Norfolk Pines

Araucaria heterophylla

In my garden, I have four beautiful Norfolk Pines, they are very pleasing to the eye. However the debris that you have to put up with, as a Norfolk Pine owner, is quadurapled as I have one on every corner of the property.

As the tree is actually a conifer, these plants leaves are not ordinary and around our house we call them 'Monkeys tails'. They drop all year round and are not good to put into the compost as they would take an eon to decompose. I have tried hiding the evidence around the garden but these areas are now all full, so now I put them through a garden shredder and use them as mulch.

The cones are another issue, they pop and fall to the ground in lots a nut pieces, these make a clattering noise when lawn mowing, but dont seem to do any harm to it. Disposing of these is also a problem and during a storm the cones seem to smash against the roof making a hell of a noise and after the storm they just cover the garden, gutters, driveway.

This site below describes how you can have these beautiful trees as a pot plant, as I have several baby trees in the garden, this is something I could try.

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/norfolk.html

Interesting facts (well at least to me :-)) from Wikipedia page about these trees

• It is sometimes called a 'star pine', due to its symmetrical shape as a sapling, although it is not a true pine.
• The trees grow to a height of 50-65 m
• The cones are squat globose, 10-12 cm long and 12-14 cm diameter, and take about 18 months to mature. They disintegrate at maturity to release the nut-like edible seeds.
• Large numbers of Norfolk Island Pines are produced in South Florida for the houseplant industry. The bulk of these are shipped to grocery stores, discount retailers and garden centers during November. Many of these are sprayed with a light coating of green paint prior to sale to increase their eye appeal.
• Some people may experience a strong allergic reaction if they touch the leaves.
• The Norfolk Pine is classed as Vunerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/30497/all