BUNYA Pine further info, 1 June 2005

Folks may be well aware of the closely related Norfolk Island pine from the Norfolk Islands some few hundred miles East of Brisbane Australia

Now this is a zone 10 tree well suited to subtropical and some tropical conditons. In Christian societies in tropical areas it serves as a Christmas tree. Perhaps not as attractive as some of the far Northern European conifres, but the deep green foliage borne on attractive regular layered branches

In colder climates it's a popular potplant for a large pot/tub

Now according to the texbooks, the related BUNYA Pine is also a zone 10 requirement for mild winter climate. However there are several well established trees growing in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. They have obviously been there at least 50 years or so and so no sign of damage in Winter

Note that Christchurch's zone 9 climate is somewhat similar to Vancouver Canada's although somewhat drier.

Norfolk Island pines by contrast WILL NOT grow in normal garden areas in Christchurch. I have seen them in coastal areas of Chch and surrounding areas only. and by "coastal" I mean RIGHT BY the coast, like 6 feet away from the Pacific Ocean's high tide mark

This would seem to prove that BUNYA Pines have very much more frost and cold tolerance than Norfolk Island Pines

Chch would get a small snowfall about every 10 years and about once every 25 years a heavy enough snowfall to block roads for a day, before it melts.

Lemon trees (Meyer variety only) are very slow to establish but will form a good sized shrub and bear fruits heavily, other citrus varieties (also all on TRIFOLIATA rootstock) like Oranges can be grown but the fruit will be mediocre at best and mostly a curiousity.

Note if you'd like a similar look to the Norfolk Island or Bunya pines but the climate where you are is just too cold, then you can try the again closely related southern hemisphere pine, the CHILEAN MONKEY PUZZLE tree. This is cold tolerant to about USDA zone 7 and these were widely planted even in Scotland, Britain a few hundred years ago, when they became a fashionable craze

Anyway until the recently discovered extremely rare and endangered "living dinosaur" of the NSW Wollemi Pine becomes available on the open world market for home gardeners, I would commend to folks to grow one of it's relatives/descendants the BUNYA Pine. Fresh seed is available from EDEN non-hybrid organic seed suppliers in Queensland Australia, in February and March only. Seed can be posted overseas subject to YOUR customs and plant quarantine regulations at your end (probably not NZ therefore)

Remember that fresh seed takes 8 to 11 months to sprout. It's actually a strange 2 stage process where the seed sprouts underground and forms a sort of underground bulb. Then the original seed dies. Then the newly formed underground bulb sends a sprout up above the ground. Note the seeds are a little larger than PECAN nuts. I planted mine about 75 mm / 3 inches deep in a 200 mm / 8 inch diameter pot, and actually some 6 years later most of them are still in the same pots...... must get out there and re-pot the poor things.

The sprouts look typically pine tree-sprout-like as the first break the soil surface.

The pots should be kept reasonably warm and out of full sun. Seedlings are susceptible to sunburn for the first year or 2 but can be gradually hardened off. My seedlings are under a MELIA "lilac tree" which is a native deciduous tree, native to Northern NSW and Southern QLD states. My BUNYA seedlings therefore get substantial shade in Summer and early Autumn but get full sun in Winter and early Spring when the MELIA tree is totally without leaves

Note that my oldest ones, planted in the garden, do suffer some sunburn and burnt foliage dying back every mid-Summer period, but keep in mind I'm at the hot dry edge of the Mediterranean climate area (close to the official designation as "desrt" but not quite) and just some 32 Degrees south of the Equator, so consider your particular climate accordingly

Southern Coastal Qld where they are native to has it's main wet season in Summer with many if not most days heavily overcast with cloud cover, warm and humid air. Whereas we here have clear blue skies with almost no cloud cover at all for months on end, just at the hottest driest time of year

Remember too that Australia and New Zealand have the "Pacific Light" phenomenom where the sun here is stronger and brighter (partly because of the mirror effects of the Pacific Ocean and Antarctic ice, and less air pollution than most other places on Earth.