My garden in Greece turn into exotic !

[Foxpalms]

4 hours ago, E V said:

Oh great. Dunno anything about Paysandisia. Here the needle palm and windmill palm are bullet proof no pests at all. I was thinking the needle palm would thrive over there as an understory staple.

If you do want to bring them into Greece I'd check if there are laws on importing palms from the USA. But the needle palm shouldn't be too hard to get in Europe. The needle palm would definitely do well in that part of Greece with the highest humidity there. I'm sure people on Palmtalk would love to see how the garden progresses and give suggestions. Forgot to mention before but lots of bananas used as a understory plant would definitely help give the topical effect.

[Janni]

Hi Eric,

congratulations for your new property in Greece. I cannot give you any advice for your original question. I can only say, that you can find syagrus romanzoffiana and sometimes even archontophoenix palms in greek nurseries. Of course you will find the "ordinary" variety of phoenix canariensis,  dactylifera, roebellenii and washingtonias as well. Besides palms, you can find also other tropical/subtropical plants, like bananas, plumeria, strelitzia, ficus, schefflera and many other...

Keep us updated of the progress in your new garden. I wish you all the best for that project!

 

[Janni]

...adding one more genus to the list of suggested palms, I would try out a veitchia joannis. Not just because it is the only palm with my name in it, but because it is one of the most beautiful palms I know and fairly cold tolerant. One other veitchia is the Foxy Lady and it is even more cold tolerant and a tad bit nicer. 

The veitchias will be a tough challange, but I think Katakolo has a very favourable climate.

[Foxpalms]

27 minutes ago, Janni said:

...adding one more genus to the list of suggested palms, I would try out a veitchia joannis. Not just because it is the only palm with my name in it, but because it is one of the most beautiful palms I know and fairly cold tolerant. One other veitchia is the Foxy Lady and it is even more cold tolerant and a tad bit nicer. 

The veitchias will be a tough challange, but I think Katakolo has a very favourable climate.

I was actually thinking about that earlier today, whilst a foxtail might not have enough winter heat a foxy lady would probably do well there. Trying a veitchia joannis would also be a good idea especially planted on the south side next to a building.

[Phoenikakias]

21 hours ago, Foxpalms said:

I was actually thinking about that earlier today, whilst a foxtail might not have enough winter heat a foxy lady would probably do well there. Trying a veitchia joannis would also be a good idea especially planted on the south side next to a building.

Foxtail can do fine in this part of Greece. First picture is from Kalamata. In fact one of those plants has already bloomed and fruited.

It can grow even in a warm microclimate in siuther Attica, as the the second picture, shot very recently, proves.

[Janni]

7 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Foxtail can do fine in this part of Greece. First picture is from Kalamata. In fact one of those plants has already bloomed and fruited.

It can grow even in a warm microclimate in siuther Attica, as the the second picture, shot very recently, proves.

Wow! Those two in Kalamata look great. The other one in Attica has… potential… 

if I am not mistaken, I can see (besides those wonderful Foxtails) at least two archontophoenix and a papaya in the Kalamata picture. Is that correct? Could you tell us the road, so I can take a walk on Google Maps?

[Phoenikakias]

8 hours ago, Janni said:

Wow! Those two in Kalamata look great. The other one in Attica has… potential… 

if I am not mistaken, I can see (besides those wonderful Foxtails) at least two archontophoenix and a papaya in the Kalamata picture. Is that correct? Could you tell us the road, so I can take a walk on Google Maps?

Sorry, I am really at very bad relations with the grower, who has turned out a true egopath malakas. I have neither the possibility nor the mood to inquire about the exact location.

[Janni]

13 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Sorry, I am really at very bad relations with the grower, who has turned out a true egopath malakas. I have neither the possibility nor the mood to inquire about the exact location.

So you say that not every palm grower is a nice person? 🤣 

but maybe you can give an advice for Eric, where this nice guy purchased those two Wodyetias. Personally I haven’t seen foxtails at nurseries on the Peloponnese yet. It would be great to hear that there are more and more different palm species available in Greece. 

[Phoenikakias]

1 hour ago, Janni said:

So you say that not every palm grower is a nice person? 🤣 

but maybe you can give an advice for Eric, where this nice guy purchased those two Wodyetias. Personally I haven’t seen foxtails at nurseries on the Peloponnese yet. It would be great to hear that there are more and more different palm species available in Greece. 

This dude is a quite capable and knowledgeable grower nevertheless. He may have well grown those plants from seed! Foxtails are rather fast growers, when healthy.  And actually his main interest are not palms but tropical fruits.

Eric should cooperate with  a retail plant seller, who will order by and acquire palms from a whole seller - importer, who runs the Paradise Plants. Latter imports every year a limited quantity of various palms from Spain according to orders he had previously received from retail sellers and landscapers.

[Greek Exotics]

On 1/27/2023 at 7:26 PM, Foxpalms said:

You have quite a good microclimate being on a peninsula. I agree that you should plant the palms and trees you intend to use as canopy first. Since you have sandy soil it might be worth adding in loads of mulch and over the years you can add more and more to improve the soil. I would add royal palms as a large trunking stand out palm, queen palms also grow pretty fast and have a good sized canopy. You could add in phoenix canariensis and Washingtonia robusta and filifera but they are probably already very common in the area. I would go for phoenix dactylifera (the true date palm), phoenix theophrasti, phoenix rupicola, phoenix Sylvesteris, phoenix reclinata, phoenix roebelenii and phoenix loureiroi. Bismarckia would also made a nice stand out palm.Chrysalidocarpus decaryi, ambositrae, baronii, onilahensis should be fine there. Some of the arenga palms will probably do well there. For understory palms I'd use the chamedorea genus.Cryosophila warscewiczii, chambeyronia macrocarpa, chambeyronia oliviformis, Chambeyronia lepidota and Wallichia as some nice rarer palms. I'd also go with the whole archontophoenix genus, some big archontophoenix Alexandrae in full sun and under a light canopy archontophoenix cunninghamiana, myolensis, purperea, Maxima and tuckeri. When the canopy has really grown in you might be able to grow Rhopalostylis sapida and Rhopalostylis baueri in lots of shade. Livistona should do pretty well there too and sabals.Acoelorraphe wrigthii and  Allagoptera I think will be fine. Howea belmoreana and howea forsteriana need to be in the shade I'd also put those under denser pat's of the canopy. If you want a coconut look a like since Cocos nucifera won't grow there try Beccariophoenix alfredii or Jubaeopsis caffra. Since you have sandy soil I'd try and take advantage of that and have a large arid section with dessert plants such as aloes, cacti agaves, yuccas and arid shrubs. I would then have a Mediterranean area full of Mediterranean plants lots of flowers ect and maybe a few palms too. Finally for the largest section I'd have a full sun tropical biome area full of palms and exotics and then a shaded section at the back with the same things but can't handle full sun such as bromeliads, monstera deliciosa, colocasias, caladiums, chamedorea ect. Trees such as eucalyptus, jacaranda mimosifolia, Delonix regia and Araucaria heterophylla would do well there. The arid and Mediterranean sections would reduce watering so you can make sure the ones in the tropical style section get plenty of water.  Bougainvillea is also something I'd recommend growing there. Of course there's plenty more things you could do but those are just a few ideas. @Phoenikakiasprobably knows more about what palms and plants would do well in you're climate.

 

What a good post. Amazing help! Thank you.  

[Greek Exotics]

I hope you have covered your smallest palms for this week, if not so, do it fast. I don't think snow and sleet are too good for them. It don't looks it will freeze, that's good. 

[Phoenikakias]

4 hours ago, Greek Exotics said:

I hope you have covered your smallest palms for this week, if not so, do it fast. I don't think snow and sleet are too good for them. It don't looks it will freeze, that's good. 

I never plant in the ground tender seedlings and I never leave pots with tender seedlings outdoors during winter.  Root zone is their most vulnerable part.

[Janni]

On 1/31/2023 at 6:52 AM, Phoenikakias said:

Sorry, I am really at very bad relations with the grower, who has turned out a true egopath malakas. I have neither the possibility nor the mood to inquire about the exact location.

I found them on googlemaps. Seems like he really has the two foxtails since they were seedlings, as you sad. The google pictures date back to 2011, when those two palms were really small. In the consequence that means, that they survived every coldspell there has been since that time. And we remeber, there had been quite a few.  Although Kalamata lies in a favorable spot, I think the heat-island effect of the concrete laden city  is beneficiary for keeping the minimum temperatures above freezing. 

[E V]

On 1/29/2023 at 6:57 AM, Janni said:

Hi Eric,

congratulations for your new property in Greece. I cannot give you any advice for your original question. I can only say, that you can find syagrus romanzoffiana and sometimes even archontophoenix palms in greek nurseries. Of course you will find the "ordinary" variety of phoenix canariensis,  dactylifera, roebellenii and washingtonias as well. Besides palms, you can find also other tropical/subtropical plants, like bananas, plumeria, strelitzia, ficus, schefflera and many other...

Keep us updated of the progress in your new garden. I wish you all the best for that project!

 

Thank you Janni and a couple others that kindly posted!