Country diary: Standing in the shadow of a giant | Sean Wood

Dumfries, Scotland: It's strange to think sequoias are more numerous here than in their homeland California. This one, down the road from me, is captivating companyAs a young boy, my copy of Strange But True contained fascinating photographs of a coach and horses and a Model T Ford driving through a hole in an enormous sequoia. Recently, these monsters have been in the news due to the number of sequoias, or giant redwoods, in the UK - about 500,000 here, compared with only about 80,000 in California, where the species is endangered after being used in construction for two centuries.I was reminded of a very large tree on my patch in Galloway, at the Crichton Campus in Dumfries. I have photographed the monster previously, thinking it a large cedar, but it is indeed one of our stock of Sequoiadendron giganteum (note the clue in the name), introduced to Britain's country gardens and large estates in the 18th and 19th centuries. This specimen was planted in the early 1850s with seeds from the Lobb brothers, plant collectors who also introduced the monkey puzzle tree here. Continue reading...