palms for an north-facing l.a. hillside

[jonnyss]

my daughter is buying a house in l.a. with a large, north-facing 45-degree sloped back yard. so it's shady in the winter, reasonably sunny in the summer. any tips on choosing palms for this situation?

also, any suggestions for a good garden designer or landscape architect that has experience designing palm (and companion) gardens in l.a.?

[Ben in Norcal]

You want something drought tolerant, I should think, if on a slope. I am sure some of the La La Land folks can chip in but I would think Parajubaea or Brahea sp would be good choices. Maybe Dooms Dave or someone can chip in with more tender ideas.

[Alicehunter2000]

Jim in Los Altos is a Landscape designer ....he posts on here a lot....don't know how close he is. You should check out some of his posts. I would imagine he could design a yard that would work for your tastes and parameters.

[DoomsDave]

jonny ss:

Welcome to Palm Talk!

Where, exactly, in Los Angeles is your daughter's new place?

That's very critical, because climates vary a lot. Palms that do great in, say, Mar Vista might not make it in Granada Hills, for example, because of the great differences in climate. Mar Vista is near the ocean and Granada Hills is far inland; the first is mild and relatively humid, the second is hotter, colder, and far windier.

We don't need the address, just the general location. That will help a lot.

[Ben in Norcal]

Jim in Los Altos is a Landscape designer ....he posts on here a lot....don't know how close he is. You should check out some of his posts. I would imagine he could design a yard that would work for your tastes and parameters.

Jim is like 300-odd miles away...but can probably still provide some great advice

[DoomsDave]

Jim in Los Altos is a Landscape designer ....he posts on here a lot....don't know how close he is. You should check out some of his posts. I would imagine he could design a yard that would work for your tastes and parameters.

Jim is like 300-odd miles away...but can probably still provide some great advice

I'm a lot closer, and I can show how NOT to do it!

[jonnyss]

thanks for all the replies. the house is in los feliz, in the hills just south of griffith park.

[DoomsDave]

thanks for all the replies. the house is in los feliz, in the hills just south of griffith park.

That helps a lot!

The Palm Society of Southern California is having a meeting in Altadena, which is relatively nearby, on March 21, 2015, your daughter and you and anyone else you want to bring are welcome to attend. (No need to be a member.) Shoot me a PM and I can shoot you more information. (No obligation.)

She will have a wide range of choices, because she can grow both ones that like the humidity and those that like heat.

[jonnyss]

thanks for all the replies. the house is in los feliz, in the hills just south of griffith park.

That helps a lot!

The Palm Society of Southern California is having a meeting in Altadena, which is relatively nearby, on March 21, 2015, your daughter and you and anyone else you want to bring are welcome to attend. (No need to be a member.) Shoot me a PM and I can shoot you more information. (No obligation.)

She will have a wide range of choices, because she can grow both ones that like the humidity and those that like heat.

thanks so much, dave.

unfortunately i would be the one guiding palm choice, and i live in menlo park; so it's hard to make a meeting in altadena. i would love any suggestions for an l.a. landscape designer who works a lot with palms.

also, if anyone is growing palms in southern california on a north facing slope. i would love to learn what has worked for you.

is the griffith park area humid? i would have guessed hot and dry.

Edited January 29, 2015 by jonnyss

[mnorell]

I lived in that general area of Los Feliz (Franklin Hills) for several years and I can say that it is very dependent on topography and your location on your hill (i.e., higher up on an air-draining slope or lower down where cold air collects). We were near the bottom of a hill (west-facing) and the 1990 freeze dosed us with some mid-20s and made permanent toast out of a number of plants, such as Roystonea regia, Spathodea campanulata, et al. If you know the exact angle of the north-facing hillside, you should be able to calculate how far "north" that exposure puts the garden based on the angle away from the sun's azimuth in winter. It is definitely a disadvantage for lowland tropical plants. You might be able to take advantage of the north-facing hill and plant some unusual high-elevation, cool-loving palms like some species of Ceroxylon. And jonnyss, Los Feliz is generally a mild climate, the farthest east such area sitting on the "coastal" side of the Santa Monica Mountains (such as they are at that point) just over from the Glendale narrows and the base of the San Fernando Valley (and which is certainly colder in winter). The good news is that Los Feliz gets much more sun and warmth than areas on the "west side" of the L.A. Basin, as the cold blanket of clouds burns off earlier and sets in later in the evening...and its warmth is usually quite gentle. It basically has "upper" Hollywood's climate (i.e., Franklin Ave./Hollywood Blvd. corridor), which is about as good as it gets in Southern California for warmth-loving tropicals (only the south-facing slopes of the Hollywood Hills would trump it). It's just that there are a lot of cold-collecting spots at the bottom of the many hills that can get surprisingly cold. It's just all about your particular microclimate and that will have a big effect on the species you can grow. I had a Pritchardia beccariana that survived that 1990 blast and got absolutely huge there over the years, though I saw not long ago on Google Street View that it had suddenly died. I have no idea why that would have happened, but it was definitely a success story there and I'm sure it got precious little care over the intervening decades.

[DoomsDave]

I lived in that general area of Los Feliz (Franklin Hills) for several years and I can say that it is very dependent on topography and your location on your hill (i.e., higher up on an air-draining slope or lower down where cold air collects). We were near the bottom of a hill (west-facing) and the 1990 freeze dosed us with some mid-20s and made permanent toast out of a number of plants, such as Roystonea regia, Spathodea campanulata, et al. If you know the exact angle of the north-facing hillside, you should be able to calculate how far "north" that exposure puts the garden based on the angle away from the sun's azimuth in winter. It is definitely a disadvantage for lowland tropical plants. You might be able to take advantage of the north-facing hill and plant some unusual high-elevation, cool-loving palms like some species of Ceroxylon. And jonnyss, Los Feliz is generally a mild climate, the farthest east such area sitting on the "coastal" side of the Santa Monica Mountains (such as they are at that point) just over from the Glendale narrows and the base of the San Fernando Valley (and which is certainly colder in winter). The good news is that Los Feliz gets much more sun and warmth than areas on the "west side" of the L.A. Basin, as the cold blanket of clouds burns off earlier and sets in later in the evening...and its warmth is usually quite gentle. It basically has "upper" Hollywood's climate (i.e., Franklin Ave./Hollywood Blvd. corridor), which is about as good as it gets in Southern California for warmth-loving tropicals (only the south-facing slopes of the Hollywood Hills would trump it). It's just that there are a lot of cold-collecting spots at the bottom of the many hills that can get surprisingly cold. It's just all about your particular microclimate and that will have a big effect on the species you can grow. I had a Pritchardia beccariana that survived that 1990 blast and got absolutely huge there over the years, though I saw not long ago on Google Street View that it had suddenly died. I have no idea why that would have happened, but it was definitely a success story there and I'm sure it got precious little care over the intervening decades.

In other words, Los Feliz is a great palm climate!

Mike has great advice.

Iived in nearby El Sereno, and the higher on the hill, the better, but there's lots of room for experimentation.

[redbeard917]

I don't know anything about the local climate, but I would plant a Jubaea somewhere a truck can get to it, on the chance that people are still paying outrageous amounts for large specimens in the future. And if not, you still have a nice palm.

[David in Berkeley]

Is lower irrigation needs a deciding factor? If so, any and all of the Brahea spp would work great, but silver foliaged ones like armata, Super Silver, Clara would prefer open ground and not overshading by house or trees Butia spp would also work great, Trachycarpus fortunei, martianys, wagnerianus. .Moderate water loving palms like Howeia forsteriana, Chamaedoreas like costaricana, plumosa, Archontophoenix cunninghamiana, Phoenix roebelennii, Chamaerops, Arenga engleri.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Hello

you have definitely came to the right place for advice on this ! If you can catch up with Dooms Dave he has a fabulous palm collection and would be a great help to you and your daughter .

I have seen many palm collections in the last 5 years in my visits to Southern California and the two things i have heard the most were topography /cold air drainage and distance from the sea and summer gloom /fog seem to be one of the most important considerations when growing palms (other than the generic Washingtonia and date palms of course ) in Los Angeles . A good irrigation setup is a must !

[Tassie_Troy1971]

This fella " got palms " in LA has a really nice landscaped yard and whoever did his would be fantastic .

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/36784-garden-update/

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/28502-yard-extension/