Our newest grounds maintenance contract is around some converted barns that were last used as a motor museum, it's down the hill a bit from a Hall where several Wellingtonias are growing.
he previous owner got into trouble and the bank took everything off him. The two places are now separate and the new owner of 'the big house' is really going for it... each time we visit there seems like dozens of work vehicles all over the front lawn and they've been there three years – one day they'll quieten down I guess.
When I was at hort. college we had a trip to the 600 acre Westonbirt arboretum in Gloucestershire, one of the oldest in Britain, which has 'possibly' the best stand of giant sequoias growing in this country. Even though I've been back there since I can still remember how they looked that first time... kin-awesome!
I don't know as much about trees as some on Landscape Juice but if I'm posting photos of Wellingtonias (how do you photograph a giant sequoia) I guess I should add some stats. They grow naturally on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. They weren't officially 'discovered' until Augustus T. Dowd, who was chasing a bear (- ! -) entered the woods now known as 'North Grove' in Calaveras State Park. In the following years, more and larger giant sequoia groves were discovered, (although of course they had been known for ever by the local Indians) The fact that now it was possible for men to fell down such large trees was for some a moral obligation to do so and a number of old trees were felled exactly to prove their existence. The first old sequoia seen by Augustus T. Dowd, was named "The Discovery Tree" and after withstanding storms and forest fires for centuries, in 1852 the tree encountered western man. A year later the tree was felled... It took five men and 22 days and the remaining stump was used as a dance floor...
Record trees have been measured at over 94 meters high and 17 meters in diameter at the base. The 'General Sherman' tree of California has a volume of 1489 cubic meters; to compare.... the largest giant sequoias in Britain have volumes no larger than 90-100 cubic meters - a branch dropped off G. Sherman in 2006 – it's diameter was six foot. Growth in Britain is very fast, with the tallest tree, at Benmore in Scotland, reaching 177 ft in 150 years and there's one young tree in Italy that grew to 72 ft in 17 years.
In Indian wisdom, one thing repeats itself again and again: The wish to live at one with nature, as a part of nature – not better and not worse.
If anyone can add anything that might be interesting or photos...
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Grant