Coconuts of Cape Coral, FL

[PalmatierMeg]

About a week ago I posted a topic about my 3-year-old twin and 2-year-old Dwarf Red Spicata coconuts. I also have a number of other coconuts in our garden, some purchased, others rescue coconuts that germinated and drifted down our freshwater canal. We rescued yet another coconut over the weekend and plan to offer it to a Jamaican neighbor who has her own garden lot. This latest rescue prompted me to take photos of some of our other coconuts. They are a mixed lot for sure.

Leaning coconut of Irma

We bought this palm at the Pine Island Garden Gala about 10 years ago. It is now huge and was growing straight until Hurricane Irma blew it to a 45 degree angle in 2017. It was too large to pull upright so we left it and it is now curving back toward vertical. It produces very large green coconuts.

Panama Tall coconut in back yard

Peter Pacific from PT brought me this coconut from Guatemala about 10 years ago. It has started to flower but has produced no fruit so far. It is huge.

Coconut by garden shed

This unknown variety was given to me by Peter Pacific a few years later as he needed to rehome it from his condo in Ft. Myers.

Cocos nucifera dwarf Red Tahiti Rangiroa

I purchased this seedling last year from a HI seller after Gottmitalex bought his. It is showing some cold damage that I haven't trimmed off but has been fertilized and started growing after warm weather returned.

[PalmatierMeg]

Coconuts of Cape Coral, cont'd

Rescue coconut near street. This was a canal rescue planted on the edge of our Garden Lot. Shows a lot of cosmetic cold damage - our ultimate low this past winter was 43.5F. Coconuts are truly uber tropical.

Cocos nucifera Dwarf Red Spicata

This palm germinated from my mother palm's first crop of seeds. I sold many of the offspring but this seedling did not show the typical vibrant colors of this cultivar and I hesitated to sell it. I planted it in the NW corner of our Garden Lot. It is also 3 years old but is smaller because it has no access to regular irrigation.

Rescue coconut #2

Rescue coconut #3

Rescue coconut #4

[GottmitAlex]

Meg, I just want to say how magnificent is the collection you have of Coconut palms.  Congratulations! 

Beautiful, huge and healthy. I didnt realize before how pronounced is the lean on the Irma coco. But it corrected its course and it is still thriving. 

Btw, just as your red Tahiti rangiroa seedling got a tad bit burned, mine did as well this past winter.

Here again, my hat's off to ya. 

Wunderbar! 

[Walt]

What's that tree in photo #8 (from top) behind the coconut? Looks like a yellow flower, like a Hibiscus tiliaceus.

[PalmatierMeg]

14 hours ago, Walt said:

What's that tree in photo #8 (from top) behind the coconut? Looks like a yellow flower, like a Hibiscus tiliaceus.

You are correct. It is a green mahoe, Hibiscus tiliaceus. Flowers open red then gradually fade to yellow. Flowers prolifically.

[Walt]

7 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

You are correct. It is a green mahoe, Hibiscus tiliaceus. Flowers open red then gradually fade to yellow. Flowers prolifically.

I have three large Hibiscus tiliaceus I grew from cuttings I took back in 2011 of a local tree. They are very fast growers. But the flowers turn from yellow to red! I have red flowers littering the ground. I used to have a variegated H. tiliaceus, but it was frozen and killed in 2010.

[Cluster]

Hello Meg,

Again the coco collection looks amazing. 

Regarding the spots some of your cocos have, aren't those possibly caused by the irrigation system (thinking about sprinklers here) and not just cooler temperatures, it doesn't look like those pale colorless/brown fronds due to cold but rather fungi. Would be cool to compare irrigation vs non irrigation during the cooler months at least.

Edited April 17, 2019 by Cluster

[Palmaceae]

1 hour ago, Cluster said:

Hello Meg,

Again the coco collection looks amazing. 

Regarding the spots some of your cocos have, aren't those possibly caused by the irrigation system (thinking about sprinklers here) and not just cooler temperatures, it doesn't look like those pale colorless/brown fronds due to cold but rather fungi. Would be cool to compare irrigation vs non irrigation during the cooler months at least.

My coconuts have some of the same damage, it is definitely cold damage. Especially when we have very warm days then we have a cold front where it drops quickly to the low fortys.  The other coconuts in the area, especially young ones look that way in the Cape. Normal for us.