The wholesalers Buchholz & Buchholz as well San Marcos Growers list them. Two options...call them and find out if they have nurseries in your area or, call the reputable nurseries in your area and find out if they'll order it for you?

Unfortunately, Wollemia is very susceptible to root rot diseases in the SE US which may explain why nobody is selling it anymore. There may be some promise if Wollemia is grafted onto something with a more disease resistant root system. One Gardenweb user was experimenting with Wollemia grafted on Agathis robusta...I don't know what the long term outcome was.

Thank you Smivies, I just emailed both

Smivies is correct. Coming from a climate with summers that are as cool as those in coastal New England, it has widely been reported to fail in summer anywhere south of about Washington, DC. Where it can only survive the milder winters! The only one known for sure to be growing long term, in Florida, has been grafted.

So, only a plant for the west coast here in the USA.

jed&patti,

HERE is a link to a previous thread on this forum. There is another poster from Florida who shares your interest in Wollemi Pine.

Arghhh so sorry just bought a 7 footer today at 40% off...

I'm thinking North American stock of this tree may all originate with Iseli. Possibly if e-mailed somebody at this wholesale only company would be willing to indicate local retailers that have purchased from them - I don't know. While the usual encounter at garden centers is with 5 gallon stock costing hundreds after being marked up one independent here - who does not ship plants - had amazingly inexpensive liners (along with those of Vietnam cypress) within the last few years. I don't know how extensive this distribution of small starter plants was. I only saw them at the one place - which is owned and operated by somebody with a long established history of ordering from Iseli, would therefore be likely to be considered to qualify for the limited releases of special items that they have been known to make.

http://www.iselinursery.com/

I searched "Seattle wollemia" to find out how they were doing up there, and found this story: http://old.seattletimes.com/html/education/2028677913_uwgreenhousexml.html?prmid=4748

Anyhow, Embothrium, any idea what the oldest ones up there are? The article discusses a greenhouse plant but surely a couple might be scraping by in a sheltered urban garden? Is the U Washington Arb. considered urban heat island? It seemed rather suburban to me. Maybe there's one in Victoria - though it used to seem to me like it would be even milder than Seattle, apparently isn't for various reasons.

The biggest ones that I've seen are at the Huntington in So Ca. The two specialty nurseries here that carry them have gotten them from Buchholz and San Marcos Growers.

I was given the impression the liners here came from Iseli and I think the 5s I've seen have had Iseli cards on them*. The other two wholesalers may have gotten theirs from Iseli, originally if not since then. Definitely I was told Iseli was the wellspring for the cypress, although Dan Hinkley was also propagating it at one time also.

Presumably in a trade magazine I read once that most of the nursery sales dollars in the Willamette Valley are generated by growers there selling to each other. Apparently it's usual to list items you don't actually produce yourself, which you buy as needed from a company that does.

*But by now I'd have to go look at one again in order to verify this

Only ones I know of for sale mail order are insanely over priced.

I have 5 Wollemi pine trees still living from the purchase from California and ones i got from the National geographics sales. 2 of mine are surviving in Alabama. The others i turned into bonsai size trees potted in bonsai pots. They seem to grow well in the mix i use as bonsai trees. I have not sold seeds yet.

Your best bet in the USA is to buy seeds from eBay or starter plants from the wollemipine.com site in Australia. Wollemi pines are hardy in USDA Zones 7 - 11. In semitropical to tropical climates I would grow them in partial/full shade since the root zone getting overheated seems to be what kills a lot of them.

Is it "randos bump old threads on gardenweb week"?

Wollemi pines are hardy in USDA Zones 7 - 11

Nope

Your best bet in the USA...or starter plants from the wollemipine.com site in Australia

Not possible. Not legal to import.

I don't see why you couldn't get a wollemi pine imported if you could get it with a phytosanitary certificate. Wollemipine.com in Australia ARE the experts in this species and they state that it is hardy to USDA Zone 7. Wollemi pine has only been known since 1994. A lot of of older references put the hardiness down as what is normal for the area where it was found. However, this is an ancient tree and conditions in the past obviously were a lot colder for its ancestors so current plants also can take colder conditions. I grew a Eucalyptus neglecta that was hardy down to USDA Zone 6 and the Australian researchers on that rare plant assumed that it wasn't hardy down to Zone 6. I ended up having to send them a sample. I also have seen a mature monkey puzzle tree 20 ft. tall growing OUTDOORS and thriving in Colorado where it was USDA Zone 4!

The thread is ancient but fwiw both trees and seeds are widely available from many sources these days. The UK has multiple sources and many specimens are growing happily around the country.

This one's near London.

I'm going to be generous and repeat information that is readily discoverable elsewhere in Houzz/Gardenweb and probably the internet too.

The various Wollemis people have tried over the past 20 years have died starting in the upper single digits, or maybe even a bit higher. I can specifically remember one that was tried in the Smithsonian castle garden, on the south side of the castle, one of the most sheltered urban heat island parts of the entire DC region. It's done. No longer there. Dead. Kaput.

Ancient or not NO OTHER TREE FROM ANYWAYS NEAR THAT PART OF AUSTRALIA is zone 7 hardy on the US east coast. E. neglecta is barely zone 7 hardy, and is from hundreds of miles south (their north LOL) than where the Wollemi was found. And more importantly, at higher elevation.

If you are claiming to have seen zone defying plants, by all means post pictures of them so that other people can verify.

This guy, who clearly likes the sound of his own blogging, reports them actually resprouting after the polar vortex winters. Which is cool, but still not indicative of actual 'zone 7' hardiness, because downtown DC definitely didn't go below 0F in those events.

https://dctropics.blogspot.com/2014/10/smithsonian-gardens-part-3-enid-haupt.html

But our authority on what is growing where in the DC area, sam, said they were eventually removed.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3855273/wollemi-propagation

And final btw, the brand spanking new USDA zone map has a generous swarth of downtown DC and the nearby banks of the Potomac as zone 8. So expect the streets of DC and Old Town Alexandria to soon be lined with Trachycarpus palms and Wollemi pines 🤣

Nice couple rants, davidrt. Nice to re-read your Australian trip -- I hadn't remembered that. Yes, my old Hagerstown neighborhood that at one time was very-well tree-lined, is now, 50 yrs later almost completely barren of trees. A very few good trees left in the whole place are ones I planted! The house I grew up in was a large old farmhouse that had at one time a large acreage. There was a Nordmann fir long-before planted there that everyone admired -- struck by lightning around 1990 and gradually died -- pic shows its top beginning to lean just before it turned brown.

Today is 08/25/2024, 37 Wollemi pine trees are in South Alabama thriving. Purchased years ago through National Geographic, They came in a box and a tin pot. Mine survived. Took some extra special care because they nearly died. You need to stimulate the roots with a hormone. The seeds started appearing in two to three weeks from the oldest trees.

WOLLEMI PINE fresh tested seeds! One of the rarest trees in the world! JURASSIC | eBay

I would suggest growing these seeds indoors in soil that has good drainage It takes a long time to grow from seed. When you plant it outdoors try to site it where the Wollemi pine tree gets shade or under lathe and the soil is consistently moist but not wet. You should be trying to duplicate the conditions Wollemi pine is adapted for as best you can. Hot tropical sunlight will probably burn a Wollemi pine to a crisp.

" Today is 08/25/2024, 37 Wollemi pine trees are in South Alabama thriving. "

And apparently, digital camera and smartphone technology hasn't arrived there yet. 🤣

Tanya:

Most people on this forum are North American...and technically can't buy seeds from that seller unless they get a USDA or the equivalent Canadian permit. If the seller tries to skirt that requirement, he's going to eventually get shut down by Ebay. I've seen it happen before.

And they're no longer particularly rare.

david28rt:

Omeo gums (Eucalyptus neglecti) are hardy to USDA Zone 6. I grew two one gallon shrubs for five years and they ended up being 7 ft x 7 ft tall and bushy. I was living in Boise, Idaho elevation 2700 Zone 6. Sadly, after I sold my house the new owner razed my garden and replaced it with grass and large cobblestones. Those trees were planted circa 1994.

I did see a full grown Araucaria 25 - 30 ft. tall near Ft. Collins, Colorado elevation 6000 ft, USDA Zone 4. I did not take a picture of the tree. I was traveling cross country and in a hurry. Araucaria's are unmistakable with unique leaves and branch formation.

I wish I could provide you with a picture of one of my Omeo gums but unfortunately I lost my house, my car and all my possessions including photographs in the December 2021 EF4 wind speed 196 mph tornado that decimated 70% of the houses in my town in Kentucky.

david28rt, I would appreciate it if from now on you do not respond to any of my posts. I find your posts rude and do not care for your insinuations that I am just making up botanical experiences I have seen with my own eyes or actually grown.

Tanya

david28rt, I would appreciate it if from now on you do not respond to any of my posts.

🤣 🤣 🤣

" I did see a full grown Araucaria 25 - 30 ft. tall near Ft. Collins, Colorado elevation 6000 ft, USDA Zone 4. "

🤣 🤣 🤣

Let's see what established references say:

Michael Dirr, Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs

Zone (7)8 to 11

Trees and Shrubs Online

WJ Bean, the IDS, John Grimshaw, et al.

USDA Hardiness Zone 8a

Krussman Manual of Cultivated Conifers

zone 8

Tanya - poster on Gardenweb with 4 posts total and no pictures posted.

"Zone 4"

Yeah...let's go with that one. After all nobody who knows plants has ever traveled through Fort Collins, ever, to spot and photograph this amazing Zone 4 Monkey Puzzle!

Ok so is anyone selling Wollemi Pine in the US? I live in Bay Area California

I would normally wait for someone else to answer but some of our Norcal correspondents seem MIA in recent years. A couple good local nurseries to start asking around would be Berkeley Horticultural Nursery and Peacock Horticultural Nursery. (I'm glad these two are focused on the right stuff!) On the mail order front, you could see if Cistus in Oregon has any leads on where to get one.

Cistus in Oregon is a dead end..I went just before thanksgiving and they havent had stock of Wollemi pines since 2014, and have recently tried and failed with a batch of seeds they said.

Interesting. I wonder why they thought seeds would be an option since that's never how they've been commercially propagated. Most of the seeds aren't viable and since it has very low genetic diversity - and might even be a single clone IIRC- it's probably not a good idea. (Conifers have never been shown to produce apomictic seed.)

There's obviously a way to produce many cuttings without the problem of topophysis that affects some other Araucariaceae, but I suppose Cistus doesn't have access to large enough plants to do that. And surely it will eventually be possible to tissue culture them.