You won't find this on an allotment

When I retired a couple of weeks ago my friends at work, knowing of my botanical past, chose an excellent leaving present.

They bought me a Wollemi Pine.

Until 1994 the Wollemi Pine was known only from the fossil record, from as long as 200 million years ago. Even today there are fewer than 100 trees in the wild, in a closely protected site in Australia. But they've been successfully propagated and sold on, and now I have one.
Here it is.


It seems quite hardy and unfussy, although it doesn't like wet feet. I feel very privileged to have it and up for the challenge of making sure it thrives. For a botanist it's like having a real live dinosaur in the garden.