Sabal Palmetto range officially extended into Virginia Beach?
By
Jhonny, in DISCUSSING PALM TREES WORLDWIDE
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By Virginia Palms
Howdy y’all! I’m a palm grower in central Virginia and I’ve got a few ideas to put out there to the palm world.
Firstly, with regard to zonation: I feel as though the usda hardiness zones need to be updated because as I’m sure some of y’all have noticed, there are plants and animals living and thriving in places they didn’t use too. For where I live near Charlottesville, Virginia, we haven’t reached a 7a temperature in the last 10-15 years at least, it’s been reliably 8a or above sometimes 8b or 9a some winters. Because of this, I’ve been able to grow palms and other tropical which have previously been a stranger to my area. For starters, I’ve had a red banana (Ensete maurelii) for 3 winters and it has had no protection and is supposedly a 9a plant. It has been acted like any other musabaju you might see in a cooler climate. Furthermore I have a Sabal palmetto that just breezed through a really nasty winter we had here with ZERO protection and little damage only to the tips. I’ve also had a Washingtonia robusta that I’ve had for 3 winters as well, 2 of those winters I’ve only had to cover it and protect it for only a few nights during February. This past winter was too gnarly for it being that we had a few nights in the upper teens so I did leave it covered, but it did really well overall. I have had for 3 years now a windmill palm which has never seen protection at all and it’s thriving. I’ve had a dozen or so Sabal seedlings in the ground for 4 or 5 years now and I’ve still got 7 of them. All those along with half a dozen sago palms which have survived 4 winters now. That’s just my own yard, in Charlottesville itself I’ve seen a ton of palmage! At the UVA campus there is an enormous southern live oak that’s been there for god knows how long, but it looks to be at least 50 years old. There’s a lot of musabaju bananas as well. One persons home I drive by frequently has a very large pindo palm, tons of sagos, windmills, needle palm, huge Sabal minors, and cannas and other smaller plants. I’ve seen a few windmills around town as well, one huge one and a few smaller ones. But I feel that the climate zones have shifted about to allow for a much wider verity of flora and fauna and I believe that it would be amazing too see some more palms and more exotic palms tried in central Virginia to spice things up a bit. Palmettos now should be better than marginal as should pintos and Mediterraneans. In any case those are my thoughts on palms in the central Virginia region, please let me know if you have any experience with palms in this region and hardiness zone shifts and anything else pertaining to this conversation.
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By climate change virginia
If anyone has pictures of banana plants in virginia please share
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By PalmTreeDude
Is this a Quercus virginiana seedling? Last Spring I was at Virginia Beach and just picked up the seed, which was already germinating on the ground, and brought it home with me. There are a ton of wild live oaks all around Virginia Beach, but I can't even remeber if I looked for the tree this one came from. I believe it is a live oak seedling, I kept it inside since it was so small (it was in a shady spot during the summer). It is starting to grow again. Is there a way to tell if it is a live oak other than it not losing its leaves, at this size?
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By SEVA
I'm not sure if this belongs in the weather/climate section, but I read this phenomenon occurs after extended periods without rain and little/no wind allowing the natural oils to develop on the surface of the water. I captured these photos recently at a local swamp.
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By PalmTreeDude
Does anyone know if this is a Eucalyptus neglecta? I bought it as Eucalyptus neglecta 'Big O' from a place called Soutgern Eucs, but am not sure if that is what it is, since I looked it up online and in the pictures I found they seem to be a bit different. Could it be a different species?
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