Palms welcome in the spring and summer in New Jersey.

[sidpook]

Hello All,
mike Trautenr here from Audubon, NJ...So glad to be out of winter and into the safety of spring. it has been really mild to hot here since march. Great spring with even a few days intot he 90s already. My two outdoor trachys are doing well after a long snowy winter. I just wanted to post some of my pics taken around the jersey shore in some of my favorite places, Wildwood and cape May , NJ...People have palms and other hardy tropicals ina lto fo places right along the coast. Enjoy the pics. BTW...still trying to kill off my bamboo jungle ...if any of you have any advice...it is scary after all the snow and rain we have had over the past winter and spring months.

Best to all,
mike

[TerdalFarm]

Mike,
we hit 90oF for the first time today.
My Trachy, which suffered so much over the winter (near complete defoliation) is growing fast.
My golden bamboo died to the ground. Three tiny shoots are coming up ~3' away from the dead clump. Funny.
So, to kill it, I prescribe intense cold and wind.
Can you post those photos?
--Erik

[sidpook]

The snow and wind and cold did nothing to it, it has come back with a vengeance this spring...I am pilling, drilling and trying to cut out at least 20 to 40 new sprouts a day...I could always buy a panda....

[TerdalFarm]

Horses and goats like bamboo, so if panda's are expensive, get a few goats. --Erik

[gpenny]

Seriously man! Where were those pictures taken? If it was Cape May then how do they protect them? (went to Coast Guard boot camp there and froze to death!)

[sidpook]

They dig a lot of them up and stroe them, and there are also places onthe bay side of Cape May thathave a lot of cold hardy old palms that stay inthe ground all year.

[Paul Ont]

Mike- Great pics! They do a similar (though not nearly as extensive) thing in Port Dover, Ontario. You drive into the town and there is a grove of Sabal palmetto in a sub-division (dug and and stored over winter); then you get to the waterfront and there are 20 cocos nucifera planted for the summer... Crazy to do that. Of course, the only palms that might survive in port Dover (z. 6b) are needles and Sabal minor, and they really don't have the same appeal!

Oh, and you're nuts trying to kill a bamboo now. let it exhaust its resources sending up the new culms then chop them back when they are just about to leaf out (it will have the least energy at this point). It will then respond by sending out some slightly smaller culms which can then be treated with a systemic herbicide (We can't get effective herbicides here anymore due to a , I think reasonable, new law, but I think you still can. Be damn sure that you buy the proper herbicide as many of them don't work on monocots). Then chop the canes back again after about 5 days. Repeat this as many times as necessary. To speed the process you can try digging up pieces of rhizome, since, to plant anything ever again you're going to need to do that anyway!

Oh, and I think you're crazy for taking out any bamboo... I can barely keep the stuff alive up here!

[TerdalFarm]

[quote="Paul Ont"]

Oh, and I think you're crazy for taking out any bamboo... I can barely keep the stuff alive up here![/quote]

I can barely keep the stuff alive here, and I am at a slightly lower latitude than he is.
--Erik

[lucky1]

Those pics are from NEW JERSEY?????
Unbelievably beautiful...and hibiscus!

They dig up those big palms located on each side of the path (don't think they're Bottle Palms...maybe spindle??)
Holy cow!
I turn to look at my puny excuses called "palms"... I'm sooooo jealous.

Re your bamboo...OR (option #3), you can have a bulldozer dig them up and send them to Paul
What a forest!

It's so cold here again I'm ready to quit.
Barb

[sidpook]

Hey all,
Glad to be back on again after a long winter...Love this season. I'm even more palm crazy now than ever before....My neighbors think i am weird....in a nice way of course...LOL It's nice to know other people are as crazy for palms as I am.
mike

[BILL MA]

Mike,
That is a great display they put on in Cape May! I was thinking more on the lines of Naples since there wasn't burn on the cocos.
I was just in the St. Pete area and most of the zone 10 palms where ok if they went into the winter healthy, the the ones that where
neglected are most likely down for the count.

Good luck on the bamboo, I've always wanted to plant some but I don't want to deal with that.

Bill

[sidpook]

Thanks Bill, I am currently winning the bamboo wars. Although it has come at a price: scratched cornea and a rusty puncture wound...LOl. I'm always in trouble! Chat soon
Mike