxifolia and a Taxus floridana and now am looking for a reasonable Wollemia to complete my rare and wonderful corner! I know where to get 4ft one for 225 but that is more than the Cathaya. I'll keep looking- bound to be someone with a smaller cheaper one.

Actually you should tear up the entire root-ball or risk having it fail later. If there is a tight turnip of deformed roots near the base of the stem, that can't be broken apart then future outlook not to good.

Chinese rhododendrons growing on limestone live in acidic debris on top of the rock, with the movement of water through this material and into the rock apparently keeping the plants from having a problem. Maybe the conifer also lives in acidic material above the limestone base as well.

I do know several are being given lime applications at a college in coastal northern California because it is thought these treatments are beneficial to them there.