Palm Trees where you'd least expect them.

[LJinPA]

(look close) This pic is of small queen palms in Ocean City, MD. I have also seen a few in Virginia Beach, Atlanta, one small one in Charlotte...

There is one called the Windmill palm that I've seen growing in Switzerland, so I'd imagine it can grow in many other places.

I thought I'd make a thread where people can post "precotious" palm scenes ironic for the climate zone.

IM the case of Ocean City and Rehoboth I suspect the queen palms may be an annual, theyre not the hardiest, but theyre fast growing and inexpensive I guess. Perhaps theyre grown as an annual.

It would be nice to see pics of maybe Palmettos in Charlotte? or Date or Washington palms in SC, or even coconut palms in Central Florida...

I did find pics of some big Windmill Palms in a Raleigh park but not sure if you can hotlink them... here's a link http://www.garysnursery.com/RaleighPalms.html

Usually motels and mini-golf courses seem to be where they're seen first.

Part of a USDA hardiness Zone map.

[CorgiMatt]

Palms (palmettos) are all over Columbia. Even though it is an inland city, the palmetto tree is the state tree and Columbia probably has as many palmettos (imported) for its size as Los Angeles has palms (also imported).

[thedude26]

There are quite a few different types of palms in Augusta as well. Neighborhoods such as Summerville and Old Town have several along their main streets and so do many of the main commercial highways in town. Over the border in North Augusta there are several palm trees along the entrance road to the city as well as many of the neighborhoods along the river.

[Mith242]

Doesn't the Gulf Stream also help some plants grow in southwest Ireland that you'd never think could be grown that far north?

[upstate29650]

In the SC Upstate, you can find some transplanted Palmettos. What you tend to find here more times than not are the windmill palms, which I guess are a little more heartier.

A little bit of trivia: The farthest north that palms grow wild on the US East Coast is Cape Fear, NC. Anything north of that is/was transplanted.

Doesn't the Gulf Stream also help some plants grow in southwest Ireland that you'd never think could be grown that far north?

Northern Scotland, to be exact.

[DruidCity]

Here's a useful link, Southeastern Palm Society : http://www.speps.net/

I have 10 or so kinds of palms in my yard , and Sabal minor grows wild out

in the woods in the south end of my county. Local nurseries carry palmetto trees, needle palms, windmill palms, saw palmettos, jelly palms, and dwarf palmettos.

It's pretty neat to see windmill palms and others in Birmingham and Anniston , because of the hills.

In Birmingham, the zoo has a large number of needle palms, windmill palms (large ones that bloom every year), and Sabal minor. A suburban restaurant called Superior Grill (good Mexican place) has had palmetto trees out front for years. In Anniston (which is about a 30-minute drive from Alabama's highest point), the Natural History Museum has a small display garden with a nice planting of young palms of many varieties.

Palms are much less commonly utilized in the landscape in central AL than in areas like Columbia, SC, even though the climate is comparable, because of the latter's "Palmetto State" identity.

Other plants with a somewhat similar appearance in the landscape include Cycas revoluta (called sago palm), and some of the arborescent yuccas (Y. rostrata has been grown effectively in areas like New Jersey where most palms wouldn't be happy).

[showtime21]

I seen 3 palmetto trees in Knoxville TN at a city park about 3 years ago

[NCB]

Palm Trees on Canal Street in New Orleans. These shots are post-Katrina BTW.

[waccamatt]

Druid, where do you live? I'm in Columbia and have a number of palm varieties in my yard, although it requires careful planning and planting for palms to survive this far north. The 3 palms that do the best in Columbia are the Chinese Windmill Palm, the Pindo (or Jelly) Palm and the Palmetto (Sabal Palmetto Palm). They can all be planted without too much worry over the location. I have 1 Palmetto, 3 Windmills and 2 Pindos in my backyard and they all have survived temperatures as low as 9 degrees and as much as 6 inches of snow in the 4 years I've lived here (12 degrees and an inch of snow for the newer Palmetto) without so much as significant browning of the leaves. I also have 1 medium size and 2 large Mexican Fan Palms, which suffer some leaf browning when the temperature gets into the teens or lower, but they don't totally lose their green. The leaves come back very nicely by April. I planted 3 smaller Mexican Fans when I planted the medium size one and they all died back in their first winter, mainly because a 6 inch snowfall broke all of their small fronds. I made the mistake of cutting these fronds off before they started growing back and I think that killed them. I replaced them with 2 12' Mexican Fans and a 15' Palmetto. I have Sago Palms (not true palms) in the backyard too, and they suffer a good bit of browning in the winter, but come back decently in the spring. Here are some pictures of them during last December's ice and snow storm. I planted these in the backyard because it has southern exposure and is warmer during the winter.

[DruidCity]

NCB, glad to see photos of New Orleans coming back !

waccamatt, I'm in Tuscaloosa,AL. Thanks for the photos !

[The_sandlapper]

More Palms from Columbia.

There are many imported Palmettos throughout the city, but they do grow naturally in the swampland of southern Richland County shrub size at least anyway

[waccamatt]

Sandy, you learn something new every day. I never knew that we had wild Palmettos in lower Richland. I guess that is the northern extent of alligators, too, so that makes sense.

[vladittude0583]

More Palms from Columbia.

There are many imported Palmettos throughout the city, but they do grow naturally in the swampland of southern Richland County shrub size at least anyway

I was wondering how do you get the pictures to display directly onto the page itself? Everytime I upload the pictures, you'd have to click on the image file in order to enlarge it on another page, but I would like to know how do you enlarge the picture directly on the pages? Thanks.

[sleepy]

Sandy, you learn something new every day. I never knew that we had wild Palmettos in lower Richland. I guess that is the northern extent of alligators, too, so that makes sense.

No natural palms in Memphis, but they're grown ornamentally. The nearest natural palms are scrub palmettos which grow about 50 miles south in Mississippi. Btw--alligators are now considered native to Shelby County (Memphis).

Memphis palm:

[Newnan]

I was in Scotland and saw a palm tree. It was really weird since it was 40 degrees!

[The_sandlapper]

I was wondering how do you get the pictures to display directly onto the page itself? Everytime I upload the pictures, you'd have to click on the image file in order to enlarge it on another page, but I would like to know how do you enlarge the picture directly on the pages? Thanks.

Start an account at photobucket.com. Download your photos from your computer to that site. Cut the photos you want from the url line. And paste them to the post you want.

That's all there is to it.

[The_sandlapper]

Sandy, you learn something new every day. I never knew that we had wild Palmettos in lower Richland. I guess that is the northern extent of alligators, too, so that makes sense.

A couple of years ago me and my girlfriend went hiking down at Congaree we saw quite a bit of shrub level Palmettos there. Similair to what you would see in the woods in Beaufort County.

[NCB]

I was in Scotland and saw a palm tree. It was really weird since it was 40 degrees!

Lol, I thought the same thing when I saw a palm tree in Scotland the first time I visited. I belive they are able to grow there because of the gulf stream.

[LJinPA]

Courtyard by Marriott, VA Beach

When people say palm trees as "Ornamentals" do they mean as annuals?

Has anyone found a fast enough growing palm thats not too $$$ and tired it as an annual? Or better yet found a container friendly one, buried the pots in the summer and took them in for the winter?

[Mith242]

When people say palm trees as "Ornamentals" do they mean as annuals?

I think he means that people grow them there now but they aren't native to the area. They might have to take special care of them in the winter time being further north.

[DruidCity]

Or better yet found a container friendly one, buried the pots in the summer and took them in for the winter?

A few palms that I've grown as "pot plants" are Rhapis (Lady palm), Chamaedorea (Parlor Palm), and Chamaerops (European palm). I just take them inside if the forecast calls for a freeze. They're pretty agreeable, and smaller than most palms.

[NCB]

When people say palm trees as "Ornamentals" do they mean as annuals?

Well the palms in New Orleans on Canal Street, Saint Charles Avenue, and many other streets are considered to be ornamentals. They are obviously not native trees in the area, so the city has to buy and import them from foriegn countries.

[waccamatt]

Has anyone found a fast enough growing palm thats not too $$$ and tired it as an annual? Or better yet found a container friendly one, buried the pots in the summer and took them in for the winter?

Palms are notoriously slow growing trees. Washingtonia and Mexican Fan Palms are probably the fastest growing. You could plant them in a large pot and move them indoors during the wonter if you have a sunny window to put them in.

[monsoon]

It should be noted this is a Palmetto tree and not a Palm tree. The Palmetto tree is a much more hardy plant than a Palm and can be found in areas that are subject to freezing weather, but not where it gets so cold to where the ground freezes as well.

The ocean moderates the very local temperatures enough as to where Palmettos can naturally live up to about Wilmington NC on the coast, but go inland just a few miles and you won't see them anymore. The large Royal Palms and similar that you see in S. Fla can't live many places beyond the tropical environment that is found there.

In the last 10 years or so I have see a tendency for people to transplant these trees outside their normal growing zone. Columbia is outside their natural area. I've even seen these trees in Charlotte. But these trees are living on borrowed time. We have been fortunate in the last couple of decades to not have experienced much weather in the SE where the daytime highs are in the single digits, but this does happen here as it happened quite often in the 70s. When it happens again, expect many of these large Palmetto trees that have been planted outside their growing zone to simply die.

There have been some successes in producing through cross breeding, a cold weathered Palm that can live outside in colder weather, but not real cold weather. A rule of thumb, if the ground freezes in the winter, that is probably too cold for it. These trees are not very big however.

[Aporkalypse]

I live in Dallas and have a couple of Chinese Windmill Palms, which grow well and are cold-hardy to 5 degrees F. I also have a few dwarf palmettos which are native to the area and grow well. Palms are becoming increasingly common in Dallas and grow well here as long as the right species are used.