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Kentiopsis South Texas


oliver

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Wanted to share a few pics of Kentiopsis in Brownsville, Texas. Seem to be very hardy and easy to grow. The first 2 pics Are K. oliviformis, all planted as seedlings from Floribunda. The third is K. pyriformis planted as a 1 gallon from Floribunda. I estimate about 10 years in the ground.

Pond-KO-10-6-19.jpg

Pool-KOs-10-6-19.jpg

Pond-KP-10-6-19.jpg

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Very cool.  Mine is 10 years old and has not trunked yet.  

Huntington Beach, CA

USDA Zone 10a/10b

Sunset Zone 24

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I never would've guessed this was in Brownsville, your garden is looking really good :greenthumb: Have you ever thought of trying a coconut down there ? I believe South Padre island has some growing there =)

T J 

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Very nice. How's the rest of your garden doing? How are the Carpoxylon? Any chance we could see more :winkie:

Thanks for sharing! 

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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13 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

I never would've guessed this was in Brownsville, your garden is looking really good :greenthumb: Have you ever thought of trying a coconut down there ? I believe South Padre island has some growing there =)

There are several threads on palmtalk about Texas coconuts with pictures of coconuts in Brownsville and even McAllen. 

Edited by Xenon

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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3 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Very nice. How's the rest of your garden doing? How are the Carpoxylon? Any chance we could see more :winkie:

Thanks for sharing! 

I definitely 2nd on seeing pics of your carpoxlon one of my fav palms that I wish I could grow.

T J 

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6 minutes ago, Xenon said:

There are several threads on palmtalk about Texas coconuts with pictures of coconuts in Brownsville and even McAllen. 

I believe there was even a thread that showed a picture of an Adonidia in South Padre. 

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17 minutes ago, Jeff985 said:

I believe there was even a thread that showed a picture of an Adonidia in South Padre. 

Wow Coconuts, Adonodia , Carpoxylon that's it moving farther south haha

T J 

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Great Palm highly recommended by Ken Johnson. No surprise that it is solid/strong in the RGV!

What you look for is what is looking

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1 hour ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Wow Coconuts, Adonodia , Carpoxylon that's it moving farther south haha

If you can find a job down there. From what I hear there’s not too many options. Housing is cheap though. I friend was talking about buying a vacation house in Padre so I looked around the area. Found several nice houses in Brownsville that were cheap. One that stood out to me was only 4 or 5 years old. Like 2,800 square feet. In the backyard there was a really nice pool that was surrounded by 6 or 8 towering foxtails. They had to be around 30 feet tall. The house was listed for $180k. 

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46 minutes ago, Jeff985 said:

Like 2,800 square feet. In the backyard there was a really nice pool that was surrounded by 6 or 8 towering foxtails. They had to be around 30 feet tall. The house was listed for $180k.

Wow that is cheap :bemused: I could get work in Corpus but Brownsville would be a drive haha 

T J 

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10 minutes ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

Wow that is cheap :bemused: I could get work in Corpus but Brownsville would be a drive haha 

Corpus wouldn’t be a bad option. I’ve seen some nice royals there. Probably 40 feet tall. 

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Wow! Really lush! Got some K. Oliviformis seeds this summer. Going to see if I have any luck growing them a few hours north of you. I heard that these are surprisingly cold tolerant. 

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Funny, I’m looking into possibly moving to the McAllen/Mission area from Houston. The main draw further inland vs. being closer to the coast, is better schools for my kids. My line of work is down there, but of course there is the question of pay level. The area definitely seems in an upswing, compared to how I remember it 15-20 years ago.

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I just returned from down there this weekend.  McAllen has really grown and is much nicer than it was 10 years ago.  Brownsville looks the same...

Brownsville is same latitude as Miami beach but come with a much greater risk of breaking your heart every 20 years.

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Hi!

i live in Brownsville, and will be posting some images of my coconut palms in a few days.  First, have to do some trimming and weeding in the yard.   Indeed, we are the same latitude as Miami, Fl, same average annual temperature - 75 F., but that does not tell the whole story. March-October Brownsville is warmer, sometimes much warmer than Miami (June-August);  November-February, cooler than Miami, sometimes much colder.  It’s those rare Arctic outbreaks that cause trouble for the coconut palms.

I’ve had trouble growing Kentia Palms, King or Bungalow Palms, and the Madagascar Palms (Majesty and Becarriophoenix), not because of the cold, but because of the heat and the blazing summer sun.  They burn up if not shaded.  Same with Cavendish bananas.  The Raja Puris do fine, as do the coconuts.  Two years ago I sprouted some Golden Malayan from seeds - the leaves on one of the plants now are over 10 ft. long, but no woody trunk yet.  I promise pictures over the weekend.

Gene

 

Edited by lahuasteca
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Another comment regarding tropical palms and climate in the LRGV.  Brownsville will have some marine effect (although one would never know it during this “summer from Hell”), McAllen has major urban heat island effect.  Other inland cities in the LRGV, not so much - Harlingen, Mercedes, and Weslaco usually a few degrees colder at night than Brownsville and McAllen.  Port Isabel and SPI can be significantly warmer at night during major cold air outbreaks.

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We were down there in July when it was in the low 100’s* F.  There was a strong breeze in Mcallen/Mission/Donna. It wasn’t until we went to South Padre and got out of the car in a parking lot that I really felt the brutal heat. The air was dead on the back side of the Island for whatever reason. It was definitely more intense than Houston generally is.

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I looked back. During the 3 day span in January 2018 that we saw ice/snow and a low of 18*F in Houston(a once in 20 year event).Mcallen only saw a low of 32*F. I’m not sure what the low has been overall in the last 20 years, but pretty much everything I want to grow would be plenty happy with 32*F.

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2 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

I looked back. During the 3 day span in January 2018 that we saw ice/snow and a low of 18*F in Houston(a once in 20 year event).Mcallen only saw a low of 32*F. I’m not sure what the low has been overall in the last 20 years, but pretty much everything I want to grow would be plenty happy with 32*F.

The benchmark freeze in the last 20 years in the RGV is February 2011. Ultimate low was only 27-28F but the afternoon high was below freezing so everywhere from McAllen to South Padre saw sustained high 20s to low 30s for a very long duration. That freeze nuked large Ficus way back or to the ground in most cases with F. benjamina. Many large royal poinciana (Delonix regia) which are surprisingly common street trees also froze back to varying degrees. Even royals and foxtails looked pretty bad, but most survived. Coconuts looked dead for a long time, but many established ones surprisingly pulled through as well. 

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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On 10/6/2019 at 5:15 PM, Jeff985 said:

I believe there was even a thread that showed a picture of an Adonidia in South Padre. 

Those are actually my pics in Port Isabel. They've flowered/set fruit several times and look quite happy.  I actually thought they preformed a bit better than coconuts in the Feb 2011 freeze.

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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17 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Those are actually my pics in Port Isabel. They've flowered/set fruit several times and look quite happy.  I actually thought they preformed a bit better than coconuts in the Feb 2011 freeze.

How cold did it get there in 2011?

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12 minutes ago, Jeff985 said:

How cold did it get there in 2011?

28F, but the total freeze duration was something crazy like 20-30 hours

Jonathan

Katy, TX (Zone 9a)

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2 hours ago, Xenon said:

The benchmark freeze in the last 20 years in the RGV is February 2011. Ultimate low was only 27-28F but the afternoon high was below freezing so everywhere from McAllen to South Padre saw sustained high 20s to low 30s for a very long duration. That freeze nuked large Ficus way back or to the ground in most cases with F. benjamina. Many large royal poinciana (Delonix regia) which are surprisingly common street trees also froze back to varying degrees. Even royals and foxtails looked pretty bad, but most survived. Coconuts looked dead for a long time, but many established ones surprisingly pulled through as well. 

I think I remember that front passing through Houston, it was the first week at my new job. Everyone was fearful hell was freezing over, so they closed stretches of highway that showed signs of icing. People stayed home from work/school. It ended up being a dud, atleast in Houston. Cold but no thick ice like we got last year.

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