Xmas Trees To See

Over Xmas I was delighted to receive 2 text messages from friends telling me of locations of Monkey Puzzle trees. The first is in Sevenoaks and was passed onto me by Miriam who is lucky enough to live next door to a lovely Monkey Puzzle tree, a picture of which I've added below.

New Sevenoaks Monkey Puzzle Tree (TN3)

Original Sevenoaks Monkey Puzzle Tree

The second tree was provided by my mate David Dixon and is located way down in Bodmin! So it looks like a trip West will be in order at some point. I love the fact that this tree has been utilised as an Xmas tree!

Bodmin Xmas Monkey Puzzle Tree

These two new trees have made me realise that I am aware of a number of other Monkey Puzzle trees, such as the tallest, oldest in the UK etc. that I need to visit at some point, so I'll be posting a list of these in the near future. For now I've updated the Quest's map and the count.

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 48       Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 4

Monkey World Revisited

In an earlier post I told how it should come as no surprise that me being a Monkey Puzzle tree nut went hand in hand with my love of monkeys. I recounted how we had visited the wonderful Monkey World in Dorset and seen at least 1 Monkey Puzzle tree but I couldn't for the life of me remember how many I'd seen (too excited by all the furry loveliness around me to count). Well as supporters of the park me and Nathalie were lucky enough to take part in one of their sleep overs at the end of the summer, where I'd be able to do a proper tally of their trees.

The sleepover involves pitching a tent in a sectioned off part of their car park where you spent the night. As part of the sleepover you get to stay in Monkey World after it closes where you're lucky enough to see the monkeys settling down to sleep before you're treated to some wonderful food and and evening's entertainment.  A night round the camp fire finishes off a very special day that is followed the next morning with a huge breakfast and access to the park before it opens to the public. Being able to observe these wonderful animals as they meet a new day is very special indeed and the sight of the gibbon pairs reaffirming their love for each other by singing their morning love songs together will stay with me forever. Two of the gibbons will feature on BBC1's Animals in Love on Sunday 1st February at 6pm.

Anyway back to the Monkey Puzzle trees, there turns out to be 5 trees in all, though we could quite easily have missed some but as we will no doubt be back very soon I'll update if there find are any more.

Monkey World Monkey Puzzle Tree (BH1)

Monkey World Monkey Puzzle Tree 2 (BH2)

Monkey World Monkey Puzzle Tree 3 (BH3)

Monkey World Monkey Puzzle Tree 4 (BH4)

Monkey World Monkey Puzzle Tree 5 (BH5)

Whilst at Monkey world I was able to see the Cherry tree I had planted in memory of my mum for the first time (sadly Monkey Puzzle trees weren't an option).

My Mum's Cherry Tree At Monkey World

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 48       Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 2

Kew Gardens At Last

Near the beginning of my quest I posted about how the Botanical Gardens at Kew was a definite location of a number of Monkey Puzzle trees which I would have to visit when I got the chance. I knew from the map (below) that there was at least 9 trees to see but until I managed to check them out for myself I wasn't quite sure how many trees were going to be there waiting to be seen. I am happy to say this Summer thanks to a surprise day out organised by my girlfriend Nathalie I finally made the trip and boy was it worth it!

Kew Gardens Monkey Puzzle Tree Map

When we boarded the Overground train heading west at Camden Road for my surprise day out I quickly realised that that our likely destination was Kew Gardens, the fact that Nathalie had told me to bring my camera kind of confirmed my suspicions. A very quick train ride flashed by and we soon found ourselves walking along a Horse Chestnut lined road towards the Botanical Gardens. What struck us was how poorly the Horse Chestnut trees appeared due to them all being infested with the horse chestnut leaf mining moth, a pest that has been in the UK for about 14 years now. Even though the moth's caterpillars do a lot of damage to the trees leaves, leaving the trees looking very sorry for themselves, however according to research, they have almost no effect on the growth rate and the general health of the trees.

As soon as we entered the Gardens I checked the map showing the location of all the Monkey Puzzle trees they had, which I had handily saved on my phone a while ago.  It didn't take long (especially as I insisted on walking at double quick time) before we approached the fist Monkey Puzzle trees of the day, the two lovely specimens were just a taster of the joys to follow.

Trees 1 & 2 (TW2 & TW3)

Having taken a few photos it soon dawned on me that these two trees were just the first in what I can only describe as a miniature Monkey Puzzle tree wood.  My excitement levels went through the roof as I began to count the number of trees that were in front of me.

Trees 3 - 7 (TW4-TW8)

Tree 8 (TW9)

Tree 9 (TW10)

Trees 10 & 11 (TW11 & TW12)

In total there were 11 trees of various sizes and me and Nathalie decided it was the perfect spot to have a picnic.  I can honestly say I've never had a more lovely picnic spot in my life. After the picnic we followed the map to see another 4 huge Monkey Puzzle Trees taking the days total up to an impressive 15 trees!

Picnic Amongst The Monkey Puzzle Trees

Tree 12 (TW13)

Tree 13 (TW14)

Tree 14 (TW15)

Close to the 15th tree is some information about Kew Gardens role in helping to preserve the Monkey Puzzle tree - an online account can be found here.

Tree 15 (TW1)

Monkey Puzzle Marker

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 44       Monkey Puzzle Trees Yet To See - 2