John Grimshaw responded privately to my April Fool’s Day post and wrote: “but the cones of Araucaria araucana fall apart before falling! The cannonballs to avoid are from A. bidwillii.” I guess it’s obvious that I do not live in Araucaria country. I based the comment in my post on an article I read years ago which reported that old Araucaria in English gardens were being cut down. Two reasons were given. One is that the old trees had live foliage only high up above bare trunks and were thus scare-crow ugly. The other reason given was the potential legal liability posed by the falling cones. This article was probably written ten or more years ago, and I really don’t remember much more about it. But I do think the species mentioned was A. imbricata (as A. araucana was widely called then). As I now know, John is of course right about the cones of this species disintegrating before falling. So now I wonder: is A. bidwillii grown in the UK in the open garden? Does it become large enough to fruit? Or perhaps the author of the article was an Aussie still learning his English garden trees (as he remembered bad experiences back home)? Thanks John. I've got some Araucaria araucana seeds in the 'fridge now, and all of this Araucaria talk is prompting me to get them started. Jim McKenney jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, 39.03871º North, 77.09829º West, USDA zone 7 My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/