Sunday Chores

[jenniferholmes]

Hi all

I am doing some Sunday gardening tomorrow and have a couple of questions.

Can I move a fan palm or should I wait til spring?

Do I need to fleece phormiums? Fan palms? Cordylines?

[GREVILLE]

Put your feet up, Jennifer

If the fan palm is a Trachycarpus it's better to wait till Spring now. It won't have got any bigger/heavier by then.

As for fleecing I would only bother with the Cordyline if a big freeze is imminent. The others would only need fleecing in the event of records being broken. Be a little more ready to fleece them all if they are young first year plants and we get hit by a December 2010

[fern Rob]

Put your feet up, Jennifer

If the fan palm is a Trachycarpus it's better to wait till Spring now. It won't have got any bigger/heavier by then.

As for fleecing I would only bother with the Cordyline if a big freeze is imminent. The others would only need fleecing in the event of records being broken. Be a little more ready to fleece them all if they are young first year plants and we get hit by a December 2010

Completely agree.

[Dave Brown]

I wouldn't move any palm now unless it was likely to die where it is.

If the Fan Palm is Trachycarpus fortunei or Chamaerops humilis then they should be hardy, but if it is a Washingtonia, Bismarkia or Livistona, sold by many sheds and GCs it is unlikely to be fully hardy and would need protection.

Same with Cordyline... if green australis will be hardy to -9C but not in prolonged freezes, and if one of the more fancy coloured, bi-coloured etc they should be protected from very cold weather.