Pericles delights New Brunswick’s Lieutenant-Governor and visitors
L to R: Dale Lively, ADC to His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor; Mr. John Flemer; His Honour Herménégilde Chiasson, Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New Brunswick; Mrs. Lucinda Flemer; His Worship John Craig, Mayor of St. Andrews; Leona Golding, President, Business Improvement Area of St. Andrews; David Bennett, President, St. Andrews Chamber of Commerce
On July 26th, 2006 Kingsbrae Garden held a gifting ceremony and reception, unveiling “Pericles”, Kingsbrae Garden’s “Jurassic living fossil” wollemi pine to invited guests and all Garden members and visitors. The Town, Chamber and BIA (Business Improvement Association) of St Andrews formally presented their fabulous gift of Canada’s first wollemi pine to Mr & Mrs John & Lucinda Flemer, patrons of the 27-acre national award winning public garden. It is gratifying to know that the people of St Andrews share in the Flemers’ vision of a world class public garden, which they have worked so hard to create, maintain and nurture over the past 10 years.
This ‘first for Canada’ story further bolsters St Andrews’ reputation as Canada’s premier seaside resort town. Thousands of people are travelling to the southwest corner of the province for a look at the ‘dinosaur tree’, as it has been dubbed by some.
While several dignitaries attended the function, including New Brunswick’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Herménégilde Chiasson, the public was also invited to the event, with a light punch reception following. There were about 130 people in attendance, and several spoke feelingly of the excitement surrounding the young tree with an ancient lineage. It was a very special day in the history of Kingsbrae Garden.
Jay Remer, local innkeeper and a Kingsbrae Garden board member, was the driving force in acquiring the very special tree, via a Sotheby’s international web-based auction—their first tree auction ever! He knew that this would delight the Flemers, who not only gifted the province with the Garden property and set up a trust fund to keep it maintained in perpetuity, but also give generously to many other projects, locally, provincially and nationally. They recently endowed the Town of St Andrews and its young people with a well equipped $300,000 youth activity centre.
This astonishing botanical miracle of a tree species has existed, virtually unchanged or evolved, over millions of years; an ecological ‘good news’ story that says a lot for nature's tenacity. Small amounts of taxol, an anti-cancer agent, have already been discovered in a fungus on some of the wollemi pines—who knows what other scientific boons or lessons will be learned from these ancient trees?
It is thought that dinosaurs would have nibbled on its curious bottlebrush needles in the Cretaceous period, and the wollemi is related to 90 to 200 million year old species. This has been ascertained through existing fossils, which match the current growth exactly. The wollemi pines are also genetically indistinguishable from each other, even in separate groves in the wilds of Australia.
The wollemi pine is delighting visitors and Kingsbrae Garden staff with its exotic and vibrant new growth. One of the frequently asked questions is where the wollemi will spend the winter. As Australian winters are milder than those in Atlantic Canada, Pericles will be brought indoors for protection. Kingsbrae Garden and St Andrews are very proud of this notable new resident from “Down Under”, and to be the first in Canada to be involved in the worldwide conservation efforts of the wollemi pine.
