The search for a Wollemi Pine in the US, led me to ask a number of arboretums if they had any for sale.  No luck.  I tried a  number of tree nurseries to find out if they were available yet.  They were helpful, but didn’t have any themselves, and often referred me other nurseries where they might be found. Tough search, a lot of “good luck” encouragement, but the results were not as good.   I spent several months on the phone and on the internet.  

Internet searches have their own set of challenges.  The trick is to figure out what the best key words are, and even then, a species might appear on some obscure inventory list deep within the sight, that doesn’t pop up right away.  Wollemi Pine were difficult to find, but since they were so new to the market, I knew it was going to be difficult, just a matter of digging.  Meanwhile, I found a lot of other trees that could be very interesting, and put them on the list of acquisitions...

There were so few leads early on.  Of course, The official Wollemi Pine website listed a nursery in California, so I started to send emails with a few questions.  I sent emails for weeks, then months, and never heard back.  Then I found their order site, and tried to place an order.  For some reason, it wasn’t working.  They showed trees for sale, so I was getting close.

Meanwhile, I could find trees for sale at various places around the world, where the Wollemi were starting to show up in catalogues.  The contacts out of country were very helpful but, unfortunately, there were not able to ship to the US at the time.

The more roadblocks I ran into, the more determined I became to find a Wollemia nobilis of my own.  This effort was quickly turning into a quest.