Palms for Austin Texas

[Ed in Houston]

A friend bought a home in Austin Texas and would like to plant palms.

Where in Austin is a good place to shop for cold hardy palms that are also adapted to the local soil and do not require too much watering.

He is limited to planting 5 gallon sizes.

He is in a 8b climate.

He already has a Sabal Mexicana from seeds collected locally.

Thanks.....Ed in Houston

[Austinpalm]

Two places I visit in Austin from time to time to check for palms are the Great Outdoors on Congress Ave. and Barton Springs Nursery on Bee Caves Rd. There are a several other places as well with equal quality and selection, these two are just closer to home in South Austin. To obtain hard to get species I usually buy/trade with individuals here on IPS, from various Palm Society of South Texas members, as well as getting a few things on eBay. Hope you friend enjoys Austin, I have lived here nearly 20 years. There is quite a bit to do and see and people are generally friendly. A surprising variety of palms can be grown here depending on your proximity to the urban heat island, soil type, and access to water.

Please feel free to PM me with any additional questions.

Clay

[Collectorpalms]

An Austin Palm garden shouldn't be without a real Washingtonia Filifera ( don't be tempted for robustas), Braheas, A Canary, Mediterraneans (including silver), Sabal Mexicana and/or Uresana and a marginal cold hardy mule in the right spot. Needles and minors for smaller areas. These are tough as nails.

At Barton Springs in the last couple years you could find, Washingtonia Filifera, Brahea Armata, Sabal Uresana, Sabal Mexicans, Sabal minor, Canary Island Date, and then the usual. Better pricing than The Great Outdoors or another favorite to walk around The Natural Gardener.

I would also get a Mule Palm online and try to find other zone 8b hardy palms online.

Windmills are not drought heat tolerant here, and Pindos and not adjusted to the higher ph. If he has black land Prarie soil, he will get excellent growth results ( areas like northeast Austin). Otherwise if it's the rocky limestone, then amend the soil well with organics. 

Edited June 29, 2016 by Collectorpalms

[_Keith]

I'd start small, but would definitely try a Jubaea there.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

I've sold a lot of jubaea, brahea, cidp and filifera to folks in austin. 

[Ed in Houston]

Thanks for all the tips guys. My buddy and I will check out The Great Outdoors and Barton Springs Nursery. I guessing they will all we need. He does not have a large yard but is excited about making it "tropical".

Ed in Houston

[eevans]

I'll second the suggestions for Barton Springs Nursery and Great Outdoors. The owner of Barton Springs is a real plant nerd, and sometimes they'll offer seedlings in 1-gallon sizes, which helps if you're looking for low prices.  Many years ago I bought some Sabal minors there from such a lot; he said he had planted a bunch of collected seeds just to see if they would sprout - they ALL did.

Great Outdoors might be more hit/miss, though I did once buy some 3-gallon Arenga engleri there. I've never seen those in an Austin nursery before or since (and I've been living here and nursery-shopping for 25 years).

A word about location:  Whether a given palm will thrive in an Austin yard depends strongly on where in "Austin" your yard is.  The parts east of the Balcones fault (roughly, east of the Mopac freeway) mostly have a fair amount of topsoil, though it can be rather clay-y. West of the fault, yards are often on a few inches of topsoil over a limestone base. For example, I see Pindos to the west that often look yellowish and stunted. But in my yard (just east of the fault), I've never had any such problem. One of mine is 24 years old now and has 8 feet of trunk.

Sabal mexicana is common here in older parts of town, with lots of specimens that are many decades old. Mine is 20 years old with a 15-foot trunk - and I grew it from a seed.

As for windmills - they obviously have no problem with cold here. But they look best when grown under a high canopy of other trees, as direct sun can make them yellowish and sad-looking. I've grown several over the years, getting up them to 18 years old and ~12 feet of trunk, though I have now lost all but one of them to the Ox Beetle.

[Merlyn]

My parents have a place on the SW side of Austin, West of Oak Hill and outside the urban heat island.  It's on a high spot and they have limestone with about 3-4 feet of red dirt of unknown composition.  My grandfather had a pretty healthy vegetable garden there for decades, probably as a result of mixing in a lot of composted cow manure.  I'm not sure if he mixed any of that into the yard soil or not.  My mom loves my newly tropical yard and wants to plant at least a couple of palms there.  The downside is that they have no sprinkler system and no interest or ability to water palms on a regular basis.  So any palm choices would have to be able to survive on their own with the 2-3" / month rain in the Austin area.  I'm sure they could handle keeping it semi-regularly watered after planting, but give it a month or so and it's on it's own! 

What zero-maintenance palms might live in a spot like this?  So far I've seen suggestions for Sabal Mexicana and Uresana, Arenga Engleri (may need too much water?), Butia (if amended to decrease pH), Washingtonia Filifera, Mediterranean and windmills (in shade), needle (drought tolerant) and Braheas.  Are there any of these that would tolerate full sun in the summer without supplemental water?

[Fusca]

Butia and Rhapidophyllum would fry in summer without supplemental water before it's well acclimated (needs much more than a month), windmills definitely need some shade but would look terrible with minimal water.  Braheas (some at least) are a good choice and Phoenix (dactylifera, theophrasti, canariensis) along with the others.  I'd still try to have these watered regularly for the first few months.  Mules also do pretty well in 8b and are pretty drought tolerant as well, but perform much better with regular water like the queens.  Probably not a great candidate for letting it go "on it's own" though!

[Tom in Tucson]

I would try Livistona nitida and Trithrinax campestris

Hi 71˚, Lo 52˚ - showers

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

If you plant the palms right now and we dont have a drought year you can put a 10-15g w. Filifera, b armata, sabal uresana, mexicana, pindo and med fans in the ground and never water and they wont die.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Same with livistona nitida, Chilensis, and all tritrinax species. 

[Merlyn]

Thanks for all the advice!  My parents went out and picked up a Pindo and a Mediterranean fan palm tonight from Barton Springs Nursery, and said their prices were pretty good and the guys were very knowledgeable.  They also echoed the above comments, basically water them in and leave them.  The only time that might be an issue is a dry July/August for the first year.  He did mention that one out of my short list (L. Nitida, Chilensis, W. Filifera, B. Armata, Butia and Med.) would likely not survive the cold up in "Hill Country."  But they can't remember which one.  Maybe the Livistona, since it's known to get down into the single digits up there.

The two they bought are both 5g pots, the Pindo is about 6" trunk diameter and about 2 feet total height.  The Med. is a "blue" one and has 1 main stem (2' OA) and 3 short (12" OA) offsets.  They are planning on planting them in the old vegetable garden, which was used for probably 40 years but not in the past 10-15 years.  In this spot they'll get full sun from about 10-5 and some shade in the AM and late PM.  Will that be a problem for either of these?  Given the vegetable garden-over-limestone do you think they'll need any amendments?

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Of those the livistona are the least leaf hardy, but are incredibly bud hardy. The leaves would burn out in the hill country 50% of the years- same here in DFW.  We have a lot of livistona that took single digits two years in a row that are still alive and well.

[Merlyn]

So my parent's Pindo and Med. fan are doing okay being neglected for 2 months.  The Med. fan has dead brown spears on 2 "trunks" but the palm rolled around in the trunk and could have taken physical damage before it was even planted.  It's growing several good looking fronds out of other trunks and has a couple of offshoots at the bottom, so it seems to be growing okay.  The dead spears are still in there tight, so hopefully they'll grow out of it.  The Butia has a couple of new fronds opening, so far it seems pretty happy!

The odd thing is that they went back to Barton nursery and the guy said they aren't carrying Jubaea anymore.  He said it's getting too humid there and they aren't worth the risk.  This seems kind of odd, it's not a desert in SW Austin hill country, but it's pretty dry in the summer and certainly isn't a Jubaea-killing jungle like Floriduh.  I noticed that TCHP isn't selling Jubaea seedlings right now, is there some reason it wouldn't grow in the Austin area?  Would I be better off with a Jubaea x Butia hybrid?

And one other question, I was recommending them to purchase a Trachycarpus Fortunei Nova, would that do ok planted in October as a bare-rooted 5G?  Or is it better to wait until February to plant some of the other ones?  I was thinking a Nova and a Stone Gate Princeps type would be great there in a >50% shady spot.

[Meangreen94z]

Texascoldhardypalms has told me in the past to find or grow Jubaea Chilensis in a pot until atleast a 15 gallon size before planting in a humid environment. Above that they will do fine, although they are slow growing 

[Merlyn]

I bought a few Sabal Causiarum seedlings (overgrown liners) from Josh-O, and am planning to grow them here in FL for a year or two.  I know the Uresana is a good palm for hill country Austin, and the Causiarum is supposed to be pretty cold hardy.  Is this one that will survive there without defoliating on a yearly basis?