Anyone grown one from seed? Any tips?
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Not specific to a monkey puzzle tree , but many moons ago i was asking an old neighbour for some advice on gardening generally .
He said ,"remember lad you don't keep plants ,you keep the ground they grow in ."
Basically get the ground conditions right for the particular plant you want to grow and let nature take care of the rest.
I can’t help with anything technical but they are fantastic trees
A living fossil in your garden. They have been on earth from before the dinosaurs.
I would have thought that they would need protecting from cold / frost as they are from warmer climes so one to cultivate in a green house until hardy enough to re plant outdoors.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 13th September 2021 at 14:31.
I’ve got one in a pot in the back garden. Cant help about growing from seed. As they are extremely slow growing I bought from a guy who had already grown it to about 2-3ft high…. I’m sure he said it was already 13yrs old.
I did chat to him about growing from seed… it sounded like a labour of love !!
Bit of trivia. The semi-precious gem Whitby Jet (much favoured by Queen Victoria) is made from fossilized monkey puzzle tree.
Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves
We had one ,wasn’t grown from seed though,had it a few years and then it just died,not sure what happened but it was a great looking thing ,I do like a good garden but hate having to tend to it .
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I have never grown one at all, let alone from seed, but you can be reassured that they are hardy. They are not from warmer climes really, they typically live (in their home range) quite a long way up the Chilean and Argentinian Andes, at substantial altitiudes (>1000m I think).
They are slow growers, and seeds are only produced by older trees, so I would recommend getting a head start (if you want to see the tree grow large) and buying as large a specimen as you wish to afford.
If you like a challenge, go ahead and plant some seeds........
Where do you plan to site the tree? Beware of subsidence if sited too close to the house ... or to a neighbour's house. Root systems spread and will suck the soil dry causing building subsidence.
"Well they would say that ... wouldn't they!"
I have always been fascinated by these unusual trees and bought one a year ago from the local garden centre. It cost £20 IIRC and was about a foot tall at the time and is a couple of inches taller now - so definitely slow growing.
Someone at work has one and they want to cut it down it’s huge
My Dad had one that was outside a victorian double fronted house he owned in Morecambe. The 'warmer' climate must have suited it well, it was at least 30ft high and very impressive. Sadly it had been sited too close to the house and had to be felled due to exactly the reasons you have outlined.Originally Posted by sundial
A neighbour over the road, who's hobby was wood turning, couldn't get enough of it for future projects! We never received anything in return so no idea what he made with them.
Managed to get some seeds from a fella in the next village...
Last edited by number2; 9th September 2022 at 17:40.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action."
'Populism, the last refuge of a Tory scoundrel'.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
