Any Araucaria and P. palustris will get WAY too big for a greenhouse, but might be fun for a while. Taiwania and Fokienia might be fun too, with the same warning. Platycladus / Thuja orientalis 'nana aurea' is a must. Microcachrys tetragona is a very cool low-grower if you can find it. Pines and junipers like heat, but don't want to be too wet, and you can prune them hard (think bonsai) so I'd start there. Ditto for Taxodium mucronatum. There are dwarf and semi-dwarf cult's of Taxodium, Cryptomeria japonica, and many of Chamaecyparis obtusa. Be sure to keep the air moving. Slow growers like Podocarps are also good contenders, and some of the smaller Callitris like C. oblongata. Amentotaxus, Cephalotaxus, all worth a try.

G'day jan golden, The following info is only of a very general nature but if you have a question regarding a particular Genus or species there are many knowledgable folk on the forum that will be able to help you out. Germination strategies can differ from species to species but personally, I would be forgetting about wet tissue paper, cotton wool etc etc,. Get yourself a quality seed raising mix that is moisture retentive but well drained and put your seed in that cause thats where home is going to be for the next 3-24 months. There are many factors that may assist with germination,too many to mention here but a few include, some seed benefit by soaking in water overnight before sowing followed by a period of cold stratification of 28- 120 days so as to simulate normal exposure to Winter conditions, some require exposure to high light levels and others not, some that need to be sown within a short time of collection because of a short seed viability period, some that need to pass through an animal's/bird's digestive system and some that require no special treatment at all. The general idea is to try and mimic what the seed of a specific species would go through in nature and when it is more likely to germinate. The one thing that doesn't change is that fresh seed is always best. So you see it can really depend on what you are wanting to grow. Heat mats can be beneficial for "extending" the growing season in cooler climates but are generally unnecessary for the amateur gardener until they get a little more "serious" about propagating. Having said that, there are some very good, relatively cheap small units available and there are a few different styles of heat mats to choose from but its best to get one with a thermostat to give you more effective control over the temperatures as some seed will not germinate if the temperature remains constant. A reasonable quality 4 tray heatmat with thermostat will set you back around AU$230.00 (150 GBP), and there are a lot worse places than eBay to look for one, after all you can shop around and have one delivered to your door without leaving home. Once you sow your seed, keep it constantly moist but not wet and never let the seed raising mix dry out, especially once the seed has germinated. Good luck!

Arauquoia, Have just noticed your post. I germinated A. bidwillii (Bunya Pine) once and found that it can take anywhere between 1 and 5 years to germinate. A. cunninghamii (Hoop Pine) seems to be a little quicker, I have some large trees in the reserve across the street from my place and there are numerous young trees sprouting underneath the main trees. I think that they will store well as they are native to our 'drier' subtropical and tropical rainforest areas and as such will remain viable for much longer than many other rainforest species. I don't think that refrigeration would be an option though. In regards to Agathis. Agathis australis is the New Zealand Kauri Pine and I don't know much about it except that it comes from the temperate north island of New Zealand. Agathis robusta (Queensland Kauri) comes from the tropical and subtropical rainforests of Queensland but I don't know how long their seed takes to germinate. Andrew.

Goted, I agree that A. bidwillii is the hardiest Australian Araucaria. There are some places in California where this tree survived -12C unharmed in 1990 but it seems unable to tolerate similar temperatures in the Pacific Northwest... there are no large ones in Seattle, Vancouver or Portland that I know of (I keep hoping one will turn up though!) So I think it is marginal here at best but I would still try it anyways. What I have found with this species and A. angustifolia is that keeping them dry in late summer so they harden up really makes a big difference... so there may be hope for A. bidwillii here after all. A. angustifolia I think will grow just fine here in the long term. Now as for A. cunninghamii logic would dictate it is a little less hardy than A. bidwillii, as is Agathis robusta. But they are both hardier than A. heterophylla which meets its doom around -6C (-5 if smaller). And A. cookii (syn A. columnaris, I think), if I remember right, is native to the Cook Islands and less hardy than the others, maybe to just -2C or something (I'm not 100% sure on that info...I'm trying to remember something I read a long time ago and it could have been incorrect to begin with!). If there are any other hardyish Araucarias, one to try might be A. huntsteinii from Papua New Guinea. There is a guy in New Zealand who has some specimens of the New Caledonian Araucaria and Agathis species (as well as rare treeferns) - drop me a line and I'll give you his name (but that's all I've got, I think I lost his email!) Also if you wouldn't mind sharing any Araucaria seed sources you do find, I would really appreciate it!