I was very interested to read your article in January (SNJ 10th January 2024) about King Charles planting an endangered species of tree at the Westonbirt Arboretum during his Coronation year in 2023 - a "Wollemi Pine", re-discovered in Australia in 1994.
You and your readers may be interested to know that nearer to hand, in our own Stratford Park arboretum in Stroud, a rare tree was also planted back in 1953, in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth's Coronation that year. And that tree is still alive and well today!
It is a "Dawn Redwood", a species at that time believed to have gone extinct but then recently re-discovered in China. Seeds were apparently sent to various countries around the world and in 1953 a young tree was given to the then Stroud Urban District Council, the owners of the park, to plant in the new Queen's honour.
Attached is a photo which appeared in the "Stroud Journal" in June 1953 showing the planting ceremony.
As my own father Thomas John was then on the council, he helped with the planting.
Unusually for a conifer, the Dawn Redwood is deciduous, so at the moment it will be looking completely bare, but come the Spring, it will be resplendent again in feathery pale green foliage.
It is in a nice position, overlooking the lake. And hopefully it will be there for many years to come.
Rosalind John
Minchinhampton
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