Exotic looking palms for zone 9a/8b?

[ShadowNight030]

9 hours ago, Laaz said:

I have three clumps of Rhapis excelsa  that all came back from the roots after last winters 16F. First time they were ever knocked to the ground like that. They are reliable to 20F.

They did well when I was down in Nola and I’ve seen them in a nursery in Lafayette, but they were a little expensive. But I’ll see about trying them out. 

[Alicehunter2000]

I live in your zone....the backbone of your yard for a tropical look should be mules & chinese. Add loquats, magnolia and mimosa along with bananas, elephant ear, and philodendrons...... voila! Almost instant tropical look   ...... after this you can start planting more unusual items others have suggested

[Kailua_Krish]

1 hour ago, Alicehunter2000 said:

I live in your zone....the backbone of your yard for a tropical look should be mules & chinese. Add loquats, magnolia and mimosa along with bananas, elephant ear, and philodendrons...... voila! Almost instant tropical look   ...... after this you can start planting more unusual items others have suggested

Don't forget cycads too! Not the regular King sagas but if you can get some of the Rev x deb hybrid seeds you can fill in quite a lot with these and they grow fast. Crinums and the non-variegated shell ginger also are musts. The large liriope actually looks pretty tropical when mixed in and curcuma fill in understory nicely too

Agree 100% with David though. I have an old thread somewhere around here with my 8b/9a experiment with plenty of pictures of its growing pains.

[Alicehunter2000]

Krishna. ..how's your P. sunkha doing these days?

[Kailua_Krish]

1 hour ago, Alicehunter2000 said:

Krishna. ..how's your P. sunkha doing these days?

There is an updated pic in another thread, recently. On my phone now so can’t find it. It’s getting big!

[Kailua_Krish]

4 hours ago, krishnaraoji88 said:

There is an updated pic in another thread, recently. On my phone now so can’t find it. It’s getting big!

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/36745-pushing-the-zone-in-9a/&do=findComment&comment=869155

[ShadowNight030]

On 11/26/2018, 11:01:26, krishnaraoji88 said:

Don't forget cycads too! Not the regular King sagas but if you can get some of the Rev x deb hybrid seeds you can fill in quite a lot with these and they grow fast. Crinums and the non-variegated shell ginger also are musts. The large liriope actually looks pretty tropical when mixed in and curcuma fill in understory nicely too

Agree 100% with David though. I have an old thread somewhere around here with my 8b/9a experiment with plenty of pictures of its growing pains.

I have a 6 foot sago in my front yard, removed the 4 in the back. Too annoying to weed around, and I had a dog that ate everything and didn't want to risk her health. I have birds of paradise (both orange and white), shell ginger, rubber ficus, shrimp plant, and plumbago. I have plumeria and pandanus in big pots I can place around. Next year I'll be adding tropical hibiscus since they do good in my neighbors yards. My mule palm is still recovering, and I'll be installing some Mexican fan palms or sabals in the spring. 

[Mr.SamuraiSword]

On 11/27/2018, 11:37:03, ShadowNight030 said:

I have a 6 foot sago in my front yard, removed the 4 in the back. Too annoying to weed around, and I had a dog that ate everything and didn't want to risk her health. I have birds of paradise (both orange and white), shell ginger, rubber ficus, shrimp plant, and plumbago. I have plumeria and pandanus in big pots I can place around. Next year I'll be adding tropical hibiscus since they do good in my neighbors yards. My mule palm is still recovering, and I'll be installing some Mexican fan palms or sabals in the spring. 

sabals are better because they dont need to be trimmed they are self cleaning.  another alternative could be livistonia?

[Laaz]

On 11/29/2018, 1:09:26, Mr.SamuraiSword said:

sabals are better because they dont need to be trimmed they are self cleaning.  another alternative could be livistonia?

Lol! Not quite.

[ShadowNight030]

On 11/29/2018, 1:09:26, Mr.SamuraiSword said:

sabals are better because they dont need to be trimmed they are self cleaning.  another alternative could be livistonia?

I'm gonna stick with the sabals or Mexican fan palms. They're cheaper overall. I wanted a Sylvester but they were $3500 a tree. Some Lafayette nurseries sell mule palms so I'm going to go check their prices. I'm considering a butia also, but I'd rather buy one small. 

[Merlyn]

That seems like an absurd price for a Sylvester, unless it's already 30 feet tall!  I'd have a hard time paying that much for a tree that could get wiped out if TPPD makes it into your area.  In the Orlando area they go for around $100/trunk foot installed.  You might be able to get a Butia reasonably priced, at least around here no one seems to want them.  I bought a couple of ~8' height / 2' of trunk Butias for $80 each.  A local nursery is selling 45g potted with 3-4' of trunk for $175.  Mules are neat palms but not as disease-resistant as the Butia parent, given the relative weakness of the Queen to LY and Fusarium.

I'm a big fan of the yellow-green variegated ginger for "fill" and also the Tristar for shadier areas.  I also like oyster and the mini Xanadu philodendron, though I'm not sure how cold those will survive.  I bought a Rev x Deb hybrid from TexasColdHardyPalms on eBay for $40 shipped, and I have a Dioon Edule and a Spinulosum too, along with several 2' -6' tall regular sagos.

[ShadowNight030]

3 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

That seems like an absurd price for a Sylvester, unless it's already 30 feet tall!  I'd have a hard time paying that much for a tree that could get wiped out if TPPD makes it into your area.  In the Orlando area they go for around $100/trunk foot installed.  You might be able to get a Butia reasonably priced, at least around here no one seems to want them.  I bought a couple of ~8' height / 2' of trunk Butias for $80 each.  A local nursery is selling 45g potted with 3-4' of trunk for $175.  Mules are neat palms but not as disease-resistant as the Butia parent, given the relative weakness of the Queen to LY and Fusarium.

I'm a big fan of the yellow-green variegated ginger for "fill" and also the Tristar for shadier areas.  I also like oyster and the mini Xanadu philodendron, though I'm not sure how cold those will survive.  I bought a Rev x Deb hybrid from TexasColdHardyPalms on eBay for $40 shipped, and I have a Dioon Edule and a Spinulosum too, along with several 2' -6' tall regular sagos.

My local nursery sells palms at high prices. My 7’ sabal in my front yard was $1500. This winter when we hit the mid teens I saw many Sylvesters die, they were recently becoming very popular. Butias were being sold at Lowe’s for $70 in 6.5 gallon pots. Xanadu philodendrons do fine here mulched. I have no clue about oyster plants. They aren’t even sold around here. I had ground bromeliads for a few years, they finally were killed this winter. Hawaiian ti does good I’ve noticed in others yards in my neighborhood. Bottlebrush is also popular here. 

Edited December 1, 2018 by ShadowNight030