PalmsNorth.com

Hello I just wanted to mention all the death I saw in Phoenix this week. I went to phoenix to do landscaping for my brother at his new house. There was death at every house and every nursery.

They only palms un fazed where washy filifera , Chamearops humilus , phoenix dactylifera medjool , Sabal minor

palms with slight damage leaf burn where Phoenix canariensis , Queen palm , Butia capitata , phoenix robellini

massacred palms 50 % or more damage or death were Phoenix sylvestris , Bismarckia nobilis , Attalea butyracea , phoenix robellini , Bird of paradise , Cuban royal , Foxtail palm

Damage was consistant north and south phoenix. So needless to say I bought a large flowering medjool with about 20" of trunk and a large sabal minor home with me this trip.

Mike,
I had heard the bad news from friends who were RV-ing there the last few months.

Good to hear about the Washy filifera, Chamearops humilis , phoenix dactylifera medjool , Sabal minor.
I'm surprised Phoenix dacty survived, they often take a while to show fatal damage.

That was a long way to go landscaping!
Will look forward seeing that medjool and sabal, must be gorgeous.

Thanks!
Barb

Hey barb, my youngest brother called me to tell me he got estimates for 3500 to 5000 to get his yard in order. I told him I would come and help.

It was fun he had about 20 wheel barrels full of rocks scattered over his yard that I removed. I planted 3 new palms about 100 rolls of sod, replaced all his pop up irrigation heads and irrigation timer, put wrought iron around the side of his house and pool pumps. Replaced a huge percent of his soil and amended it. And added soil to planters and new irrigation to the planters and queen palm in the front of his house. Planted a large grape fruit tree and then bougainvillea in planters.

I post pics of the palms I bought tomorrow

I'm looking forward to those photos. Thanks for the damage report.
How cold did they get? I would have thought Butia would have been fine for them.

Sounds like a productive trip Mike

Did you ever get those Parryi you mentioned???

I wish I had more room in the cactus garden...

Cactus are so tough and if I could keep the moisture/air drier
in there they would literally be.....spotless!

Wow, you did a lot at his place!
Did you get some photos of the finished job?

Landscape companies must be hurting big time in So Cal and AZ with all the empty homes, etc.

Look forward to seeing pics of what you brought home.
Sounds fabulous.
Barb

Well heres a couple pics before I loaded it up for the journey home. I measured the phoenix from the soil line up to the tip over the fronds its 10ft. The phoenix also has 2 pups sticking out the side and 5 flower spathes in the center waiing to open. Do you think I should remove the pups, they have over 36" fronds on themselves.

The sabal minor from soil line to tip of fronds is 60" I have one in the ground outside Im going to plant my new minor next to it.

The Sabal minor looks like a Brasoria palmetto.

funny you should say that the guy I bought the palms from called the dwarf sabals lol. The two canary island date palms I got for my brother he called them pine apple palms.

Jim I did get a few agave and a nice variegated one.

TerdalFarm they had leaf tip damage mostly. I didnt realize the desert we so windy !!

Mike, wow nice specimens.

As to cutting the pups off, I'd leave them, but I have no experience with big gorgeous beautiful palms like that
Hopefully somebody who knows the risk will chime in.
It'll be good to see pics of where you plant those beauties.

Oh yeah, the desert's windy...but aren't you going back to the Windy City? (Detroit? Chicago?)

Yes Phoenix are called pineapple palms mostly in so.california because they're pruned to that "top pineapple" shape, with a clear trunk below.
Here's a plastic one http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/524 ... 3ebcc3.jpg

Steve07
Thanks again for your help with my toxic fertilizer application.
They're all recovering nicely.
Grateful for your kind advice.

Barb

Thnx for the pics and the explanation. I have seen that style of trimming around in florida also.

Barb Im trying to sell my building and move so I may not put the medjool in the ground I have a 45 and 65 gallon pot I may put it in temporarily. you wouldnt happen to be able to suggest a soil type for the medjool ?

I am planting the sabal minor in the ground on the weekend.

Hi Mike,
You're probably not moving to Canada
West Coast? Arizona? somewhere warmer? (just jealous!)

My old CIDP is in a gritty granular free draining soil mix (not acidic, mine is 7.2 pH) with some sand added.
Not quite a cactus mix but close to it.
It sits in the hottest spot at my place full sun morning to sundown, gets 5 gallons water every week from a bucket.
Pot is a big plastic garbage can, nice pots were too expensive.

Will look forward to seeing that Sabal planted...and your other stuff that we haven't seen for a while.

Barb

Nice palms!, that sabal is awesome.

Barb,

You're welcome. That's great news that your palms are doing better.

Mike

Any idea when your picking up your palms?


Also-I would love to see pics of the Agave.

I was thinking of on the 1st. Thats hard moving all those palms. Which agave do you want to see? I have the pots adjusting to outdoor light now and my new one next the rest

Whatever you want to take a picture of

-how about any or all

I dont know if this will work. My yard looks ruff needs some yard work done. I am re arranging everything in my yard before I officially start clean the yard and replanting things. This is just the things in the ground. I have 6 large palms in storage like a queen 14" tall and a pindo about 10" double christmas palms and a few others. I also have cycads and phylo'd to bring out and some banana. Ill make another video when Im closer to finished.

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It worked great!
The video (vs. photo) does a much better job of showing size and scale. Thanks for making the effort.

That Washy--no electric heat? Looks super. What did you do for it?
--Erik

Mike
Great video! It's been a while since I've seen your palm garden.
Gotta love that female trachy (outgrowing the male)

Boy those Washies are fabulous.
Did they ALL receive no heat this winter, or just the one at the back with the winter burn?

I'm sorry about the loss of the sabal palmetto at that size but you've got some A-1 planting areas there for new stuff (envy envy!!!!)
That lilac is no loss, right?
I'd dig mine up if I didn't think the roots would send 4,000 suckers to the surface.

Great yuccas and cactus...nice 2-headed Thompsoniana.
(and no, you didn't butcher the names)

Did your big Spanish Bayonet (yucca type against the house) croak?
Didn't see it and I think it was up against the brick in a planter years ago?

I can't get over how good those Washies look
Outstanding!

Thanks for taking the time to do the video, Mike.
Barb

Well erik I had a pink foam box I made around it I had 2 spiral lights I was using for heat. My problem was that my electric cord got a short and popped the circuit breaker probably some where in december. I lifted the box a few weeks ago and found the fried fronds.

Hello barb the spanish bayonet did die from rot in doors. All the palms had 2 or 3 spiral lights in there boxes for heat thats all. The washy and the two waggys where all on the same circuit no heat in foam boxes.

As for the sabal palmetto trunk I have two ideas. One is to try to find some where I can buy fake fronds. You wouldt happen to know a place that I could order from would you ?

Second I was thinking since the sabal minor has almost exactly the same leaves I was gonna cut the trunk back maybe in half and since the trunk is a bigger diameter then my sabal minor hollow out the trunk fill it with soil and plant a sabal minor in the dead trunk. Using the trunk as a tall long planter. What do you think ?

Mike,
Sorry about the bayonet; it was a beauty.

Maybe somebody can explain what spiral lights are; have never heard any lights called that around here.

I'm sure those dollar stores have fake palm leaves in their silk flower sections.
But what a novel idea you have about filling the hollowed out trunk with soil and planting a s.minor.
The soil would have to go all the way down otherwise sabal roots would eventually hit air space before breaking through "real soil" into the ground.
It's risky, but an interesting idea.
Take some pics of the process please if you do that.

Barb

Hello well my washy that was fried has opened half a whole frond. That means he or she is alive and ready to put on some crazy growth this year.

Barb Im still playing with the minor in a sabal trunk I will post pics when its done

Mike,
Good news about the Washy.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the stump planting.

Barb

Looks good. Just think about it, your w. filifera looks better than 90 percent of them in new mexico, el paso, and south east arizona.

Nice job

Thanks for posting the update Mike,

I hope my Waggie is as big as your smaller one by the end of the year!

One of my Washys is working on opening up a 3rd leaf for this year,
I can't get over how fast these grow-they are going to explode this year!

One of my Washys is working on opening up a 3rd leaf for this year,

No wonder, with those great temperatures!

Young Washies need tons of water, is that correct?
Barb

We have only had about an inch of rain since March 1.

I keep them dry coming out/goning into winter.


I don't water my Washys very much except when it's hot
they are basically desert palms and can take unbelievable heat!

I have 2 Filibustas in pots as well.

Yea Barb,we have had some warm temps at elast 4 days of 80(F)+
and lots of 60s and 70s but I think once they are established they will move
even in cool weather....they should go crazy when the 90s hit!

In this deserty region, we can't count on rain to water anything.
Research from the weather station stated that 70 per cent of what we do get actually evaporates when it hits our hot hot rocky soils, further exacerbating the water deficit.

I don't water my Washys very much except when it's hot
they are basically desert palms and can take unbelievable heat!

I read somewhere that, yes, Washies are desert plants but they basically grow in arroyos (sp?), swails where mountain rains flow through surface/near surface creeks. But that they need lots of water when young, i.e. annual flooding of the arroyos?
Just can't remember where I read that.

Yours have such a great start with early hot weather.
They will REALLY take off with such a long season ahead.

You might even be able to sit under them by the end of summer

Barb

And the taller they grow the more sun they will get

If they ever get above the roof it will be hard to keep up with them
as it gets insanely hot up there-that falls under the category of a good problem!

WHEN they get above the roof...

I want to be around to see their protection that winter.
You'll have to learn a high-wire act.
Barb

The whole idea of putting them where they
are is to use the house to support the protection!

You'd better order that tarp now...