Browsing palms for sale today on my way home from work...

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Tue May 03, 2011 10:29 pm

...but it is a stretch to call most of these "cold hardy."

Photo 1 is from Lowes, a chain big-box store. From front to back in the blue-pot "cold hardy palm" section of the garden section are:
--needle palms (should be fine here)
--blue med. fan palms (would need protection, but awful nice looking)
--green med fan palms (need protection, but mine has done well with 4 winters in ground)
--jelly/pindo palms (need serious protection, but beautiful and at $94/13 gallon pot very tempting)

Surprises:
--no Sabal minor (the Lowes I went to in Tyler, Texas last month had them--why not here?)
--no Trachy. That ought to be a given.

Photo 2 shows me at the roadside palm stand. Same family business as the one where I bought a Bizzie last year and where W bought me the doomed cabbage palmetto. This branch is run by the son. I talked to him for quite awhile. He took a cell-phone snapshot of me in front of a pygmy date palm. In bloom: $90.

Photo 3 shows this years assortment of Bismarckia ($35). Cold damaged down in Florida. They buy palms in Homestead, south of Miami. If even palms there are cold damaged, imagine what the winter was like. :lickice:

Photo 4 shows the bottle palms ($30)

So, any advice on which if any I should buy?

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DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Wed May 04, 2011 6:11 am

Buy them all.

But if I could only get one I would try the blue med.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:53 am

At least one of each of course!

KrisK · Post by **KrisK** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:23 pm

I stopped there too, a few weeks ago - the stand at the old shell station in BA, right? I really wanted a bismark and a bottle palm, but have ran out of room in the garage for winter storage. Heck I wanted a pdp also! All mine made it thru our brutal winter quite well and I chalk it up to the hardyness of the palms, cuz it sure wasn't my experience! My in ground palms are like those you listed: needle, windmill, sabal, and green mfp's. Can't go wrong with those, after this past winter. I found it odd that almost everything at that stand is an "annual" here. Cool stuff for sure tho

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:28 pm

Kris,
welcome! We'll have to get together this Summer. My palms are around a pool in Bixby. We vacation to a tropical beach after work every day in summer

I headed out with my truck over lunch break to get the biggest PDP and bottle palms they had but alas my old truck died en route. Maybe the wife will let me use her station wagon. I brought a big palm home from Alligater Alley in OKC with it last year.

Anyway, if you can start an "introduction" post and share photos of your palms, that would be most welcome here.
--Erik

KrisK · Post by **KrisK** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:35 pm

Thanx
I've been watching the boards awhile but never posted.
A pdp and bottle would be really cool as long as you have a place to overwinter them.
I can take some pix later of my small collection and start a new thread as I don't want to derail your thread.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:41 pm

Yes, we like photos on this board.
And the folks up in Canada like to see palms where they are growing already!
I have to run now, but i'll PM you later with email, telephone and facebook contact info. --Erik

JackLord · Post by **JackLord** » Wed May 04, 2011 12:45 pm

Interesting Erik. The local HD has the same lineup, with Sabal Minors being conspiculously absent.

Meds are probably the most attractive of the hardies, but require the most protection.

Needles and Trachys can, in theory, eventually stand alone.

So, do you want more aethestics with more work or less aethestics with less work?

TimMAz6 · Post by **TimMAz6** » Wed May 04, 2011 6:42 pm

I'd get the bottle palms...very cool looking.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:37 pm

Tim,
W likes the bottle palms, too, so I'll definitely get one of those.
W is worried that the PDP's spines would tear up the interior of her car.
My truck was towed to the mechanics and so will be unavailable for an indefinite time.

--Erik

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:41 pm

Oooooh, Erik.
They'd be crammed into my car...all of 'em.

I'm with the bottle palm and PDP group.
PDP spines aren't bad...only at the bottom, just wrap with an old blanket to save the car interior.
Nice looking specimens.

and KrisK, welcome to PN, happy to have you aboard.
Can't wait to see your palms!

Erik...obviously not the nursery you work at?

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:50 pm

Barb,
thanks!
No, not the nursery where I work. That is definitely the finest nursery in the area and people drive long distances to buy there. Want a Hosta? They have 'em all. Et cetera.
But--they do not know palms. They had Trachy for sale last weekend which were labelled as "med fan palm"

And their needle palms are stocked with Rhapsis and other houseplants.

--Erik

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Wed May 04, 2011 7:55 pm

Trachy for sale last weekend which were labelled as "med fan palm"

That can work in your favor for pricing

Gonna get a few needles?
You probably wouldn't need to protect them at all after 2 or 3 years.
Probably ! LOL

Barb

Okanagan desert-palms · Thu May 05, 2011 11:38 am

Lucky you Erik .I would be like a kid in a candy store and buy way to many palms. Nice selection.

John

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Thu May 05, 2011 9:32 pm

I made a pass through the local Home Depot. Similar "cold hardy blue pot" palms (photo 1). They had Trachy at least, but not Sabal minor or the blue cerifera. Annoying was the "cold hardy" sticker on Livistonia. I have not grown them, but I am sceptical of calling them cold hardy in zone 6b.
They also had queen palms and Wodyetia palms in five gallon pots.

Instead, I took W's station wagon to the roadside palm vendor and bought three bottle palms @ $30 each. (Photo 2).

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sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Fri May 06, 2011 7:11 am

Cool...Wish we had that many of them up north here!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Fri May 06, 2011 1:18 pm

OMG Erik those Bottle Palms are fab-u-lous!!!!!!

For 30 bucks?
Wow what a bargain.

Good! Now I'm not the only one in the "how to prune the base of a bottle palm class"

(I flunked, if you recall)

And since there was a chicken in the pic, I presume that was back at home?

Great buys!
Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sat May 07, 2011 9:06 pm

Yes, I thought the bottle palms were great buys, given that small cold damaged Bismarckia were $35. Remember, this "Florida palms for OK" thing is a hobby for this family. I made a case for OK's native palm, Sabal minor, and hope they go big with them next year.
Now, I have to figure out what to do with the bottle palms. Can they take intense heat/sun/dry winds? If so, my plan is to pot plant them now and then pot-up in September for the winter indoors. I'm hoping they are more forgiving than Cocos....

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sun May 08, 2011 10:13 am

Erik,
In my experience (babying my Bottle Palm), it gets only morning sun because it needs high humidity (think Hawaii).
We have zilch humidity in summer so it's mostly in shade.
I mist it twice daily.

Since you have humidity in summer, they may be able to take sun.
But we never really know how a palm was grown at the nursery.
So if leaves sunburn, get it into dappled shade.

Mine gets lots of warmed water in summer.

I think pot planting for the first year is a good idea to see what conditions it may prefer.

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Sun May 08, 2011 2:07 pm

Yesterday we had a high of 82F,dewpoint 7F and humidity of 6%

That is some wacky shite for Fairfield Iowa!

Remember last summer when the dewpoint went to 86F?

The heat index was 134F-bizarre

I don't ever remember seeing numbers like that before,
maybe in Phoenix or some jungle location.

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sun May 08, 2011 8:50 pm

Jim,
I do remember. No, never got that humid here. I think you were as warm as me today.

I spent the entire day outdoors in the sun selling annual bedding plants to fund my palm hobby.
I'm as sunburned as if I was in the tropics

Barb,
I don't get dewpoints like Jim does. That is why we put a mister system up--to raise the humidity for the plants.
(Ah, does me good to think "summer protection" while still counting winter casualties....)

Tentatively, two of the bottle palms will be pot-planted where they will benefit from the mister and one will not be.
I hate to think of bottle palms as so cheap I can experiment with them, but hey, US$30?!?
I think W gave me permission to buy more (in lieu of the giant PDP).
Who would of thought of using cheap bottle palms to test summer protection methods? This is a peculiar hobby....
--Erik

JackLord · Post by **JackLord** » Mon May 09, 2011 7:40 am

This is a peculiar hobby....

To say the least.

Somewhere in Tonga, Samoa, or Hawaii, a bunch of eccentrics are trying to make their back yards look like the Yukon.

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon May 09, 2011 7:54 am

Erik, I paid what seems like an arm and a leg for mine, so have to be very careful.
It sure is easier to experiment with a low-priced specimen.
Also because you have three.
Apart from the bottle shape, they're unusual in that they never get more than 4 or 5 leaves.

Jack,

Somewhere in Tonga, Samoa, or Hawaii, a bunch of eccentrics are trying to make their back yards look like the Yukon.

Good one!
We could give them tips on how to kill a Blue Spruce.

Barb

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Mon May 09, 2011 8:10 am

Supposed to be in the 90s tomorrow Erik.

The thermometer at the airport is surrounded by corn fields.
Last year we had 72 (in a row) days 80 or above and 60" of rain,May-Sept.

You add that kind of water in the ground and all that corn transpiring
and you can get some serious humidity.