Palms, “palms”, and other tropicals in Fresno ca

[Fresnotropics]

Hi guys,

 

I’m new to this forum. Over the last couple years I’ve been collecting many tropical plants. My wife and I lived in Santa Barbara whole she attended school, and after she graduated we found a cheaper lifestyle in Fresno. Over the past few years I’ve been trying to bring that Santa Barbara feel to my Fresno property. 
 

Here are some pictures from around my yard. 

[PalmatierMeg]

Welcome to PalmTalk. Beautiful yard in a lovely neighborhood.

[kinzyjr]

@Fresnotropics Welcome to the forums!  Love the yard!

[DAVEinMB]

@Fresnotropics gorgeous yard, well done 

[Josue Diaz]

Very cool! Great job you've done.  Especially with the tropical fruiting plants (the papaya, mango, loquat, passiflora). There are a couple of us from Fresno on this forum, looking forward to bouncing ideas back and forth on what works and what doesn't here. @xvang01 has an incredible array of palms growing at his place - caryota urens, all of the parajubaeas, tri-bear dypsis, a trunking bismarkia, pritchardia... I'm a little behind in the palm game but have lots of stuff at the seedling stage if you ever want to trade. Send me a PM if you'd like a list of stuff to see if you'd be interested in any.  Others like Maria from Sago Rey Palms have an incredible diversity of stuff in the ground and for sale, lots of very mature palms including archontophoenix, caryota, sabal, ceratozamia, dioon... but they aren't on the forum. 

How long have you had the mango? I had one for two years and it slowly died one winter. It was a Kiett. It gave me one puny mango the second year lol. 

I've been growing papayas in containers for planting next year, I've seen some very large, multi-branched ones in West Fresno so I think I may be able to grow them here too. I also have an interest in tropical fruiting plants so I'm taking a particular liking to your fruit trees. The Pouteria in the pot will do very well for you here. Mine (Vernon variety) is loaded in blooms right now. My parents have a tree at their house (a Suebelle) which has tons of fruit and is also blooming. A genus of interest for you could  be Eugenia, a family of tropical "cherries", many of which do well here in Fresno. 

[Josue Diaz]

Excellent choice on the street trees, btw. The Jacarandas will provide a good canopy  when they grow, and because they hold on to their foliage through winter (I think they drop it in February or March), they can protect stuff underneath from frost. 

[SilverDragon]

Really good stuff. Welcome!

[Fresnotropics]

14 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

Very cool! Great job you've done.  Especially with the tropical fruiting plants (the papaya, mango, loquat, passiflora). There are a couple of us from Fresno on this forum, looking forward to bouncing ideas back and forth on what works and what doesn't here. @xvang01 has an incredible array of palms growing at his place - caryota urens, all of the parajubaeas, tri-bear dypsis, a trunking bismarkia, pritchardia... I'm a little behind in the palm game but have lots of stuff at the seedling stage if you ever want to trade. Send me a PM if you'd like a list of stuff to see if you'd be interested in any.  Others like Maria from Sago Rey Palms have an incredible diversity of stuff in the ground and for sale, lots of very mature palms including archontophoenix, caryota, sabal, ceratozamia, dioon... but they aren't on the forum. 

How long have you had the mango? I had one for two years and it slowly died one winter. It was a Kiett. It gave me one puny mango the second year lol. 

I've been growing papayas in containers for planting next year, I've seen some very large, multi-branched ones in West Fresno so I think I may be able to grow them here too. I also have an interest in tropical fruiting plants so I'm taking a particular liking to your fruit trees. The Pouteria in the pot will do very well for you here. Mine (Vernon variety) is loaded in blooms right now. My parents have a tree at their house (a Suebelle) which has tons of fruit and is also blooming. A genus of interest for you could  be Eugenia, a family of tropical "cherries", many of which do well here in Fresno. 
 

 

thank you josue! It’s a pleasure meeting plant enthusiasts in Fresno. After seeing your post when I asked about Hercules aloe I looked through your profile and loved your yard. Yours is truly beautiful. Love the bungalow style with tropicals.

Keitt mangoes, for me, have been the worst. Mine died inexplicably last late summer. I got two more that were for sale at Lowe’s this winter and they’ve stayed alive but have been slow growing. The mango seedlings sold at Lowe’s and Home Depot have been very strong. Mine take full sun and survived last winter - they aren’t pictured. The pictured mango is a Valencia pride, picked in part due to its vigorous growth to combat winter damage. It’s been in the ground for one year and tried producing dozens of mangoes but I only kept one. I also have ice cream and nam doc mai mangoes that are dwarf and doing well, about a year and 3 months in ground. The ice cream fruited - spectacular. 
 

I purchased the Valencia pride from a website called plantogram.com for $100 at 5.5 ft. It put on about 2-3 ft of growth and lots of branches. I’d recommend them if you feel like getting one.

I’ve never tried white sapote, but I did get a sue belle that I have in a pot waiting to plant it. Seems like I’m running out of space haha. I had been interested in Eugenia but we don’t see any in store so I opted for things like lemon guava, guava, pineapple guava, and I bought a Barbados cherry online which has survived a winter no problem. I have a large muntingia calabura in my front yard that I anticipate dying, if it doesn’t I’ll be shocked!

ive seen many sago Rey posts when i scour offerup haha. I’ve never been but they do seem to have a large affordable selection.

I’m behind the palm game too. Many are just “palms” lol. Bananas, Madagascar, African palm. I moved in with all the beautiful queen palms already here thankfully, but I’m adding a lot of Areca palms in the understory of the queens - Areca are my favorite. 
 

where did you happen to see the papaya? I’d love to check it out!

[Fresnotropics]

Thank you all for the kind words. Please offer any advice you feel would add cohesion to my yard!

[Matt in OC]

14 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

Excellent choice on the street trees, btw. The Jacarandas will provide a good canopy  when they grow, and because they hold on to their foliage through winter (I think they drop it in February or March), they can protect stuff underneath from frost. 

They may jack up your sidewalk or sewer in several years though. The garden looks beautiful. Welcome!

[Josue Diaz]

1 hour ago, Fresnotropics said:

thank you josue! It’s a pleasure meeting plant enthusiasts in Fresno. After seeing your post when I asked about Hercules aloe I looked through your profile and loved your yard. Yours is truly beautiful. Love the bungalow style with tropicals.

Keitt mangoes, for me, have been the worst. Mine died inexplicably last late summer. I got two more that were for sale at Lowe’s this winter and they’ve stayed alive but have been slow growing. The mango seedlings sold at Lowe’s and Home Depot have been very strong. Mine take full sun and survived last winter - they aren’t pictured. The pictured mango is a Valencia pride, picked in part due to its vigorous growth to combat winter damage. It’s been in the ground for one year and tried producing dozens of mangoes but I only kept one. I also have ice cream and nam doc mai mangoes that are dwarf and doing well, about a year and 3 months in ground. The ice cream fruited - spectacular. 
 

I purchased the Valencia pride from a website called plantogram.com for $100 at 5.5 ft. It put on about 2-3 ft of growth and lots of branches. I’d recommend them if you feel like getting one.

I’ve never tried white sapote, but I did get a sue belle that I have in a pot waiting to plant it. Seems like I’m running out of space haha. I had been interested in Eugenia but we don’t see any in store so I opted for things like lemon guava, guava, pineapple guava, and I bought a Barbados cherry online which has survived a winter no problem. I have a large muntingia calabura in my front yard that I anticipate dying, if it doesn’t I’ll be shocked!

ive seen many sago Rey posts when i scour offerup haha. I’ve never been but they do seem to have a large affordable selection.

I’m behind the palm game too. Many are just “palms” lol. Bananas, Madagascar, African palm. I moved in with all the beautiful queen palms already here thankfully, but I’m adding a lot of Areca palms in the understory of the queens - Areca are my favorite. 
 

where did you happen to see the papaya? I’d love to check it out!

The papaya was waaayyyy out on Jensen, west of Hwy 41. It was planted just at the base of the house and branched at the roofline,  presumably recovering from frost damage is my guess. 

Hit me up for some eugenia.  I have several varieties, all sprouted this last summer and potted up in to individual pots about two months ago. 

 

Would LOVE to connect next summer about trading edible fruiting plants. A good friend of mine is a member of the local chapter of the CA Rare Fruit Growers Association. We're currently growing avocado for grafting onto next spring. Interested in mangos also if they're possible here.

[Josue Diaz]

Sago Rey has many gems. Not sure if all their stock is at the Central Ave storefront, but the greenhouses have lots of cool stuff,  brahea super silver, jubaeopsis, trachycarpus princeps, copernicia prunifera, macrozamias, encephalartos, parajubaea, jubaea x butia, butia x syagrus... 

 

Here is my pouteria this morning. loaded with flowers at the moment.

[Fresnotropics]

Impressive mamey! 
 

mangoes are definitely possible. I think we had lows of 27 last winter and all mine survived. I know they get hardier with age. I’ve got several avocado varieties: lil(dwarf), bacon, hass, Mexicola . I’ve got a handful of seedlings too and I’d love to learn to graft if you guys are up for it.

I’ll take you up on some Eugenia. Even if I’m out of space here my father in law has a lot of property in Madera ranchos that I can experiment on. I have a ton of papaya from seed. Several are under palms, one in the open, one under roof ridge, and one halfway under frost cloth. We will see what survives. I had one take no damage under a queen palm last year but its actually smaller than all of my new seed grown papayas haha.

 

If you or anyone else is interested I’ve got an unnamed banana clump that I’m taking out to replace with a named variety. It would be free of course. It weighs about a hundred pounds and is very vigorous, 15 ft tall. Here’s a picture of the same variety fruiting about 2 month after flower:

 

Edited December 6, 2019 by Fresnotropics

[Husain]

Beautiful yard, well done 

[Fresnotropics]

11 minutes ago, Husain said:

Beautiful yard, well done 

Thank you. It’s always a work in progress. I keep a folder of my progress and it’s crazy how it looked so much different one year - even six months ago! 

[sandgroper]

Great looking garden mate, you've got some lovely plants growing there.

[Fresnotropics]

12 minutes ago, sandgroper said:

Great looking garden mate, you've got some lovely plants growing there.

Thank you! I’m guessing you’re from Australia? If so, I’d bet you have more interesting stuff!

[Ittai Baratz]

Looking really good. Is that a Pachira there? How long have you had it in the ground? Single or braided?

I am in the bay area and last year I tried a planting them but the wind destroyed them.
This year I found a protected spot and they so far its still surviving (Well, 4 braids out of the 5...)

[sandgroper]

1 hour ago, Fresnotropics said:

Thank you! I’m guessing you’re from Australia? If so, I’d bet you have more interesting stuff!

Yes mate, from Australia. We are quite lucky with our climate but Oz is a fairly large country so we can't grow everything everywhere, the part where I live is pretty good though there's not too much that can't be grown with a bit of effort.

[Fresnotropics]

1 hour ago, Ittai Baratz said:

Looking really good. Is that a Pachira there? How long have you had it in the ground? Single or braided?

I am in the bay area and last year I tried a planting them but the wind destroyed them.
This year I found a protected spot and they so far its still surviving (Well, 4 braids out of the 5...)

Yes it’s a pachira. It’s a braided houseplant that I moved outside as it was rotting. Despite rotting roots it survived the winter with no issue. It’s in a frost free location under queen palms and can only be hit by winds coming from the East which isn’t often.

[Josue Diaz]

On 12/6/2019 at 11:13 AM, Fresnotropics said:

Impressive mamey! 
 

mangoes are definitely possible. I think we had lows of 27 last winter and all mine survived. I know they get hardier with age. I’ve got several avocado varieties: lil(dwarf), bacon, hass, Mexicola . I’ve got a handful of seedlings too and I’d love to learn to graft if you guys are up for it.

I’ll take you up on some Eugenia. Even if I’m out of space here my father in law has a lot of property in Madera ranchos that I can experiment on. I have a ton of papaya from seed. Several are under palms, one in the open, one under roof ridge, and one halfway under frost cloth. We will see what survives. I had one take no damage under a queen palm last year but its actually smaller than all of my new seed grown papayas haha.

 

If you or anyone else is interested I’ve got an unnamed banana clump that I’m taking out to replace with a named variety. It would be free of course. It weighs about a hundred pounds and is very vigorous, 15 ft tall. Here’s a picture of the same variety fruiting about 2 month after flower:

 

Thanks for the banana Tim! 

 

[Fresnotropics]

19 hours ago, Josue Diaz said:

Thanks for the banana Tim! 

 

And thanks for all the goodies right back at you! 

[NC_Palms]

Beautiful!