Washingtonia robusta hanging on in there

[Nathan]

Dave, yes it has a thick trunk, bare at the bottom 18 inches or so, but I only started to 'tidy up' the trunk last summer & I plan to clean more of it this year. the trunk is about 6ft or so before the leaves start & i'd guess it was around 10/11ft tall? It is difficult to take a photo of, as because my garden is so small I can't stand far enough back to get the whole thing in shot, I get either the trunk or the crown

[Las Palmas Norte]

There you go Nathan ... two pics should do.

Dave. My experience with the water soluble fungicides are that they dry in a day when covered such as yours, and won't have their effects washed away in the rain.

Cheers, Barrie.

[Tom2006]

Hope it comes back like it has done before. Sad to see such damage though, even with all that protection!!!

[Dave Brown]

Hope it comes back like it has done before. Sad to see such damage though, even with all that protection!!!

This is what exotic gardening is about. You push the limits

Exotic gardening has become an 'everyone buy something, stick it in the ground, and away you go'

Now we are back into real enthusiast realm. Many will give up, but if you manage to get something through it will be marveled at

We are sorting the men from the boys

[Las Palmas Norte]

Agreed Dave ... If there was no risk or challenge, where would the fun or success lie?
Anyone can plant a Juniper and forget it until it spralls over a walkway, hack it back ruthlessly, go back inside to watch TV for another 5 years.


Cheers, Barrie.

[Dave Brown]

Agreed Dave ... If there was no risk or challenge, where would the fun or success lie?
Anyone can plant a Juniper and forget it until it spralls over a walkway, hack it back ruthlessly, go back inside to watch TV for another 5 years.


Cheers, Barrie.

Yes, a real exotic gardener will be prepared to go that extra mile

[Tom2006]

A friend of mine commented on my garden in the snow in december. "your garden doesn't look like it should be covered in snow" Although sad at the time is sort of made my feel quite proud as I always think my garden looks pretty rubbish.

I certainly wont be giving up and next winter I will just create the very best protection possible for my surviving plants and all my new ones.

[Nathan]

There you go Nathan ... two pics should do.

Here you go Barrie... (Though not very good pics as just taken with my BlackBerry as can't find the lead for the digital camera).

The base of the trunk, showing the 'clean' part & the the crown... I suppose I should have taken a third pic of the middle bit of trunk though...

[Tropical Bob]

Thats a big pineapple

[RogerBacardy]

EDIT (RE: sorting the men from the boys comment).


I don't think Dave is suggesting some of us are boys. I think Dave is partly putting a positive spin on what has been a dreadful December for exotics enthusiasts in the U.K.

I guess he's been doing this for over 20 years and in the last 5-10 years or so there has been a lot more interest in the subject. So perhaps he feels like he's been doing this for decades and some of us fair-weather exotics fans might not have the same dedication as him.

Which is a fair point. I'm attracted to exotics because they look great, are evocative of warmer climates and are fantastically architectural and interesting. I often fall asleep reading up on exotics, but if we're gonna get nasty winters for the next few years I'm going to replace my dead CIDPs and washys with hardier plants (probably chammies/ oleas and trachies).

[Dave Brown]

Thought I was about time I did an update on this.

I put a string around the emerging spear back in February, but that and the next 3 leaves had their tips damaged presumably by the frost getting into the crown even though protected. The leaf with the string is the clipped back one facing us in the pic. This shows that it has opened 11 leaves since February, and suggests that we are on for at least 18 leaves by the end of the season.

Here with the 4 damaged leaves 6th July

Last night I removed the last 4 damaged leaves, so now it has no winter damage at all. Sorry about the dull pic but was taken at 19:48 pm

[cordyman]

Truly impressive how many new fronds they throw out

Looking good again!


I aspire one day to get my washy to that grandeur

[Delboy]

Wow Dave that is such a beautiful palm

Seeing as we had -21 here last winter i dont think mine will ever get the chance to grow very big, such a shame

[JakoMonster]

Sad to see the Washy in that state Dave, one of the highlights of the forum was seeing your Washy in good order.. that said it should recover nicely, and given this is one the worse winters we'll get, we should see this become very big indeed.

Interestingly I have a small Washy seedling that had come through the winter so far without much damage.

how did you protect yours ?

[Dave Brown]

Sad to see the Washy in that state Dave, one of the highlights of the forum was seeing your Washy in good order.. that said it should recover nicely, and given this is one the worse winters we'll get, we should see this become very big indeed.

Interestingly I have a small Washy seedling that had come through the winter so far without much damage.

how did you protect yours ?

More to the point, was it outside My small double was in a frost free 3.5m x 2m poly, with a 16" fan blowing while the doors were shut. Air movement is as important as heating if your palms are cooped up for more than a day or so at a time. Almost all plants come through better with fans. Discussions with Will Giles about his overwintering techniques revealed he also thinks air movement is vitally important for successful overwintering of most plants.

You can run a greenhouse cooler without losses if there is plenty of airflow, alternatively you have to heat to the point of reducing humidity dramatically, and fans are much cheaper to run than heaters