Pics of some of the front yard

[Wes North Van]

This pic shows my largest male tracycarpus fortunei that is in flower now and a weeping Japanese maple and som small rhodos


This pic shows the same garden but at a different angle. You can now see my dicksonia antarctica Taz tree fern.

[DesertZone]

Wes, your place is AWESOME

[Alchris]

Wow. I hope that my yard will some day look as good.

Allen

[Wes North Van]

Aaron and Allen. If you ever make it to Vancouver let me know and I will show the rest of the place.
I am fortunate that I live in a climate that you can probably grow a larger variety of plants than just about anywhere. I just wish I could grow a few more different species of Palms. There is probably only about a dozen of what I would call safe palms and 1/3 of them are of the trachycarpus species. If it wasn't for our damp cool winters I am sure that pheonix canariensis and washingtonia robusta would grow here. If I was just another half zone warmer I would be a zone 9a and then I could grow so much more.
Oh well we all probably have zoneitis. If not we would just grow native plants.
Thanks again

[Okanagan desert-palms]

Wes very well manicured yard. As far as zone denial I think that I would be happilly growing Trachy sp. in the ground without protection in my zone 6b 7a . Look forward to more great pics,
John

[yuccaman]

Wes im glad your not in a zone 5 because palms need advanced protection while your palms don't. I emailed this to broadway nurserys and this is what they said. So its very hard to do in zone 5. Same thing goes with you okanagon.

The jury is still out on how hardy these plants are.
No question about it, unprotected all of the foliage will burn off in the
winter.
But I have customers in the Ottawa and Montreal areas (much colder than you)
who grow bananas, palms and bamboos as well as hardy cactus.
The Opuntia cactus grow in Alberta so they should not have any problem in
Trenton, they just require excellent drainage.
Bananas are as hardy as the layer of mulch you provide them in winter. The
hardiest is Musa basjoo. Gardeners here protect them by piling bags of
leaves around the exposed parts in winter.
Palms are another matter. These are evergreen and very slow growing. It's in
your interest to save this foliage. This is typically done by building a
"greenhouse" of boards and plastic around them for winter. Try a google
search for hardy palms to get tips from other gardeners.

[Jay-Admin]

Hi Yuccaman,

Experimenting is part of the fun in growing plants that would not normally grow where you are. There are lots of determining factors on how a trachy would survive a cold winter. I would find the best micro climate in your yard and definitely some kind of winter protection and see what's happens. You never know till you try. You shouldn't have any problems growing lots of hardy cacti as long as you have good drainage and keep them somewhat dry. As for banana's i just dig them up after summer and store them over winter and then plant them again in the spring after our last frost.

I would do a search on the net for winter protection methods. You can check these sites out. I think they are interesting for growing palms in a colder area.

http://www.scanpalm.no/winter.html
http://www.polarpalm.net/index.html

Regards,
Jay

[Alchris]

Thanks Jay. They will be of help to me this fall.

Allen

[Jay-Admin]

Your welcome Allen.

[Alchris]

I found a site that provides detailed protection designs.

http://www.tct.netfirms.com/tropics/coldprtc.html

Allen

[Jay-Admin]

Good info Allen. Thanks