Saving the Wollemi Pine

The Wollemi pine is another really important thing that we're working on. We can grow them really well here, so we’ve kind of become an adoption service for them here. About 10-15 years ago when they first came on the market everybody bought a little Wollemi pine and put it in a pot. 

And now they’ve put them in as big pots as they possibly can, and they don’t really know what to do with them. So we reasonably regularly get a phone call from a member of the public asking if we can take their Wollemi pine for them.

Growing them from seed is a great way to increase genetic differences, and the more genetic variability you've got, the more long-term chance you've got to survive if anything unexpected comes up.

As well as growing our own pines, we’ve also got a six-pack of Wollemi pines from the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. This is part of a worldwide rollout of propagating the total genetic makeup of Wollemi pines as a conservation effort. It's a great thing to be involved in. We’re very proud to be a part of this effort, and to be entrusted with this genetic gold.