Monkey Puzzle
Merrill Jensen (Mon, 22 Aug 2005 14:21:04 PDT)
Yes, they are widely available and are occasionally planted in residential
gardens on the Pacific Coast. They don't seem to grow very fast here in
Oregon (I'm not sure how fast they grow at home in the Andes) and don't
drop the lower branches to make the picturesque "umbrella" seen in the
wild.
There are some nice old ones scattered around the Willamette Valley of
Oregon that were planted in the early 20th century that are starting to get
their 'wild' appearance. They are currently 60-80' tall. We had planted a
14' specimen at the Oregon Garden in the fall of '99 that has grown 1.5 - 2'
a year.
I was 'lucky' enough to be at a neighbor's house with on of these old ones
in the back yard when a bowling ball sized cone came crashing down. It sure
gave their cat a scare...
Merrill in Palo Alto, Zone 9 - 10, longing for the room to plant an
Araucaria bidwillii
pbs mailing list
pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php