At what latitude grow the most northern palms of North Am.?

anttisepp · Post by **anttisepp** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 12:34 pm

Good day,
I'm new here. This spring I 'll plant my small collection of frost-hardy palms outdoors at the wind-shadowed south wall of my house.
The experience of Noth European collegues shows that my attemt may be succeessful.

It is very interesting to know, at what latitude grow the most northern palms of North America?
How long is the longest frost period and how severe the frosts are?

With all the best wishes,
Antti
South Finland

anttisepp · Post by **anttisepp** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 10:06 am

I've heard that some guy from Alaska also try to grow palms outdoors in very cold climate...

Cowtown Palm Society · Thu Aug 21, 2008 11:36 am

Hi Anttisep,

Here's a link to a thread from this forum about some Trachys in Sitka, Alaska, USA:

viewtopic.php?t=646&start=0&sid=11cbe6c ... 517f681e03

There's a picture at the bottom of the thread. I'll let you look up the latitude of Sitka. What latitude are you at? What are your min and max temperatures?

Duncan

anttisepp · Post by **anttisepp** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 1:29 pm

Hi Duncan,
thank you for a link, but to tell true, I've seen it some months ago. A mentoned another "palm place" in Alaska (Ancorage?) and discussion about it happened in PalmTalk several weeks ago.
Newertheless all northern experience is very valuable for me. I live in Imatra (lat. 61 grad), Southern Finland, not very far from the sea and between two large lakes. Microclimate is also very sutable. Our average tamperatures you can see here: http://weather.msn.com/monthly_averages ... wc:8633458
Last winters were very warm, mostly above the zero C. For my greatest sorry this summer was extremly cold so I didn't decide yet - to let all the plants to overwinter outdoors or to take the small ones in cold garage.
What is your latitude and how severe is cold period there? Do you grow successfully and how many hardy palms in your garden?
With best wishes Antti

Cowtown Palm Society · Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:46 am

Hi Antti,

Here's the temperature averages for Calgary, where I live:

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/statis ... 2/caab0049

I love palms and yuccas. All of my plants are currently in pots, which are moved inside for the winter. I currently have Trachy Fortunei, Needle Palm and Washy Robusta for palms, all of which are looking good (my Washy has been loving the recent heat: 35 Celsius on Monday). Although I know of people who try palms in the ground in similarly cold climates, in my opinion the amount of protection required for year-round outdoor plantings, of even the hardiest palm species, is somewhat of a stretch-we see at least -30 Celsius every winter, -33 this year. Having said that, once I have a suitable yard, I will likely try a hardy palm in the ground with some kind of elaborate winter protection scheme.

What is more interesting to me though, in a climate like mine, is the several potentially hardy yucca species, so far untested in Calgary: for example, Rostrata, Elata, Brevifolia. These plants, while likely needing some protection during the coldest snaps, offer far more potential, I think, than palms.

Having seen your temperature stats, you will be requiring some creative winter protection for your palms. I think it is great that you are trying palms Finland ...very exciting! Best of luck and keep us posted.

Duncan