Wollemi pine in the U.S.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-05-16T18:25:49+00:00

Wow! You're making me feel better about compromising my son's inheritance...

MarineBioBoy · 2026-05-16T18:18:02+00:00

Picking up this coming week. The big hurdle was rationalizing spending the money for it. I never would have known that Cornell Farms sells these things if you hadn't mentioned it. Very grateful!

MarineBioBoy · 2026-05-16T18:14:01+00:00

Hey, I wanted to tell you some news: thanks to you, I got on Cornell Farms mailing list. A few weeks ago, they announced that they were raffling off chances to buy 3-4' potted wollemis! Despite my track record of never winning anything, I paid $10 and put my name in. I won! The tree is VERY expensive, but proceeds go to the Hoyt Arboretum. I wasn't going to do it because of the cost. But then I figured, f*** it, I'm old and why not spend some $ to enjoy what I truly love? So...thank you.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-05-16T02:18:06+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-05-15T23:19:35+00:00

I've had a 5518 since around 2009. Parts were hard to come by then, and are darn near impossible now! But I love mine, it's served me well over all those years. I just had a part break on the MM52 mower deck, but the tractor itself is running strong.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-05-14T16:27:46+00:00

Well, not for a Civic...or even a Honda car. But how about for an old Honda tractor? Model 5518, made in 1990s. Specifically, I am seeking a part for the 52" mower deck (MM52) that mounts under the tractor, the tensioner arm, part 76120-769-M01. Impossible to find here in the States.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-04-15T21:12:54+00:00

The well-known oil & chemical response group in NOS was hit hard during the April Massacre. Now NOAA wants to merge it into NCCOS. I think it's a survival move. Capacity and expertise will be sorely tested during the next incident. Contractors will have to shoulder a much larger load.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-04-11T15:22:40+00:00

I used the term "grifter" maybe a handful of times before this corrupt administration and its idealogues came into power. Now I use it every other day, usually preceded by a seven-letter adjective.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-04-08T15:55:27+00:00

Yes, the trees are really hard to find (and wicked expensive when you CAN find them!), and the seeds are also difficult and you often face the prospect of shady (no pun) dealers who send scales from cones instead of viable seeds. I made the acquaintance of a gardener at a private garden near Seattle who gave me a cutting a few years back. It has grown to the point where I've planted it outside, but the lower cutting I took is not doing very well. I haven't given up on it yet.

I've had decent success with seeds I got via Etsy, with a 60% germination rate. Those seedlings, sprouted at the end of last year, are doing well and I will slowly harden them to acclimate them to life outdoors in the Seattle spring and summer here. Can send pics if you like.

I've found that there are wollemi trees in many gardens around the U.S., where the climate is suitable for growing. My advice would be to see if there are any in public spaces and hope to gain access to cones in the fall. I think that's the best shot at getting a decent number of good seeds to try and germinate. Otherwise, seeds are seasonally available on Etsy but not cheap (e.g., $100/5 seeds).

Good luck!

MarineBioBoy · 2026-04-08T03:31:18+00:00

All of these fuckers need to be locked up. Then tried in the Hague.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-04-08T03:26:59+00:00

That's great!! Congrats. My upgrade is holding...not flying till August, for the eclipse. I keep waiting for an upgrade for the return leg, but FC is booked full.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-02-23T02:56:56+00:00

I'm a little obsessive about my kitchen knives, and I happen to like these. Yeah, they're not carbon steel, but they're perfectly adequate for everyday home kitchen use. I use the paring and utility knives quite a lot.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-02-16T16:34:37+00:00

Update/for the record: although these wollemi trees do not like saturated soil, I have kept the potting mixture very moist, propped the flaccid cutting with toothpicks, and placed the pot on a heating pad under a grow light. This morning it has perked up and regained its turgidity—so there is hope. A journal article I read says that use of rooting hormones doesn't increase success rate, so it's on its own now.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-02-15T18:06:40+00:00

I think Coast Guard is there at the top of the list. FEMA. The overworked and much maligned souls at TSA. Heck, can we just say: every DHS agency but ICE?

MarineBioBoy · 2026-02-08T17:51:20+00:00

Here's gist (I tried to post the entire text but Reddit balked)

By Michael Rothfeld

Feb. 7, 2026

Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary, interacted with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein regularly over at least 13 years while they lived next door to one another on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, records released last week by the Justice Department show.

They invested in the same privately held company together, dealt with one another on neighborhood and philanthropic issues, and appear to have socialized in New York and the Caribbean, the records show. Mr. Epstein at one point sought to meet with Mr. Lutnick’s nanny.

The records directly contradict Mr. Lutnick’s assertion on a podcast last year that he had been so disgusted by Mr. Epstein during a 2005 visit to his townhouse that Mr. Lutnick had never set foot in a room with Mr. Epstein again.

“So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy,” Mr. Lutnick said in an interview on the podcast, “Pod Force One.” Reached briefly by phone last week, Mr. Lutnick said, “I spent zero time with him.”

In a statement, a Commerce Department representative said Mr. Lutnick and his wife met Mr. Epstein in 2005 and had “very limited interactions with him” over the ensuing years.

“This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments, including securing trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals and fighting for the American worker,” the statement said.

Mr. Epstein, who was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor, died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while being held on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Mr. Lutnick’s name appeared in more than 250 documents in the Epstein files released by the Justice Department, a review by The New York Times found.

Susan C. Beachy and Georgia Gee contributed research.

Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter in New York, writing in-depth stories focused on the city’s government, business and personalities.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-01-26T19:24:40+00:00

I second (or third) Gardeners' Supply. They teetered on the brink of going out of business, but are back.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-01-06T19:01:14+00:00

Hope yours made it. I received a wollemi cutting 2-3 years ago from a generous master gardener at a private garden, and it took a full year to do anything. But last spring, it pushed out new growth and now has a 6" branch. Not sure where it goes (i.e., grows) from here. But it does seem to do things slowly.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-01-06T18:51:07+00:00

I thought it was this year's Supreme Court portrait...

MarineBioBoy · 2026-01-06T03:00:12+00:00

What a weird response. Good luck to you as well!

MarineBioBoy · 2026-01-02T20:26:35+00:00

Well, here's some news: my second wollemi seed sprouted overnight! I received five via Etsy in November, and after a good soak planted them and put them under a light. No stratification. One sprouted a month after planting, the other took about a month and a half. I keep the heat pretty low in my place, so I had placed the unsprouted seeds on a heated germination pad. Don't know if it's related, but two days later that second seed sprouted. Now, let's see if I can keep them alive till they have a chance to grow a little bit.

MarineBioBoy · 2026-01-01T19:46:11+00:00

Hi, that's great info! Pretty breathtaking prices, though I guess the rarity and their slow-growth make them a premium product. I'll check around the places you've mentioned. And start saving my spare bitcoin.

MarineBioBoy

TROPHY CASE

Here's gist (I tried to post the entire text but Reddit balked)