Re: Palms was Squirrels

We have somewhat similar behavior here, Cyndi--mostly developers. They buy a fairly large tract, clear out much of the native vegetation, re-plant it with exotic palms and more desirable natives, then let it sit for 5 or 6 years until they want to develop it. By then, the palms are worth a lot more and the amount of undesirable native vegetation is greatly diminished so they don't get in trouble with the eco-freaks when they plow the rest of it under.

Sounds like your multi-stem palms are Phoenix reticulata, the Senegal date palm. They're quite valuable when they get any size on them, but I think they're also quite iffy in below zone 9 areas.

Incidentally, there are two Washingtonia palms--the Mexican fan palm and the desert fan palm, both are native to your area, and to further confuse us all, they happily cross-fertilize each other, so hybrids abound. The desert fan, W. filifera, is a tad hardier than the more common Mexican fan, W. robusta. It also has a thicker trunk and is shorter than the Mexican fan at maturity.

On Dec 14, 2005, at 12:47 PM, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT wrote:

We're zone 8 here, probably zone 8b now...I will sound like an old granny
but I gotta tell you it used to get colder than it does now. So I think 8b
is about right tho it does occasionally dip a bit lower than 15F.
I started poking around looking at pix of hardy palms. The no-longer-vacant
lot has a few fan palms, they look like Washingtonias, those are not
uncommon here and they do pretty well unless it gets way way cold. Those
needed the crane to plant too. The other big ones have fronds more like a
date palm, long and fringy sort of, but multiple trunks. One of those is the
one that died, and they replaced it only a few weeks ago, even though we had
freezing nights. But it looks okay so far. Then they also planted some
smaller ones - they are probably only 6 ft tall - that look kind of like
queen palms, judging from the pictures I found. I see them a lot closer to
Los Angeles but I have never seen them here, so I'm watching; the fronds
look a little brownish but not dead.
So it's a puzzle. We can't figure out why you'd put in such expensive plants
before you build the house. We watched them also add a block wall on one
side of the property (that's not cheap either) and there's a mailbox, but so
far no signs of home building. They do have a barbeque and a picnic table
out there, maybe it's a vacation spot!

Cyndi

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gardenchat@hort.net [o*@hort.net] On Behalf
Of james singer
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:20 AM
To: gardenchat@hort.net
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Fwd: Squirrels

What's your zone, Cyndi? Your neighbor with the palms obviously has
something extravagant in mind--you're right, there's no such thing as a
cheap palm f they're large enough to require a crane to set them. What
s the shape of the fronds? Blade or fan?

On Dec 14, 2005, at 11:32 AM, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT wrote:

That's the problem you know, I guess it's like the problem you
easterners
have with deer. I do not want to harm these guys but I would rather
have
them eating rabbits and ground squirrels out where there's still
desert.
However if I supply a chicken buffet, of course they'll go where life
is
easier. My recourse is to make it harder for them and hope they decide
to
migrate out to the remaining open spaces...which probably already have
an
existing population of critters; or maybe they'll patronize someone
else.
I like my house and my neighborhood, and we've put a lot of work into
it
all; but I find that as the area becomes more crowded that our
neighborhood
is getting more and more upscale because of our 2 1/2 acre lots. Good
for
property values but not many of the new move-ins are bringing along
horses
or other livestock so I am a little worried we are going to have
problems in
the future, what if Mr & Mrs Smith with their new 8000 sq ft house
decides
they don't want to hear roosters crowing or sheep bellowing for their
breakfast.
Speaking of new neighbors someone bought a vacant lot down the street
from
us and moved in a bunch of palm trees over the summer. No sign of home
building but there are enormous palms dotted all over. I am not
conversant
on prices for this sort of thing but they had to bring in a crane to
plant
them so I'm speculating 10 grand per tree. These are really huge
trees, with
multiple trunks and all. Not to mention that these are palms I have
never
seen growing locally so I'm interested to see if they'll live. One of
them
has already died and been replaced. I can't figure it out.

Cyndi


Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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