Some of my best of 2009

BILL MA · Post by **BILL MA** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:32 pm

Hey Everyone,
I want to start by thanking everyone on this board for all of there great work this season. Here are some of my pictures of my yard this year. By the way I live in Southern Ma right off I-95 10 miles North of Providence RI. 1136 miles to Fla. border LOL!
Late April-May 09

Around June 15th 9 Three foot high basjoos planted from 5 gal. pots

Around early August

Sept.

Oct. 15 foot basjoos 34 inch wide leaves! I'm 6'3 250 standing on a 8 foot box.

Tibouchinas are blowing up right now

Best for last God Bless America

Enjoy,
Bill

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 7:54 pm

Simply amazing Bill!

Your place looks awesome!

Mark

oppalm · Post by **oppalm** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:19 am

Bill that is some great work. Your place looks tropical. What are your winter plans with the Washy Robustas? Those are great looking palms.

Knnn · Post by **Knnn** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:41 am

You've put a lot of work into your yard! Everything looks great

Steve

BILL MA · Post by **BILL MA** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 6:49 am

God bless Canada too

Paul Ont · Post by **Paul Ont** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:11 am

Lookin good Bill!

That banana fertilizer really works!

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 7:16 am

God bless everyone,esp coldhardy palm peeps!

Anyway!

Bill those are some great pics,unbelievable how big/fast the nanars,Trachys,Alocasia grew!
Looks like you have a similar situation as me,all(most) the cold hardy stuff is planted next to the house for protection so,ya can't really plant nanars and stuff in front of them without shading them!
I need to rethink where I will plant some of my Bananas and Castor's next year,esp that Abyssinian,that thing is going to be HUGE next year!!!

I still get a kick out of seeing you lugging that monster($60 washy,jeez I paid 20 for my midgets!)through the yard! What is planted between the 2 Washys in the back yard? I see you have 2 Needles,what are the 4 palms in the middle? Sabals? Chamaerops? which ones are which?

Thanks for posting the pics,looking forward to seeing them all covered-not really!

B.T.W. I did hack those Castor's down-so much better,my Washy,Butia and Agave get 3hrs more sun not to mention the cactus garden,oops

Barrie · Post by **Barrie** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:30 am

Ya no kidding! Tons of work, some of which looked back breaking

Any winter plans ... didn't the Patriots play in snow last weekend?
Interesting to see a 3 level home, something you never see here.

Cheers, Barrie.

macario · Post by **macario** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 12:08 pm

hello bill. Great stuff and the ball busting labor is one of my favorite parts of being a palm nut !!

ScottyON · Post by **ScottyON** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:54 pm

Simply amazing Bill!! I think that inspires all of us. Thanks for the props to Canada!!

BILL MA · Post by **BILL MA** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 4:23 pm

Thanks a ton everyone!

This is the greatest hobby in my opinion, plus it makes our yards unique and beautiful! I've learned so much from everyone here over the last few years, the internet has really made this possible for so many people that would have had no clue unless they had a degree in horticulture. Which I would love to have by the way! I'm not even sure they would realize they could grow these types of plants, it's all about trial and error without us and the internet palms would still be zone 8b+ most likely. Hats off to all the hardy palm growers we deserve it!

As for the washys guys, they are amazing trees! The weather men blew the forecast by 11 degrees late night here. All I can say was Ouch!!! They said 36 low it was 25.6, what is up with that? All my nanas except for my basjoo were zapped! I don't know why the basjoos made it but it's kinda amazing, maybe it's all the potasium from the banana fuel! Trust me when I say 25.6, there was a 5 gal. bucket 15 feet away from the basjoos that froze 2+ inches thick. Wanna hear the kicker? The washys appeared 60% damaged with black all over them at 9 am when I went out to look. Talk about a very upset palm nut! All I could do was walk around shaking my head looking at all the damage for about a hour before I started chopping. Funny thing is by 11 almost all the black was back to green on the washys

I couldn't believe my eyes, it was sunny all day and around 70 so that probably made the difference. I never knew palms could repair themselves like that. I wish I took pictures because it sounds fishy I know but if you saw what I saw you would be amazed too. No more messing around there getting freeze pruf tomorrow. My goal is to leave them out as long as possible not kill them

The middle palms are saw palmetto (they had purple spots) behind is a chamaerops. The sabals are in a different bed not pictured.

I love the hard work guys it's good for us! Plus it pays of by saving us tons of money. I'll post pictures of my insulated/heated washy houses when there up. Hope it's a while still.

Thanks again guys,
Bill

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:40 pm

WOW!

hilashes · Post by **hilashes** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 2:23 pm

AWESOME job Bill! Amazing work! Holy cow~!

Heidi

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:44 pm

Nice Bill,I was happy to hear your Washys recovered -getting back up to 70F the next day is probably a detail that gets left out of some palm survival(fish)stories!

BILL MA · Post by **BILL MA** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:19 am

Yeah they look Ok! The day after the cold was high 60's and yesterday and today are low 70's I'm sure that didn't hurt them. They should be able to take those temps with no long term damage anyways.

Bill

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 1:12 pm

It was probably a very brief event too,couple hours at most.
Whats up with freeze pruf? Did it not arrive in time, or did you not think you needed it/didn't get around to it?

Okanagan desert-palms · Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:47 pm

Bill that`s awesome. Nice to see your washy`s did not get freeze burnt. You might want to try a an appliance dolly to move any more bigger palms in the future. Your back must have been killing you pulling them with a rope.

John

Windmill Palm guy · Post by **Windmill Palm guy** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 2:48 pm

So I'm guessing the Windmill's were not even phased by the cold?

BILL MA · Post by **BILL MA** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:32 pm

Jim, the forecast was off by 11 degrees so I didn't think I needed the freeze pruf yet! I put it on today for safe measure our temps were 77 today beautiful!

My back was fine John, I'm no stranger to hard work I guess! My large rubber tire dolly was at another site at the time, of course right. It worked fine pulling them they were only 400 pounds!

Your right the Trachys just laugh at those temps, I'll cover them in early Dec. most likely.

Bill

ScottyON · Post by **ScottyON** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:47 pm

77! Very nice! I was reading what you posted on that other board and one guy replied that your washies might be exposed to fungi? I'm wondering if you should treat them with some bordo to be on the safe side? Mine had some dark green spots almost black in mid september when we had all that rain.. I used the bordo and the spots turned a lot lighter and look pretty much fine now. Maybe give that a try if you get worried.

BILL MA · Post by **BILL MA** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 8:26 am

Yeah Scott, the weather has been awesome for the last three days here. We have a ton of rain coming for Friday night through Saturday, I'm planning on covering the washys with a tarp to keep them dry. They've been through enough this week, time for some pampering. Maybe I should treat them with something. The freeze pruf has a little bit of stick to it still, maybe I'll wait til Sunday after it's done raining. I just don't want to over do it with the sprays ya know.

Good call though Scott, I'll go get some later today.

Thanks,
Bill

ScottyON · Post by **ScottyON** » Fri Oct 23, 2009 1:46 pm

Sounds like a good idea Bill! We had some nice temps this week too. Got up to about 70ish, no 77 though! Lots of rain today and tomorrow but nice sunday. I like that idea of covering them with a tarp to keep the rain off. We may not get as many warm, warm days to help dry them out! But we can only hope! I know that this week they are calling for temps in the low to mid 60's so can't complain. If you do decide to use the bord it leaves a bit of a blue residue on the leaves, no big deal though.

Have a good weekend...