>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