You Can Never Plant Too Many Palm Trees

[southern california guy]

I decided to add a picture of my blue "sago palm". It isn't really a palm tree. It is a cycad from Australia -- Cycas cairnsiana. But look how blue it looks in front of a regular "sago palm" (Cycas revoluta) that is from Japan.

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8044/8130960892_9844bed5a4.jpg[/img]

I planted it in the ground yesterday. It will be near a purple tree rose that I have ordered. I know.. it is an odd combination but my front yard isn't really a tropical theme. It is a English country style. My palms and tropicals are on the other side of the house.

Edited October 28, 2012 by southern california guy

[southern california guy]

[quote name='DiscerningCatholic' timestamp='1350270727' post='2493525']
Palm trees are ugly. Unpopular opinion. I'd much prefer maple or fir.
[/quote]

Perhaps you don't like coconuts????

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_NGnfQO09o[/media]



They are hard to grow here and they often look a little brown.... They are like durians or mangosteens. They need a warmer winter...

[southern california guy]

I am going to try posting from flickr.com this time. It will probably work better.

Here is a panoramic view looking down my hillside.

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8465/8131107952_862c009561_c.jpg[/img]


And here is a view looking down from above my house. The green hills are avocado groves. The shade cloth next to the driveway is to protect little palm trees that I planted that were grown in the shade and need to be acclimated.

[img]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8334/8131110444_72e722782b_z.jpg[/img]

[southern california guy]

Next to my car I am making the hillside like a jungle. I am planting palm trees, cycads, plumeria, ornamental ginger, heliconia, and orchids.


plumeria

[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2486/3693582675_2f9be2c6e1.jpg[/img]


Heliconia

[img]http://www.janustravel.ca/Portals/2/Gallery/Album/92/Heliconia%20caribaea%20yellow%20and%20red.jpg[/img]


Ginger

[img]http://elainemcnulty.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/img_6519.jpg[/img]

[img]http://mysite.verizon.net/rjroarkphoto/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/.pond/IMG_8526aRedTorchGingerEtlingeraElatiorBigIslandHawaii.jpg.w300h218.jpg[/img]

orchids!!

[img]http://www.buyorchidplants.com/Orchid-Buying-Tips-Images/6-Miniature-Cymbidium-Orchid-Low-Flowers.jpg[/img]

[southern california guy]

Here I sit at my parents home waiting for my leg to heal...  I do have a friend watering my palms but several have already died...  It's hard for a plant nut to be penned up like this.  But in a couple of months when I can finally get around more normally again I vow to get the potted palms around my house planted. 

 

And then I can start buying more plants!!!!!!! :evil:

[Golden Years]

How gorgeous....I :heart: SoCal

 

[AnneLine]

Hope you feel better soon.

 

Palms aren't my favorite, so you may have my share!

 

However, I do think they look MUCH better in SoCal than in the SF area.  Some 'bright bulb' decided to invest millions of dollars in putting them in median strips near the San Francisco embarcadero.  Where they have been unhappily dying slow, agonizing deaths for the last few years....

 

So far, four of the Canary Island date palms have been replaced because of a very contagious common fungus, fusarium wilt, that has infected another 26 trees along the strip. And 34 more have browning fronds that are a symptom of the disease, which interferes with a tree’s ability to absorb water.

 

Full Article:   http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/05/16/diseased-sf-embarcadero-palm-trees-will-be-costly-to-replace/

 

 

Photo:

 

Hope yours have a happier fate!   (AND THAT YOUR LEG HEALS QUICKLY!)

[southern california guy]

Ok I decided that this thread needed a little updating ;)

 

When you cross one of these:

 

 

With one of these:

 

 

You get one of these!

 

 

And even though these cycads rather than palm trees, I think that they are a nice palmy sort of plant  :like:

[southern california guy]

And here is another cycad.  It comes from the island of Madagascar.  It is a fast growing Cycas thouarsii!  It should add to the tropical feel of the little hillside to the side of my house.  Which I think will really become cool when the avocado trees get a bit bigger and form a canopy over the palms and other plants.

 

 

And here is an actual palm trees.  It is called a Parajubea torallyi.  And it is also called a "Peruvian coconut" because it resembles a coconut palm when it gets bigger.  Hopefully the deer won't start chewing on it.  

 

 

 

Can you spot the deer in the picture below?

 

Edited August 15, 2013 by southern california guy

[Lilllabettt]

I like palm trees, but only because they remind me of vacation. maybe if I had to live amongst them ...

[southern california guy]

I like palm trees, but only because they remind me of vacation. maybe if I had to live amongst them ...

 

They remind me of going on vacation too.  Like when I went to Costa Rica.  I want to make going home feel like going to my own little tropical retreat ;)

[southern california guy]

I actually have more of an english country look to my little front yard, than a tropical one.  But it does take a bit of water to grow a landscape like this.   The tree with the pink/lavender blooms is a "tea tree".  And I do like the roses and geraniums.  I am definitely going to grow more.  I am starting to get into the old-fashioned varieties.

 

 

[southern california guy]

Check out the purple bougainvillea that is climbing one of my oak trees.  And it is a BIG tree!  I don't even water the bougainvillea -- but I kind of like it.  Incidentally the blue fan palm in front of it is a Bismarkia nobilis -- it will get to be big and silvery blue!  I had to put the electric fence around my fruit trees because the darn deer kept chewing on them...