"are they planted much in England?"

Not much, just odd ones here and there. They grow well, if slowly. Until further recent introductions from Chile in the last 15 years or so, all specimens were a single clone propagated by cuttings.

It always seems to be a very prolific cone producer; I've never seen one without plenty (including the new introductions, even on quite young trees).

First two pics, an older tree of this clone (at Minteracres Monastery, Northumbs); third pic, one of a new introduction (at RBG Edinburgh, Scotland)
{{gwi:652253}}
{{gwi:652255}}
{{gwi:662706}}

Resin

We got some here at the arboretum in San Francisco. That was the first place I heard of this tree. The guy who's the head of the arboretum is a great person, very nice and totally foaming at the mouth about trees, so he showed me some little guys he's got, for sale I think, in the back. Humans butchered the hell out of this species, too, wonderful things that they are. I'm not sure what the record is on these but I know they got logged and nearly decimated and it's extremely hard to see old growth trees. Most of what you can see that's really old is just stumps.

There are some younger ones in Seattle and elsewhere in western WA, perhaps a few of these as much as 10' tall. Not very abundant even in the wild, where it seems to like it quite damp.

They're continuing to wipe them (and the rest of the small amount of remaining old growth down there) out, conservation measures are being side-stepped. It's legal for dead ones to be cut, so poachers kill them first and then cut them down later.

DefensalerceÂs" primary objective is to give public opinion all the information, data and figures on Illegal Logging so people can see how such an indiscriminate crime still takes place in our country. We hope all this information can contribute to peoples conscience and culture in order to defend this natural heritage that belongs to all of us.

We aim to achieve a significant change in the current legislation so it can establish real and concrete Alerce tree protection measures. We hope that these public policies are in accordance to a country, that grows and develops itself by protecting its natural resources.

Terram Foundation proposes an absolute Alerce tree logging moratorium as long as there are no proper mechanisms to assure its protection

Here is a link that might be useful: Defensalerces - English

To hell in a handbasket. To bad.

Dax

Resin,

You mentioned that Alerce is not planted that much in England.

Is there any particular reason for the lack of popularity of Alerce in England vs some of the other great, introduced conifers such as Cedar of Lebanon, Dawn redwood, Monkey puzzle, etc?

Is Alerce's form and characteristics maybe not as pleasing as some of the other introduced conifers mentioned above?

Just wondering, no agenda one way or the other.

Have never seen Alerce in person, but fascinated by this conifer because of the great age and size it can apparently attain.

Darwin supposedly measured one at something like 12.6 meters diameter....this seems incredible to me and way above the listed maximums.

Finally, would you have any idea on how a Alerce might do in a hot, Southern climate like Mississippi, roughly 100 miles inland?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Hi Gary,

"Is there any particular reason for the lack of popularity of Alerce in England vs some of the other great, introduced conifers such as Cedar of Lebanon, Dawn redwood, Monkey puzzle, etc?"

Hard to know. Probably a combination of lack of availability, lack of promotion, slow growth, and fairly difficult to establish.

"Is Alerce's form and characteristics maybe not as pleasing as some of the other introduced conifers mentioned above?"

Yes, at least in Britain, it doesn't always look too good (note the amount of dead wood in my first pic above, and I avoided the worst-looking side of the tree!). Perhaps more to the point, while distinct to the connoisseur like you and me, to the average gardener it is not sufficiently different from other cypresses to attract a lot of attention. So it got overtaken in popularity by easier-to-grow species like Cupressus macrocarpa and Chamaecyparis lawsoniana.

"Finally, would you have any idea on how a Alerce might do in a hot, Southern climate like Mississippi, roughly 100 miles inland?"

I fear not at all - summer heat, and occasional droughts, would do it in. Success anywhere in North America away from the coastal PNW is going to be very 'iffy' at best.

Resin

Pineresin is correct, strictly speaking. If you tried an Alerce, or any plant from Patagonia/Tierro del Feugo/Chile etc. in the Southeast, it SHOULD fail. But let's not forget Coast Redwoods really have NO business being able to grow in the southeastern US, and yet, they do. I bet no part of their range has EVER had a dewpoint anywhere near 75F, yet they have survived that in the southeast. The lightning is the only thing they don't encounter in their native range that is likely to really do them in. And a few Chilean plants have been tried in the SE and have done well, like Fabiana imbricata. So I think unless there is solid documentation of something failing, the better advice for someone willing to experiment is "try it, with the assumption it will fail." Key part "someone willing to experiment" - don't try this on your client's property or time.
Gary MS, check out the archives of the NCSU arboretum, available at their website. It will take some searching around but there is a wealth of information there written by the late JC Raulston. IIRC, there is a record of a Fitzroya being grown for some years at the NCSU arb.,but dying in a winter that went to 2F. Actually google found something, a record of it surviving 4F, but I believe elsewhere there is the bad news perhaps not indexed by google. JC would be the first to say if something died in the summer heat, he was well aware of the problems it posed, so his assessment would be an honest one. The fact it is mentioned several times implies it at least survived several summers. In fact he proposed innovative solutions that no nursery has ever really followed up on, like grafting various Abies onto Abies firma since that one grows very well in the SE.

I searched the NCSU database for Southern Hemisphere conifers I could think of.
There's a 11 year old, 8' Callitris oblonga. They haven't had a really cold winter since 94, so, no proof that will last for decades.
There are several equally old Podocarpus nivalis. I think I saw them when I was there a few weeks ago. They are quite boring.
I didn't do an exhaustive search...that looks like it. Not many!

Thanks Resin and David and all others for your input.

Alerces fascinate me.

Maybe I need to move to Chile. :-)