This may sound like a no-brainer...in the Spring, when it warms up. Perhaps my desire to obtain the plant is interfering with good judgement. The tentative delivery date of Wollemia nobilis in the U.S. is in November. About this time, the weather here can be anywhere from 40*F to -10*F...who knows, it's west Michigan. Close your eyes and count to 10 and the weather will be different. On the one hand, I can take a chance, place my order, have it delivered to my home and the plant will live indoors until Spring without a significant amount of stress. On the other, I can take a chance, place my order, have it delivered to my home and the plant will promptly die from the shock of shipping through cold weather and then placing it indoors. A 100+ dollar risk. Am I worrying too much, or is this a legitimate concern? The plants will be delivered via Express mail to reduce the time of delivery. My other concern is that supply will not meet the demand, and by Spring, there will not be any left,...or a significant rise in price will put it out of reach for me if I wait until later. Anyone with experience with delivering/receiving "warm weather" plants during cold weather?
Should only be sent during warm weather. A friend with a long-established mailorder nursery watches weather reports and ships to customers at appropriate times for their areas. Even hardy plants can fail or be badly hurt if frozen when in small pots.
With all the money they've invested in it (and promotion surrounding it), I would hope they have supply to meet demand, even by the North American spring. I wouldn't trust the plant to be delivered without being exposed to cold weather in November, though - sorry.
I grew up in the area where it was discovered.....I may have even walked past the valley/canyon 100 times without going down into it.......that being said..winter in sydney and the wollemi national national park can get down in temperature (maybe minus10 metric) and snow is not uncommon.....i would bet that when it snowed and it settled down in the canyon/valley where they were found.....the snow would probably sit for weeks if not months.....so i'd bet that it is fairly resistant to cold..... I say order one now and you could keep it indoors (but next to a window and air it out occassionally on mild winter days).....don't forget - it survived 120million years and i'd venture to guess that in that time - it survived the odd cold snap... cheers
Good advice Aussiebob. We are one of the only places in the uk selling them at the moment and this week they have been frozen a couple of times without any ill effect. We had thought about bringing them indoors but minus 6 hasn't touched them. We don't get any sun directly on our sales area from october end, through to march so when we freeze we stay frozen for weeks sometimes. I appreciate that in the grand scheme of things minus 6 isn't that bad but I think Wollemia is probably a lot tougher than we give it credit for. I imagine severe wet followed by extreme cold would be a bit of a bummer for the Wollemi Pine though.
I also can't see it taking a cold dry easterly out of Siberia - the sort of weather that can brown off Sequoia sempervirens, and turn Cordyline australis into a heap of soggy pulp.
England gets Siberian outfall......???? You know what I could never figure out.....why the best judges in England sent our (Australias) forefathers to gods country ....and the pommies stayed behind is that pit of a place with it's wet, foggy, drab weather that apparently regularly recieves Siberian outfall..... go figure....
Hi Aussiebob, So what made you decamp to Canada then?? :-)) We only get Siberian air fairly rarely - the last significant outbreak was 7-9 February 1991 in southeastern England (the infamous "wrong type of snow" that wrecked a lot of railway engines). Where I am in northeast England, it isn't so bad (the cold air has to cross a greater width of North Sea so warms up more, 550km versus just 50km at the English Channel), the last times here were 1981/82 (-7°C on the North Sea coast at Tynemouth was a new absolute minimum there, but -13°C 10km inland) and slightly less bad in January 1987.
Cold weather in southern hemisphere is tempered by high humidity resulting from much larger proportion of ocean to land. Predominantly warm regions also tend to return rapidly to warmth after cold periods, with penetrating, persistent freezing of the soil not part of the equation. Many southern hemisphere plants that "ought to be hardy" in places as mild as UK or Pacific Northwest do not prove to be so.
Markinwestmich, Hi my name is wyatt reinhart, I am also interested in wollemia Nobilis, where do they sell these trees at, I was watch pbs and heard about the plight of these trees in the wild and I want to help with their survival plan , so tell me what companies sell these trees, Thanks, Wyatt
The last time I looked, they were only available in the US through National Geographic. They do have a website you can order through.
