Nampa, ID palms!

[desertdave]

I assume that many on this board have heard the legend of the Trachycarpus palms growing at a car dealership in Nampa, Idaho. I told someone that I would update everyone on the condition of the palms this winter.

I visited Nampa earlier today, two days after an inversion-fueled 7 F night, to see if they survived. Surprisingly, the smaller palms on the lot (which I did not get pictures of) seemed to have minimal damage, but the two big ones seemed to take it on the chin a bit more. I don't know for sure but the small ones may have been protected, possibly with blankets? I did not get a close view, but I did not see any heating cables on them this year, unlike last year.

Here are comparison pics of the tree on the south side of the entrance compared to this summer, and to the one on the north side of the entrance. The poorer picture quality of today's pics may be due to the camera (a Motorola camera phone vs. a Sony Cybershot used this summer) and/or the cloudy, hazy conditions today. The new pics also have some pear trees in the background.

Trachycarpus in Nampa, December 10
Original picture of Trachycarpus this summer
Trachycarpus on north side of driveway, Dec. 10

[macario]

That palm looks like is been beat up real bad. Thats zone 4 right? all I have to say is OUCH! Did you ask them what kind it was? It looks kind of weak I doubt it blooms, it looks like its probably use all its energy to stay alive. That does go to show that the older they are the hardy they are. You gave me a lil more confidence now, I was thinking about buying these two 9 year old takils, being in zone 6 with a zone 7 micro climate, They should do fine.

[DesertZone]

Nampa is about a zone 6-6b

[DesertZone]

Thanks desertdave for the pics and the bettter info on the palms Nice to have you here

[desertdave]

Here is a picture of one of those famous Nampa palms, one month after the cold spell (and after relatively mild weather and almost 5 inches of rain):

[DesertZone]

Looks like it will survive Can't wait to see more of it in the future. dave do you have any other pics of palms or other thing to share

[desertdave]

I drove by the Nampa car dealership with the palms a few days ago to check on the palms, and browse at cars for a second or two... Too bad for them a new Accord is out of my price range... Anywho, the little ones (1-2 gallon size) are all dead; they died in December during that inversion (low at my house of 8 F, with plenty of humidity but no fog this time) or February's Arctic blast (low at my house 12 F, lots of wind). The two big ones, though, survived. They lost a few fronds to the cold, and others were damaged, but they have both pushed out a couple of new fronds that look 100 percent healthy and green. Looks to me that they will make it at least another year. If the weather stays nice and not too hot this spring, they should recover nicely.

I did not get pics because I didn't really want to get out of the car and risk people trying to sell me one of those Accords, to get a close up shot of the new fronds. Oh well, if I find myself in Nampa again this spring I will get some; I prolly will not go over there just to do that because of the gas prices right now and the fact that my car (a 1988 Ford Taurus) gets 18 mpg. Nampa is 18 miles away and I don't want to spend $6 or $7 of gas to drive that far JUST for a few pics unfortunately. (Good thing about my car: That thing is as good as a truck. I bought 11 rhododendron bushes and 9 cubic feet of soil amendments a week ago and carried it all home in my back seat and trunk, with no damage to anything. Rhodies didn't even lose a leaf!)

[Okanagan desert-palms]

Dave thats awsome you keep us informed on those Nampa T.fortunei. I`m starting to feel a real connection with them as I`m basically in the same zone. Long live the Nampa TRACHIES!!!!!!!!!!!!
John

[desertdave]

A few updates about palm tree plantings in the Boise area:

- Nampa: The two large Trachycarpus palms at the entrance to the Honda dealership are alive and seemingly pulling out of last winter's damage pretty well. Sry I forgot to take my camera when I went to Nampa book shopping the other day but those palms look fine. Many fronds were damaged last winter; most were left on b/c they had a lot of healthy tissue left. Both had new fronds pushing up that looked 100% healthy. The smaller ones that died of exposure appear to have been replaced with dogwoods and other temperate climate plants.

- Boise: I don't remember if it was on here or another board, but I was informed last fall of a property owner in the Boise foothills near the Governor's mansion (Simplot's house) that planted Trachy's along his driveway. Most were defoliated last winter; I drove by that house today and found that several (don't remember how many, someone in a 4x4 had been tailgating me for about five miles and I was trying to keep her out of my back seat) had begun to push up new fronds. Also, I saw a local news report interviewing somebody in the Boise area with palms planted near their pool.

- Hidden Springs: A landowner is building a large, Mediterraneanesque mansion overlooking this planned development north of Boise, in north Ada County. In his driveway he has planted two large palms. I could not tell the species for sure but I would suspect they are mature Trachy's (~30 ft tall). They are quite thick trunked though, hairy in the Trachycarpus tradition but almost as thick as a W. filifera.

I have a digital camera again, so I will post pics as soon as I can get them. The Hidden Springs palms and the house they were at looked really awesome.

[DesertZone]

Cool

[DesertZone]

Hey.... I was just in Nampa, and happened to drive by the 2 big palms there! They are doing great and look much better then they did in the last photos. They look as good as any I have seen anywhere So happy to see them
I also seen many large and very large recurvifolias, one was 7-8 feet tall! There is also a very large one at the Mall off the main drag there. Sorry I did not have my camera

[Jay-Admin]

That's awesome. Would be cool to see some updated pics if someone could get some.

[Wes North Van]

Long live these palms.
Trachies are so amazing.

[nucci60]

desertdave, were these trachys planted as large palms or were they grown there? how many years have they been at this spot? They look so exposed with no wind protection from buildings. Keep us posted, it encourages all us zone pushers.

[DesertZone]

Hi,
I took these today and was happy to see the Nampa palms are still alive. They are not near as nice as when I seen them a couple of years ago in the fall, but I know we have had some bad winters sence. This spring was also very cool and growth of plants are very far behind in Idaho. But with all that said I think they will be with us for many years to come.





And a pic of a 5-6 foot yucca recurvafolia

[Wes North Van]

Good to see they have survived. By the end of summer they will look a lot better with more fronds.
Y. recurvs are easily the fasted and best suited trunking yucca for this climate. Mine has grown incredible fast in two years having branched out already.

[DesertZone]

You are right Wes, last I seen these palms it was in the fall and they had big nice full crowns.

Recurvs are awesome! I bet if the one in the pic was cleaned up it would have a whole new look to it.