Monkey Puzzle

Jim McKenney jimmckenney@starpower.net
Mon, 22 Aug 2005 11:15:37 PDT
I bought one last fall at the big autumn event at Winterthur in Delaware,
USA (It came from a west-coast nursery, Pacific Northwest Growers I think).

When I was picking out my plant, a couple next to me were picking one out,
too. I asked them where they gardened, and they said on Long Island (which
is in New York, USA, several hundred miles north of my Maryland home). When
I expressed doubts about the hardiness of the Araucaria there, they
responded that they were confident that it would do well there because they
are at such a low elevation and in effect surrounded by the sea. 

I wonder how their plant is doing. Mine sailed through the winter without a
hitch but began to die back branch by branch when the weather got hot. It's
dead now.  

They are not often seen on the east coast, although for many years a plant
which had reached about twenty feet high grew not far from my home.

On the other hand, I've tried three times now, and each time the plant
eventually died. One lasted for several years, but it was so ugly by the end
of winger that I'm glad it finally went. 

Jim McKenney
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where it's not only monkeys
who are puzzled by this tree. 


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