Los Angeles palms

[royal-cocoapalm]

Ive never been to california yet but from what i see on tv, in pictures and hear from people their palms are extremely tall and skinny that line their main roads. What types of palms are those and how many stories high would everybody guess most of them are? Also how do they get that tall and skinny, im guessing the soil and fertilization as well as the weather but doesnt cali get lightning and strong winds sometimes like florida?

[samirbouag]

WASHINGTONIA ROBUSTA

[royal-cocoapalm]

WASHINGTONIA ROBUSTA

I figured they were but its funny, everywhere else i see them in pictures they are never that tall and thin they look different in other locations, I saw some in your pics of the french riveriera but they dont look quite as mature as the ones in LA, im guessing the ones in LA are a lot older. BTW your pics of the french riviera are very nice, I wanna go there, it looks almost like los angeles from the pics.

[royal-cocoapalm]

Does anybody know is the washingtonia is able to grow in north florida?

[Xenon]

Does anybody know is the washingtonia is able to grow in north florida?

Washingtonia robusta grows fine in Houston until 1989 type freezes, so it should do fine in average North Florida winters. Shouldn't Washingtonia robusta be really common in your area?...

Jonathan

[royal-cocoapalm]

Does anybody know is the washingtonia is able to grow in north florida?

Washingtonia robusta grows fine in Houston until 1989 type freezes, so it should do fine in average North Florida winters. Shouldn't Washingtonia robusta be really common in your area?...

Jonathan

You would think but north fl is not like central and south fl, they barely plant any palms here mostly just oak trees and magnolias, theres plenty of palmetto palms though.

[Xenon]

Does anybody know is the washingtonia is able to grow in north florida?

Washingtonia robusta grows fine in Houston until 1989 type freezes, so it should do fine in average North Florida winters. Shouldn't Washingtonia robusta be really common in your area?...

Jonathan

You would think but north fl is not like central and south fl, they barely plant any palms here mostly just oak trees and magnolias, theres plenty of palmetto palms though.

I found some shots of Washingtonia in Ponte Vedra Beach:

-Jonathan

[royal-cocoapalm]

Does anybody know is the washingtonia is able to grow in north florida?

Washingtonia robusta grows fine in Houston until 1989 type freezes, so it should do fine in average North Florida winters. Shouldn't Washingtonia robusta be really common in your area?...

Jonathan

You would think but north fl is not like central and south fl, they barely plant any palms here mostly just oak trees and magnolias, theres plenty of palmetto palms though.

I found some shots of Washingtonia in Ponte Vedra Beach:

-Jonathan

I figured the ones that are somewhat frequent in just my neighborhood were the washingtonia but they look a little different from the ones in cali, if you go anywhere west of the beach in north fl you typically wont see those types of palms, just the palmettos but check out the link below how come they dont look quite like the ones in LA? Maybe different breeds of washingtonias exist in fl?

[PalmatierMeg]

The "tall, skinny" palms everyone sees lining the streets of Beverly Hills on tv are Washingtonia robusta. As far as I know they are no different from the one in my back yard which is about 17 years old and ~30-40' tall. What no one watching tv realizes is that those palms are quite old, incredibly tall and not as skinny as they look. CA may get occasional lightning but nothing like FL, so those palms can grow for decades there. Here in FL they will never survive long enough to look like the ones in Beverly Hills because they are lightning magnets. I don't see why you couldn't grow them in N FL and they are quite fast. But be aware that at maturity they will drop tiny round seeds everywhere and you will have baby Washies popping up in any space they have enough dirt to germinate. They are also prone to drop dead fronds during wind gusts. Fortunately, dead fronds aren't terribly heavy although they are spiny. Where I live Washies, along with queens, are Class II invasives but I didn't know that when I moved here.

[royal-cocoapalm]

The "tall, skinny" palms everyone sees lining the streets of Beverly Hills on tv are Washingtonia robusta. As far as I know they are no different from the one in my back yard which is about 17 years old and ~30-40' tall. What no one watching tv realizes is that those palms are quite old, incredibly tall and not as skinny as they look. CA may get occasional lightning but nothing like FL, so those palms can grow for decades there. Here in FL they will never survive long enough to look like the ones in Beverly Hills because they are lightning magnets. I don't see why you couldn't grow them in N FL and they are quite fast. But be aware that at maturity they will drop tiny round seeds everywhere and you will have baby Washies popping up in any space they have enough dirt to germinate. They are also prone to drop dead fronds during wind gusts. Fortunately, dead fronds aren't terribly heavy although they are spiny. Where I live Washies, along with queens, are Class II invasives but I didn't know that when I moved here.

Thank you PalmatierMeg, that helps a great deal, yea Ive read that some of them have been growing since the very late 1800's to early 1900's which is crazy. Im surprised that they are not as skinny in person as they are on tv, i thought tv added more size or girth to obects. Yea they grow where I am but around the jacksonville metro especially the further west you go they just dont plant them on too many main roads like south fl, im guessing because of funding issuses and I know the mature ones are somewhat expensive to buy, in my part of the city they are more plentfiful and easier to flourish cause their closer to the atlantic ocean, there are some really tall ones near my clubhouse in my commmunity I wish I knew how old they were, they almost look like the ones in LA, I need to take some pics of to show you all. I would never think they were invasive to fl, especially cape coral area. What are they doing in your area to alleviate that issue? Im somewhat of a novice to all this if you cant already tell, whats the whole class system for invaive vegetation all about if you dont mind explaining. Also they consider cape coral sub-tropical, I feel like its more tropical like the rest of south fl than sub-tropical, what do you consider it personally?

[Xenon]

I think Washies like lower humidity too..more of a desert palm. The Washies in the Rio Grande Valley(semi-desert?) are much taller then here in east Texas.

-Jonathan

Edited June 6, 2010 by Xenon

[royal-cocoapalm]

I think Washies like lower humitdity too..more of a desert palm. The Washies in the Rio Grande Valley(semi-desert?) are much taller then here in east Texas.

-Jonathan

Yea your most likely right, that would make a lot of sense since they originate from northwest mexico which is somewhat close to semi-desert climate, they say Los Angels would be classified semi arid but it receives just enough annual precipitation to avoid Köppen's BSh (semi-arid climate) classification.

[PalmatierMeg]

BTW, welcome to PalmTalk. I'm sure members from So Cal can describe their Washies in detail.

W. robusta does quite well in FL. W. filifera does not, at least down here. They are much more of a desert palm. I don't know a whole lot about the FL invasive classification other than anything Class I (melaleuca, Brazilian pepper, Austrailian pine, etc.) cannot be sold or knowingly planted and are targets for removal whenever possible. Class II invasives still show up in stores but people are encouraged not to landscape with them.

Cape Coral has a subtropical climate. No part of Florida is truly tropical except maybe Key West and that's debatable after last winter. Now, Costa Rica, that's tropical. While FL has hot, humid summers - today was 95F with a heat index of 107F, in winter the whole state is a waystation for any Arctic express roaring down from the north. If I'm lucky I'll see maybe a handful of nights below 40F. Last winter I began to think I'd never see nights above 40F. Just one of the hazards of growing tender palms.

[royal-cocoapalm]

Thank you for the welcome, your the first to welcome me. Yea a lot of people dont realize fl can get some reallly bad cold snaps during the winter, it can be warm most of the winter but there is always at least one cold front that dips down all the way in the enitre state of fl once a year for at least a couple of days, this year was definately a fluke, it hasn't stayed cold that long in like 20 years, quite a lot of palms died and a lot of tropical vegetation in south fl permanty died although i have noticed some things gradually came back, it was quite interesting and sad to see some of the most beautiful palms and vegetation die off, especially when some of them have been there for years.

[royal-cocoapalm]

Oh and thanks for the clarification on the invasive class system, never knew there were two classes now I totally understand.