In this country? Washingtonia

billdango

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by billdango »

Washingtonia does seem pretty hardy on the extreme south coast and the IOW but I have never had any luck with them in my garden to date.

As I have stated before on this forum the main problem that I have is that I live in a frost hollow and the winter minima recorded in my garden is often many degrees colder then in St Denys a mile away or the City Center 2 miles away.

Unless I can provide very serius winter protection it will all ways be impossible for me to grow this plant so I have given up trying.

If I can get permission from the owner of the house in St Denys I will try to plant out and grow a large pot specimen that I have now.

These plants do grow outside in parts of Southampton to quite a large size as I have seen a picture of one about 15 feet tall in the Totton area of the City.

So if you live in a mild part of the Country or a mild part of a City don't give up on this palm as its worth the effort.

rgds billdango :D
Rod

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Rod »

billdango wrote:Washingtonia does seem pretty hardy on the extreme south coast and the IOW but I have never had any luck with them in my garden to date.

As I have stated before on this forum the main problem that I have is that I live in a frost hollow and the winter minima recorded in my garden is often many degrees colder then in St Denys a mile away or the City Center 2 miles away.

Unless I can provide very serius winter protection it will all ways be impossible for me to grow this plant so I have given up trying.

If I can get permission from the owner of the house in St Denys I will try to plant out and grow a large pot specimen that I have now.

These plants do grow outside in parts of Southampton to quite a large size as I have seen a picture of one about 15 feet tall in the Totton area of the City.

So if you live in a mild part of the Country or a mild part of a City don't give up on this palm as its worth the effort.

rgds billdango :D
Hi Bill - So your climates a bit too cold for Washies - how do Canary Island Date palms go ? can you grow these ?

Rod.
Si

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Si »

Nathan, I heard the Washy in the London park had croaked it, hope thats not true, is It?
Nathan

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Nathan »

Si wrote:Nathan, I heard the Washy in the London park had croaked it, hope thats not true, is It?
No.
Rod

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Rod »

Washingtonia robusta gets foliage damage here in my garden in Christchurch, New Zealand almost every year, but i still consider them hardy.
Agree with Nathan and Dave's comments.
Si

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Si »

Nathan wrote:
Si wrote:Nathan, I heard the Washy in the London park had croaked it, hope thats not true, is It?
No.

Great news, I'm down in London next week, I'll check the beaut out.
Rob S

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Rob S »

Sorry, which London park is it in? Can you get a pic? Thanks
GREVILLE

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by GREVILLE »

I'll be going there myself soon, joining a pre-arranged tour. Hope to post some up-to-date pics of it.

Missed this interesting thread while I was away in the summer. Apologies, then, for chipping in with my comments a month later.

Washingtonias are hardy plants until they die, whether that be of old age or killed prematurely by conditions not to their liking. Any plant that thrives in a hostile desert climate as long as their needs are met has to be hardy. In the wild that means deep roots having access to subterranean ground water.

Take it out of its native environment and grow it in the UK and it's hardy enough to endure a completely different set of hostile conditions be they confined roots in a container or put out to deal with freezing moisture for three months. They remain hardy as long as they keep their powers of recovery going through the meeting of their needs.

I kept my filifera as a hardy palm for twenty years - the last seventeen of them without protection. Hardy is an ambiguous term. A year before its demise it endured with little damage exactly the same winter conditions as that which saw it off the following year. In this case it wasn't weakened by the previous winter but it was softened by water gushing from a broken roof gutter right into the crown every time it rained, something of which I was unaware. If I had set up Daves' parasol arrangement early enough it might still be alive today.

I learnt that its parent endured a dry frost of -13c in its native California but its offspring wore a completely different hardiness outfit for much of its twenty years.

While I was away in the Canaries this summer, I came across a pair of old and very dead Washingtonias along with a number of deceased Phoenix canariensis_CIDP's in an amenity area. They had endured a desert climate for some forty years by being irrigated regularly from planting. An argument over permission for water companies to build new pipes over privately owned land meant that the irrigation stopped and coupled with a complete absence of rain the previous winter the palms died without ever having made deep roots. Too much cossetting had not made them hardy enough and their needs weren't met.
billdango

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by billdango »

Rod wrote:
billdango wrote:Washingtonia does seem pretty hardy on the extreme south coast and the IOW but I have never had any luck with them in my garden to date.

As I have stated before on this forum the main problem that I have is that I live in a frost hollow and the winter minima recorded in my garden is often many degrees colder then in St Denys a mile away or the City Center 2 miles away.

Unless I can provide very serius winter protection it will all ways be impossible for me to grow this plant so I have given up trying.

If I can get permission from the owner of the house in St Denys I will try to plant out and grow a large pot specimen that I have now.

These plants do grow outside in parts of Southampton to quite a large size as I have seen a picture of one about 15 feet tall in the Totton area of the City.

So if you live in a mild part of the Country or a mild part of a City don't give up on this palm as its worth the effort.

rgds billdango :D
Hi Bill - So your climates a bit too cold for Washies - how do Canary Island Date palms go ? can you grow these ?

Rod.
Hi Rod
Washingtonias should be hardy enough in Southampton but the problem seems to be is that nobody ever tries to grow one in this City?

As my own humble abode is about 2 miles out from the City Center and in the Citys worst frost hollow I have never really attempted to grow one in my own garden.

They would easily grow in the City Center or in St Denys but I have never seen anyone even try it.

As I said earlier on this thread I do have a 3 foot specimen in a pot which at the moment is in that garden in St Denys and its just itching to get planted in the ground.

As its not my garden however I can't plant it out there so the issue for the moment hangs in the balance.

As for CIDPs they seem to do well outside in Southampton with minimal protection during cold snaps as the one in the St Denys palm house front garden shows.

Again the main problem here is due to most people who plant these palms out is that they don't protect them for the first few years and of coarse on the first really cold night they kick the bucket.

There are a few decent size CIDPs in Southampton but the best one I have seen so far is still in St Denys.

That said there are some very large B Capitata and C humilis palms in the City +loads of mature Trachycarpuses so its not all doom and gloom.

rgds billdango icon_thumleft
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Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Nathan

Re: On the edge of extinction - in this country? Washingtoni

Post by Nathan »

Si wrote:
Conifers wrote:TROBI records a W. filifera 10m tall at Tresco in 1984; I'd presume that's gone now from the lack of more recent measurements.
If there was one at Tresco over 30 feet tall in 1984, it would be about 50 feet by now :shock: (nearly 30 years ago)
so that must be gone, else there would be thousands of pics of it, so, it must have died, and that proves my point, at some stage they die in a winter.
Don't forget IF you ever see them they're up against walls, buildings, and when they get tall enough (if they survive) they have to cope with the air higher up, away from the walls and umbrellas etc, wish I was wrong.
Any big ones you see are planted out are certainly from greenhouses, Dave's is pretty unique I'd wager.
Well it seems the Tresco Washingtonia is alive & well after all... Photographed here in September by Kev Spence...
So I guess they are a long term prospect in milder parts of the UK :wink:
Attachments
TrescoWashie.jpg
Rob S

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Rob S »

Nice Washy in Little Venice, London
Nice Washy in Little Venice, London
Rob S

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Rob S »

Different angle
Different angle
Axel

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Axel »

Nice find Rob, here it is in 2008. I wonder if someone knows the location of the large one in Edmonton.


http://goo.gl/maps/jresI
Axel

Re: In this country? Washingtonia

Post by Axel »

Did you notice the large yucca elephantipes a bit further down? That part of London must be very mild indeed.

http://goo.gl/maps/UEdV7
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