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Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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Posted by vdels1 9a (My Page) on Sat, Jul 5, 08 at 20:40
| Just took a drive around my neighborhood on a nice hot sunny day here in north Florida. I have noticed that many people are planting more exotic palms and other tropical plants that you would not think you would see in the Jacksonville area. Here is a small sample of what I found.
Foxtail
This coconut palm is 20 miles from my home. I'm not sure how old it is. I do remember someone saying it has gone through at least three winters at that location.
Not reilly a palm but a very tropical plant
This one looked dead three months ago and is now almost back to normal
Ready to build my backyard paradise!
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Global warming is helping. Just kidding they look nice though. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| FYI for anyone in the North Florida area. Lowe's on Archer in Gainesville has 15 gallon Cocos for $169. The biggest one probably was 16' to the tallest frond (maybe taller). Not sure what type (forgot to look, in a hurry it was raining) but they had at least 5-6 palms all at least 14', very large crowns and healthy looking. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Wow! I wouldn't have imagined that they would carry some that large this far north in Florida. I saw some at Ace hardware in the Mandarin section of Jacksonville that were 3 to 4 feet to the top of the frond for $25. I picked up ones in the picture from a home depot in Port St. Lucie for $12 each and they are more than 6 feet tall. I may have to drop by our lowes here to see if there are some. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| I wonder if those were just planted this year. I'd be interested in seeing a picture next March. I certainly hop they work out for them. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| That's great to see up there in Jacksonville. I'd say Foxtails have now joined Queens, Robustas, and Roebies as the 'common everyday palm' you see around here. Everywhere I go you see them happily growing in the landscape. One house around the corner from me has 9 of them surrounding their pool! Royals are becoming commonplace as well, just not as much as the Foxtail. Really the only palm you don't see here often in Central Florida is the coconut...which is why it's still fun to grow them. I spent the 4th of July down in South Beach and also in Ft. Lauderdale and the coconut palm is so commonplace there that I'd personally think the fun is lost. Where's the challenge in growing something everyone and their backdoor is already growing?!?! Is it any wonder 80% of the active posters on this forum are from the Northern U.S. or other zones 8a or less?!?! |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| I salivated in awe when I seen the large Cocoas at Lowe's and even though $169 is a deal, I'd feel better investing under $20 on a marginal palm. Plus it would stand little chance in 9a without protection (or micro climate) and I would have to haul that monster in during cold winter nights. I'm trying to grow a King in the ground in Jax. My Queens are thriving but my Foxtail didn't pull through the winter. But after seeing what others are doing... I may try to push the limits again. Good luck with your palms vdels1. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| The only difference with Foxtails as a "trash palm" in central Florida, (as opposed to queens, pygmy dates ,or washingtonias) is that they are not as cold hardy. In my experience, foxtails are about as hardy as royals. When we start having normal winters again(mid-upper 20s at least once), they will likely be damaged and might fall out of favor as a landscape palm. They are attractive palms though so we can enjoy it while it lasts. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Well I did it!. I planted my 2nd coconut palm and the next afternoon a thunderstorm nearlt blew it down. I took a few 50 + mph wind gusts as the storm moved though. Seem like it handled it fine. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| It's nice to see these palms growing in North Florida. I've seen that coconut palm in St. Augustine many times. I work as a mail carrier and I used to walk by that tree every day. I haven't been there in a few months now. I'm in Cresecent City now which is in Putnum co. Speaking of, there's a big coconut palm grwoing right by city hall there about 20 ft. tall. It's survived the cold. Last year I saw 29F on the sign right by that tree. It did look hurt soon after but has since recovered nicely. I'll try to take a pic of it one of these days. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| We are well into the cool season here in north Florida. So far in northwest St, Johns county we have had 4 mornings with frost with the first one on Oct 29 with a low of 34. Also, every night saw a low below 40 from Nov 16 to Nov 27 with the lows of 30 on 2 nights. 12 consecutive nights below 40! Not very tropical and certainly not the norm. I did not cover the coconut palm during the first frost as the low expected was near 40. It did suffer some damage to the fronds but not too bad. Check out the pic. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| I live in northwest St. Johns county too. I am at WGV and the coldest my house has seen is 32 last wednesday morning; it was so unexpected. We have had four frost has well. My Spindle Palm has no damage. My Coconut Palms fronds have some yellow spots on them. My Castor Bean is okay too, some leaves turned brown and crisy with the 32 degrees last week, we had very heavy frost. Today we had some nice rain with wind and thunder. I was worried about my Christmas decorations. First time I have ever had to worry about storms destroying my Christmas decor outside. Yesterday was also my first time putting out Christmas decor while sweating, lol. Upper 70's is wierd since normally in KY it has already cooled down. Jake |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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Hey Jake,
I was wondering if your coconut tree made it, I was at Home Depot Palm coast Yesterday and they had some for $49 about 9-10 feet tall. I want to get one but I can't decide yes or no.
It would have to go in the ground right away. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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- Posted by jaxboro 9(Mandarin, FL) (My Page) on
Mon, Oct 12, 09 at 19:22
| This winter was a harsh one for many areas around here. If you were within a mile of the river on it's east side or at The Beaches, you were relatively good with only a light frost. 7 miles NW of downtown Jax, Queens died from the hard freeze. In my yard within a mile of the St. Johns, I have 2 foxtails, several queens, a coconut in a pot and 2 large pygmy dates and 3 shrub ones. So, we'll see how the winter goes, hoping it is a good one to my trees. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| That's cool to see you guys zone pushing for coconut palms in n. fla. Go for it! I would guess some of our northern techniques work there like planting on the southside or wraping / covering palms on really cold days or for longer periods. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Very nice pics vdels. Good luck to all of you in N Florida. I think many with Foxtails will be sadly dissapointed as I have read in many forums that they are not hardy to prolonged cold or frost. None the less I will keep my fingers crossed! Love the zone pushers :) |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Being a meteorologist, I know what kind of winter we can expect. With it appearing to be an El Nino winter, we're likely going to see the Arctic intrusions like last year, which was weak La Nina to Neutral conditions. Even though it says below average temps, this is mainly due to clouds and storminess, not so much Arctic air. I have the river to help buffer my temps a bit and am expecting a better winter. I'll try to get pics posted tomorrow as it has been cloudy for a few days and unseasonably cold. |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Here is a link to the pics of my palms, since I can't figure it out on here. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Mandarin palms
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| jaxboro- very very nice palms all looking very healthy and happy. i like the placement/location you have planted these! many varieties and just fantastic. -Justin |
RE: Pushing the palm limits in Jacksonville FL
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| Well, now that the sun angle has changes, a few palms have changed. The foxtail with the longer fronds has a few brown spots on the newer fronds and the Xmas Palm does as well. Wth happened? They've been receiving water ever 2 weeks or so, they were container grown, and were in mostly full sun all summer. We've had a abnormally dry 3 months as the rainy season abruptly quit in August. |
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