Pure Washingtonia filifera and a few other pics.

[Laaz]

I had to go through down town today on the way to the beach. Looked over while at a red light & saw this monster. The trunk is as wide as my Tahoe.

[Laaz]

Also stopped by a nursery. The lady didn't know what this plant was & neither do I. Looks like a cordy, but not really sure. She said it is tropical only and can not be planted outside.

[Laaz]

And I picked up a nice cordy for $20

[PALMETTOMAN]

Hey Laaz..

Now thats one nice looking trunk eh!

What intersection was that near?


Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

[Laaz]

Hi PALMETTOMAN. It is on the crosscut from I26 to the james island connector. It has been there a long time... It is now the parking area for the new Mcdonalds, right across from MUSC. The building you see in the background is the MUSC parking garage.

[Barrie]

Did you notice what appears to be a palm without a crown of leaves next to the stop sign? I wonder what happened and whether or not it's still alive?
The Washingtonia filifera looks very healthy!

Cheers, Barrie.

[Laaz]

Barrie that is a hurricane cut Sabal Palmetto. There are about 20 of those just recently planted in the same location. They can take 3-5 years to regrow their crown. I drove around the area & there are no other Washingtonias with the 4 blocks I drove. I picked up the few seeds I found around the tree, they should produce true.

Heres a pic from Gary's nursery showing how the palms are sold. Sometimes they leave the old boots on and sometimes they clean the trunk...

[Barrie]

What's the benefit or advantage to the hurricane cut? Is it less of a demand for the tree to maintain fewer fronds while the palm roots in after planting?

Cheers, Barrie.

[Laaz]

What's the benefit or advantage to the hurricane cut? Is it less of a demand for the tree to maintain fewer fronds while the palm roots in after planting?

Cheers, Barrie.

Exactly. Sabals will die if you leave the fronds on. These are all dug from farms and root pruned, so the crown must be cut off.

[PALMETTOMAN]

Nice shots from Gary's Laaz..

C/town has lots of nice palm's but I'll have to check out that old palm over near MUSC when I'm down there nxt yr...

Is it near the Hardee's?...


Palmettoman Z6-Ajax, On

[Laaz]

Yes it is. Across the road on the side of the new McDonalds parking lot. Will probably be quite a few seedlings popping up by then. They just did the new landscaping so it's covered with new mulch right now...

[virtualpalm]

Also stopped by a nursery. The lady didn't know what this plant was & neither do I. Looks like a cordy, but not really sure. She said it is tropical only and can not be planted outside.

This is what is commonly known as a screw pine or screw palm (most likely Pandanus utilis); it is neither a pine nor a palm. They get huge here in south Florida. Here is some more information on it:

http://www.floridata.com/ref/P/pandanus.cfm

Jody

[Laaz]

Seedlings popping from that fat washy above.

[Dean W.]

Nice, Laaz!

Dean

[Wes North Van]

Laaz. have you got anymore seeds. I got lots of fresh trachy seeds that are germinating like crazy right now.

[Laaz]

Wes I'll take a ride down there next weekend and see what I can find. I can always use plenty of Trachy seeds

[Wes North Van]

Todd,
let me know. I can always send you some more seeds.

[Barrie]

I think the cities in the Okanagan Valley should have these Washingtonia filifera used as temporary summer street trees. You know, large (ish) specimen in big planters on a boulevard etc that can be set out by the parks board and stored for winter. They'd love the summer that you guys get there, plenty of heat and sun.

Cheers, Barrie.

[lucky1]

Barrie,
Great idea.
They'd look so good in those big exposed aggregate planters.
Maybe it'd catch on if one community did it.

Barb

[Okanagan desert-palms]

Great idea Barrie. I guess I could make up an info package for W.filifera and M.Basjoos and go down to the parks dept. They mostly have things planted like flowers and Canna lillies. Cost and close mindedness re: palms, bananas will be the biggest hurdle to having this happen. I can hear it now "but we`ve always done it this way" .Maybe if I donate about 10 of my W.filifera and get the city to buy another 10 or more larger ones and show em pics of Victoria,Nanaimo.Tswwassen,Salt Spring Island, Vancouver public plantings. Maybe worth a shot.


John

[Barrie]

John and Barb ... these are tremendous palms, worthy of some showing in even some small scale in a high profile area. I know what you mean when you say "but we`ve always done it this way". I've dealt (albeit indirectly) with Parksville city council on Vancouver Island. It's a very affluent community here and certainly capable of authorizing expendatures for sizeable public gardens. My spokesperson was very ardent but was unsuccessfull in perseuding council on public palm plantings in conjuction with a "community in blooms" project. (what better chance)
I'm not sure what the hold up was dispite many other cities already on the band wagon. Funny how some old fuddy-duds can say ... "ohh, there not native here!", while all the nurseries in town sell palms and a million other non native plants.
I don't know what the best approach is for your communties are but even some assistance / input to the parks board people might be the kicker. Rudy Pinkowski did this for Vancouver back in the 80's and look at the English Bay area of the city now ... the Canadian riviera!

Best of luck and Cheers, Barrie.

[lucky1]

Don't we (Kelowna or Vernon or ? ) have a sister city in California?
That might be a convincing angle.

Barrie, there's always a fuddy duddy in every crowd; just a matter of finding someone like you did,
who will keep their feet to the fire...or find an advocate in the parks department.

Vernon's entrance and exit highways are awful (compared to Kelowna's gorgeous landscaping).
Our council squabbled over who was looking after the landscaping on the medians and divided highway near the Scales.
They couldn't reach consensus, so...they let the plants die.
I was appalled at this stupidity.

The only argument I could think of is where would they be kept to overwinter?

Great idea Barrie!
Barb

[Barrie]

Barb ... when I lived on the BC mainland, Delta had an arrangment with some local greenhouses to store some of their summer plantings. Hoewlings Nursery alone had 47 acres under glass back then, who knows what they have now, and that's just one operation!
A small fee by one of the local greenhouse could certanly be arranged (you'd think) for a half dozen or more Washingtonia filifera. Shame about the highway plantings in Kelowna. Maybe some tough, low maintenance Yucca elata or such things would eliminate the problem of who's in charge of what.
There's no scripted method as to what works other than persistance and a sympathetic ear of someone in command.

Cheers, Barrie.

[lucky1]

Barrie,
It's Vernon that allowed its median plants to die.
Kelowna's are lovely.

A citizen's committee could easily shame local government into some progress in Vernon.
I can just see myself and my friends' old fat rear ends sticking into highway traffic
Barb

[ChattanoogaChris]

did you just stick'em in the dirt?

[neonrider]

What's the benefit or advantage to the hurricane cut? Is it less of a demand for the tree to maintain fewer fronds while the palm roots in after planting?

Cheers, Barrie.

Exactly. Sabals will die if you leave the fronds on. These are all dug from farms and root pruned, so the crown must be cut off.

Not necessarily. I have about 20 tall Sabals in my yard and many were planted with full or almost full fronds and none has died so far in several years, except one may be in trouble as it was planted with very weakened fronds that looked sick yellow-green.