Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

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billdango

Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by billdango »

This may be of interest to forum members.

Just take a hardy tropical trip with google earth along the boulevard Des Pyrenees and see how they display their Trachycarpuses and other palms in France.

You may agree with me when as i said before in my post last year on palm cities,If they can do it in france why oh why is there no City in the uk that can do it here.

The city in question here is Pau in South west France and its not called the city of palms without reason.

Thousands of palms fill the City and surrounding suburbs and all of the exotics I have so far seen will grow just as well in at least the South of England.

Winters have got as cold as -18c some years so the temperatures are no excuse.

So come on you councils in England stand up and say we can do just as well?

Over to you.

Have a look at the link below and start walking.

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll= ... 98.05,,0,0

billdango. icon_thumleft icon_thumleft icon_thumleft icon_thumleft
kata

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by kata »

Good ole Bill, you tell em Bill,

I can't complain though they are nowhere near me we did have lots of Phoenix canariensis_CIDP in the local park.

You have my attention so I am taking a look at your link now Bill.

Thanks!!

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:
billdango

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by billdango »

kata wrote:Good ole Bill, you tell em Bill,

I can't complain though they are nowhere near me we did have lots of Phoenix canariensis (Phoenix canariensis_CIDP) in the local park.

You have my attention so I am taking a look at your link now Bill.

Thanks!!

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Thanks kata,I hope every forum members studies this thread well as we have a whole country to re educate?

rgds billdango. icon_thumleft
jungle jas

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by jungle jas »

billdango wrote:
kata wrote:Good ole Bill, you tell em Bill,

I can't complain though they are nowhere near me we did have lots of Phoenix canariensis (Phoenix canariensis (Phoenix canariensis_CIDP)) in the local park.

You have my attention so I am taking a look at your link now Bill.

Thanks!!

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Thanks kata,I hope every forum members studies this thread well as we have a whole country to re educate?

rgds billdango. icon_thumleft
I keep telling people to plant Jubaea, but I fear it falls on deaf ears. icon_thumright
Tom2006
Posts: 8094
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:23 am
Location: East Yorkshire UK

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by Tom2006 »

Looks wonderful. I think the issue will be our growing season is much shorter so the palms will take longer to get established and therefore would be more prone to disease or winter death. Also, most cities struggle to afford a nice winter pansy display so I can't see any planted anything like this for many years to come, but would be brilliant if they did!!
Most wanted list - Any Young Trachycarpus and/or fern.
billdango

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by billdango »

Tom2006 wrote:Looks wonderful. I think the issue will be our growing season is much shorter so the palms will take longer to get established and therefore would be more prone to disease or winter death. Also, most cities struggle to afford a nice winter pansy display so I can't see any planted anything like this for many years to come, but would be brilliant if they did!!
Actually tom I remember when they planted all those palms when i was on holiday there back in 1965.

Most of them were quite small and some were lost during the terrible winter of 1984.

You can,t see them in the pictures but on the other side of the balustrade there is a steep drop of about 100 feet to the river.

Planted on that steep bank was dozens of huge Agave americana.

All of these but one specimen were lost in 1984.

Also on that bank are dozens more T Fortuni and some big clumps of Musa Basjoo.

Although there are thousands of T fortuni palms throughout the City I only saw 3 other palm species.

About 12 P Canariensis up to 20 feet tall.also 2 w robusta about 8 feet tall and lots of C humilis up to 10 feet tall.

The other points to note is that the Winters can be as cold as southern england but with slightly more sun hours.

But the summers are considerably hotter and sunnier then most of uk.

Just for comparison the av sun hours annually in Pau are about the same as Jersey in the uk ,That is 1.900 hours yearly.

Temps below -18c have been recorded in the City in winter,and in summer temps of +41c sometimes occur but rarely.

When all is said and done i have noticed that the growth rate of T fortuni in Pau is not much different to the growth rate in Southampton going by my own palms.

so I still say we could turn southampton into the [Pau] of southern England? It just needs the willpower to do it for the future exoticists.

rgds billdango :D
Tom2006
Posts: 8094
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 11:23 am
Location: East Yorkshire UK

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by Tom2006 »

Sounds good..Spread the word and make it happen. Sod all this plant a tree lark, everyone needs to plant a Trachycarpus, lets get them to naturalize in this country!! icon_thumleft icon_thumleft
Most wanted list - Any Young Trachycarpus and/or fern.
Rod

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by Rod »

That's a lovely boulevard of Trachycarpus fortunei / Chamaerops humilis & Cordyline australis with some Phoenix canariensis thrown in there. And yes you can do that on the south coast of the UK. I wish our council had boulevards planted out with palms like this.
kata

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by kata »

Sod all this plant a tree lark, everyone needs to plant a Trachycarpus,
:lol: :lol: :lol: hear, hear Tom.... :mrgreen: Trachi has become my most favored palm from last year, three now. I still have two Cycads but never bother with them.

From what I saw there was'nt a lot of traffic Bill. In our towns its like 2 or even 3 cars per family. What about 'school runs', would'nt all these fumes have some effect on growth as well as weather?

Here we tend to protect rather than throw into the elements..yes Bill?

Spain and Malaysia has them lining routes on motorways, that is something I would love to be looking at on for example, the m6...boring motorway.

icon_cheers
call

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by call »

round here there's Phoenix canariensis_CIDP cordyline and trachycarpus but in peoples gardens not in the parks (instead of palms there is dog loads of shallots)
jezza

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by jezza »

The problem here is that the council 'tried' to go exotic by planting loads of cordylines (yes a pathetic attempt granted), but it was a start. When they were either killed or cut back to the ground after december 2010, the council just dug them up and left empty beds. I tried to persuade them to plant a couple of trachys in the town centre but was met with 'we'll look into it', but i heard nothing from them again. So this summer looks to be the second year that the town centre is devoid of any planting whatsoever!
billdango

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by billdango »

You can bust a gut with frustration trying to educate our City Councils?Even here in southampton where exotics thrive they just plant cheap rubbishy shrubs and no attempt is made to make our City centers look fantastic.

You have to hand it to the French they have a way of making their Citys look really cool and exciting and thats something our councils could do in this Country.

For instance no self respecting Frenchman would leave wheely bins on view in his front gardens through choice and where many english gardens are filled with rubbish and burnt out cars plus a varied assortment of other clutter they plant beautiful trees and shrubs.

Southampton parks do have a small selection of hardy exotics but nothing on the scale of Pau.

Forum members should google on to any street in Pau away from the City Center and you will find so many palms and other exotics that you will want to go and live there.

rgds billdango. :D
billdango

Re: Hardy exotics,heres how the french do it?

Post by billdango »

Rod wrote:That's a lovely boulevard of Trachycarpus fortunei / Chamaerops humilis & Cordyline australis with some Phoenix canariensis thrown in there. And yes you can do that on the south coast of the UK. I wish our council had boulevards planted out with palms like this.
We could do it here Rod but but the message hasen,t yet got through yet to our elected leaders that we want more attractive Cities and not streets that look like war zone.

I think if we can get enough members on this forum to plant as many hardy palms as possible then who knows maybe our children will see Cities like Pau in the uk?

rgds billdango. :D :D :D :D
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