9 hours ago, Duppy said:

Here are my Mules planted from 3g pots 4 years ago, and today. 

Brett, they look great - hardly see any cold damage.  Your mules have grown much faster than mine.  I bought a 3-gal mule in 2014 also, but it's barely half the size of yours.  I guess having dug it up and transplanted it 4 times since then has slowed it down!    How's your Bizzy recovering?

Jon

3 hours ago, Duppy said:

I was at the nursery in San Antonio last week and the guy was talking to somebody on the phone recommending Mules.  I overheard him tell the person an 8 footer with about a foot of trunk was 700$.  I didn't see them on my walkthrough but after hearing that, I didn't need to.

$700? Wow, that’s crazy.

But yeah, i was happy with their price so i went and bought another one from them for $125 again.   

They were asking $650 for their bigger Mules with delivery and planting which were about the same size as posted by Duppy. 

@Fusca  Damn those trees that think they need to get their feet planted before growing. lol   The Bizzy is ugly but alive!

 

@WestCoastGal  I'd love to see pics of yours.  I really can't express how much I like Mules.   The one on the right in my original pic has always had the thickest crown and beefiest trunk.  It's strange to me since they're all around the same height but it has the most trunk by far.  I may post a pic of the far left one that's kind of hidden in the pic. It's the scraggliest one by a mile.  It has the fewest fronds and almost no trunk.

Here is the runt of the litter. My guess is maybe more Butia traits? The fronds never really fall, they stay pretty stiff. That or it's really just a runt.

 

 

Edited May 10, 20188 yr by Duppy
Add picture

15 hours ago, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

@Laaz That one is dead.

It's solid, no mush & green inside. I'll give it some time.

How far are your mules spaced apart?

@Mightycanes  If you're asking me. There's 4 palms, left to right, center to center it's 9ft, 7ft, and across the walkway is 11 ft.  My patio faces SSW and bakes and blinds in the Texas sun so I went for as close as I was comfortable with, and also lining up with the arches in the wall, so I could get as thick of canopy as possible. I may be dead by the time that happens but somebody will enjoy it!

Edited May 11, 20188 yr by Duppy

20 hours ago, Laaz said:

It's solid, no mush & green inside. I'll give it some time.

Are any of your other mules doing better than that one pictured?

Yes, they are all pushing new fronds. Didn't lose any.

29 minutes ago, Laaz said:

Yes, they are all pushing new fronds. Didn't lose any.

Nice. How bout your phoenix palms or livistona? You have lady palms?

Yep, they all made it. The rhapis got burned but are doing fine now.

 

 

Duppy here's a photo I grabbed yesterday morning, mostly canopy though, of the two mules that were posted at the begining of this thread. Think I need to clean my camera lens, looks a bit fuzzy. Kind of hard to get good closeup photos of the mules due to our small backyard and closeness to the house and because of how tall they are. Hope to post a photo of our newest mule if I can time it better, sun or shadows and proximity to house makes it hard to get a good evenly lit photo. 

To the left of the mules is a fairly young butia that has developed quite a large canopy, and hard to photo, and a Trachycarpus fortunei. I don't think we fed our palms last year like we have done in the past (slow-release fertilizer) but did re-mulched the backyard. Everything seems very happy. Aside from some ocassional pruning really a very easy tropical look to maintain. We wanted low maintenance, no leaves to rake, slow enough growing that we wouldn't need to prune frequently, well suited to our zone and think we hit it with this combination. The mules from what I've seen aren't heavy seed producers like their queen parentage and we've been cutting down the spathes before the fruit gets too large and heavy. We like to let them flower for the bees. We also keep our fronds on until they are pretty spent and brown. 

WestCoastGal, those Mule Palms look fantastic, assuming that they are the two tallest Palms in the photo.  I hope mine look like that some day.

16 hours ago, Sandy Loam said:

WestCoastGal, those Mule Palms look fantastic, assuming that they are the two tallest Palms in the photo.  I hope mine look like that some day.

Yes, they are the tall ones grown up! I consider them the nicest cold hardy palm you can reliably grow for the zone they are in. I see so many queens in our area, a few jubeas (very few) but wish more people planted the mules. Not sure if we are the only ones in our general area but they do so well with our heat and cold and I get so many surpised people who see them. Most think they are coconut palms, which they aren't of course. Give yours time, in general I find they do grow rather fast in my area.

How far apart are they planted 6 feet?

@WestCoastGal  I'm really impressed with your backyard oasis. Every spot is filled but it doesn't look cluttered. Clean and green!  The mules are perrrrty!

 

Yesterday was a gloomy morning when I took these so sorry for the darkness of them. Here are the two mules as best I could get them from trunk to some canopy. Tallest to the right of our pergola.

'

 

On 5/9/2018, 8:22:54, Laaz said:

Now lers see if this one pulls through.

 

 

what kind of palm is that?

Mule

Anymore updates in general? I've purchased a few mules all still quite small though.  

On 3/2/2018, 12:39:47, Rothbardian1 said:

I bought this mule palm about a month ago for $100 in Jacksonville, Fl. I've trimmed half of the fronds off, and the remaining are a little tattered from the drive back . But otherwise, I got an awesome deal.

Beautiful specimen.  How did the shock fair?

Edited August 13, 20187 yr by Insomniac411
Question already answered

On 5/9/2018, 1:03:28, Duppy said:

Sandy Loam,
Here are my Mules planted from 3g pots 4 years ago, and today.  The one on the right is 10 feet.  If I wanted to (I don't)  I could cut off the horizontal fronds and easily walk under.  We do get enough of a winter here that they stop growing for a few months so you may get more growth in general.  These bake in the sun all year in South Central Texas so no help there as far as shade grown.  The yellow fronds are the damage they took from this years nasty winter and i'll cut those off as soon as the tree is done cannibalizing them.  Hope this helps with your landscaping decision.
V/r
Brett

 

Thanks, Duppy. Your Mule palms have shown amazing growth for just four years.  I know that Texas was hit hard but the brutal cold snap in January this year (except for Brownsville, of course), but it appears that your Mule palms were undamaged.  I guess these truly are a long-term palm in your region ---- as long as fusarium doesn't start spreading there.

 

This has been a very interesting read. Question: will Mules have a slower growth rate in colder climates? I am in zone 6a and will winter protect. The mules will essentially have from mid-May till mid-September for growth. There will be lots of sunny days come mid-June, May is so so with sun, as it can still be as rainy as April. Most of the pics I see on this thread were of mules with fast growth rates in places like Florida and occasionally as far north-west to Texas. Any thoughts or experience on this would be very helpful. The ones I have seen out in British Columbia seem to be growing at a moderate rate, and they are in 8 to 8b climates, though lack of sunny days could be a contributing factor.

Edited December 20, 20214 yr by vistaprime

On 2/27/2013 at 1:12 PM, Mauna Kea Cloudforest said:

Mule palms are extraordinary! I wish all the queens around town would get replaced with mule palms. All these years I've hunted for the ultimate tropical looking palm, and here it is, one of the hardiest around. They move like coconuts, and if you grab the ones that lean more towards their queen heritage, i.e. lighter green and less curvature on the fronds, you can get pretty darn close to a coconut look alike.

 

Here are photos from WestCoastGirls' mule palms which I visited last weekend. These are as close to a coconut as we will ever get in California.

 

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m218/worldsight/Cloudforest/20130223_150531_zps294d2a41.jpg

 

http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m218/worldsight/Cloudforest/20130223_150342_zpsdd3f928d.jpg

The most beautiful mule palm I've ever seen . 

51 minutes ago, MarcusH said:

The most beautiful mule palm I've ever seen . 

Almost all mules I've ever seen trump the usually scrawny appearance of a common queen palm.

I actually don't like to brag, but this time I have to make an exception. The BJxQ I bought from P. Schaffer in '15 is one of the best looking "mules" I've ever seen. It's not only gorgeous, but it's "neck & neck" with my nearby JxQ for being the fastest in my palm collection. If you're thinking I should more or less "put up or shut up", and post an image to prove what I'm claiming, the terrible truth is: because of the density of my collection, it's virtually impossible to capture an image that does it justice. The best I can do is promise a shot from a distance showing the leaves which put a royal palm to shame. To really admire the true impact of it, you need to walk into my "jungle", look up, and be awestruck.

As soon as maybe tomorrow, I'll "put up" then let you decide, despite the full impact I mentioned.

Hi 102˚, Lo 71˚

As stated in my last post, the following images are about the best I can provide at this time of my BJxQ:

Block wall over 6' high

Larger image: https://pbase.com/mamman/image/173943974

Same palm from another angle

Note J x Q - new leaf (upper right) is almost as tall

Larger image: https://pbase.com/mamman/image/173943980

Hi 102˚, Lo 72˚

Edited September 4, 20232 yr by Tom in Tucson

Tom, I really like how dense you have gotten your “jungle” it really looks lush and tropical!

Is there anyway we can get a shot of the trunk?

1 minute ago, Dwarf Fan said:

I really like how dense you have gotten your Jungle. Is there anyway we can get a shot of the trunk?

I'll perform a little labor on Labor Day, and post what I can then.

Hi 102˚, Lo 72˚

23 hours ago, Tom in Tucson said:

I'll perform a little labor on Labor Day, and post what I can then.

Hi 102˚, Lo 72˚

Since you asked, here is that image:

Trunk of BJ x Q by 24" ruler

Larger image: https://pbase.com/mamman/image/173946086

Hi 102˚, Lo 70˚

Bump. My favorite thread on palmtalk. Would love some updates. Adding my mule palms that I planted 1 year ago. The trunks have exploded in growth.