The Plant Collection at St. Ann’s Academy

Bonus, bonus, bonus or should I say Extra!

This entry is an article which I write as a regular series for “Sequoia” the Newsletter for http://www.friendsofstannsacademy.com/default.htm , a group who advocates for the importance, spiritual, social, and cultural heritage of St. Ann’s Academy in Victoria British  Columbia, Canada. I have spent several years as volunteering at this 61/2 acre site which is between the Famous Empress Hotle and the equally famous Beaconhill Park

Main Entrance to St Ann's Academy

To learn more about St. Ann’s Academy check here.  http://www.stannsacademy.com/

Now on the main feature.

This is the story of how St. Ann’s Academy came to have the oldest Sequoias in Victoria and maybe in B.C.

Celia and Anna McQuade graduated into the order of Sisters of Saint Ann from Saint Ann’s Academy. They were the first students to do so. To commemorate this, their parents Mr and Mrs. Peter McQuade brought two small Sequoia seedlings up from California and had them planted at the school. These trees have grown into the two large trees on both sides of the formal entrance to St Ann’s Academy. These massive trees are Sequioadendron giganteum or commonly called Giant or Sierra Redwood. These specimens being planted in the 1870s are some of the earliest known specimens in Canada.

One of the Sequoias found at St. Ann's Academy in Victoria

Giant or Sierra Redwood trees are some of the largest living objects found on the earth. In terms of volume they are larger than any other type of tree. This is due to their enormous trunk diameter and vast height. The largest tree known is called ‘General Sherman’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Sherman_(tree)) and has a circumference of 106ft and is over 2000 years old. Some trunks are wide enough to drive a car through (average measuring to 40ft). In height they are also mammoth in size, with the largest being measured at 275 ft but most averaging 150 to 200ft.

The oldest of these trees is known to be at least 3220 years old. Counting the number of rings determines the age of a tree accurately and it also can helps to show the conditions the tree lived through, with thicker rings being the years of stronger growth. These trees are only found in a small area on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and are rare.

One of the things you should do if you have a chance to get close to one of these giants is feel the bark. It’s spongy! The reddish brown fibrous bark can be 2 ft thick and provides important protection for the tree from forest fires and bug infestations. The bark is also is used for horticultural purposes.

Sequoia Cones

You have may noticed whenever you are at St Ann’s Academy visiting that there are lots of cones under these trees and near by, do not be alarmed, some trees have as many as 11000 cones at different stages of development on the tree. On average one of these big fellows will produce 1500 new cones a year.

Since their discovery Giant Sequoias have been a popular specimen tree planted in parks and other large properties. To grow this tree you will have to have a large space as you now know. They prefer well-drained sandy loam and adequate moisture during the dry growing season especially when they are young. Also when young they naturally are protected from the sun by other trees in the area, so full sun is not advised until the tree matures somewhat.

Attractive Sequoia Foliage

There are several well-known cultivars:

‘Pendula’ (old name Pendulum) that has extremely drooping branches on a very narrow tree which can be trained into uses such as hanging over an arbor or fence

‘Glaucum’(old name Glauca) which has attractive blue green coloring.

There appears to be many more that are likely to come onto the market soon.

To learn more about these trees check these links:

All you could want to know about these trees:

<!– @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } A:link { color: #0000ff } –>   http://users.telenet.be/sequoiadendron/en/giantsequoia.html

Look for new cultivars coming your way:

http://users.telenet.be/sequoiadendron/en/cultivars.html

When in Victoria Visit Beaconhill Park: http://www.beaconhillpark.ca/

One of Victoria’s’ most famous landmarks. http://www.fairmont.com/empress/

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