I found an old colour slide, taken some 34 years ago in 1981 in the south of Germany. I guess this fan palm may be a Brahea, perhaps B. armata, but I am not sure at all.

yes it seems brahea armata

I would say so as well.

Viva Deutschland!

Thanks! So I can post it on Flickr as B. armata: https://www.flickr.com/photos/palmeir/20399105825

Incredible!!!

Brahea armata growing healty in Germany.

Viva Deutschland!!!

Hi everybody,

I can assure you all that this Brahea is NOT planted in the ground there. All palms on the island of Mainau - except for a couple of Trachycarpus Fortunei - are potted plants. They remove them during winter into a greenhouse.

I know that for sure, because I live here in Constance (the island belongs to the county of Constance) and I am a regular visitor to the island. My wife and I have season tickets to the island, because they have a nice big playground and a childrens' petting zoo for our daughter and they also have a lot of interesting palms and other plants, either potted or in greenhouses. They have very few exotic plants really outplanted. Amongst them are Trachys, Albizia, mediterranean Quercus and a few other deciduous trees and shrubs (which I don´t find very interesting...). They even dig out all their Musa Basjoo, which are placed during summer all over the island. I really don´t know why they do this, because Musa Basjoo grow reliable here in the mild parts of Germany.

So I am very sorry to dissappoint you in the case of this Brahea.

Greeting from Constance

Now that you say that, you can see in the photo that it's some kind of matting over the pot, made to look like ground cover. Still cool.

Hi everybody,

I can assure you all that this Brahea is NOT planted in the ground there. All palms on the island of Mainau - except for a couple of Trachycarpus Fortunei - are potted plants. They remove them during winter into a greenhouse.

I know that for sure, because I live here in Constance (the island belongs to the county of Constance) and I am a regular visitor to the island. My wife and I have season tickets to the island, because they have a nice big playground and a childrens' petting zoo for our daughter and they also have a lot of interesting palms and other plants, either potted or in greenhouses. They have very few exotic plants really outplanted. Amongst them are Trachys, Albizia, mediterranean Quercus and a few other deciduous trees and shrubs (which I don´t find very interesting...). They even dig out all their Musa Basjoo, which are placed during summer all over the island. I really don´t know why they do this, because Musa Basjoo grow reliable here in the mild parts of Germany.

So I am very sorry to dissappoint you in the case of this Brahea.

Greeting from Constance

Hello Janni! Did you visit Mainau also in 1981? And you insist that also this Phoenix canariensis was a potted palm, removed in winter in a greenhouse?

Hi everybody,

I can assure you all that this Brahea is NOT planted in the ground there. All palms on the island of Mainau - except for a couple of Trachycarpus Fortunei - are potted plants. They remove them during winter into a greenhouse.

I know that for sure, because I live here in Constance (the island belongs to the county of Constance) and I am a regular visitor to the island. My wife and I have season tickets to the island, because they have a nice big playground and a childrens' petting zoo for our daughter and they also have a lot of interesting palms and other plants, either potted or in greenhouses. They have very few exotic plants really outplanted. Amongst them are Trachys, Albizia, mediterranean Quercus and a few other deciduous trees and shrubs (which I don´t find very interesting...). They even dig out all their Musa Basjoo, which are placed during summer all over the island. I really don´t know why they do this, because Musa Basjoo grow reliable here in the mild parts of Germany.

So I am very sorry to dissappoint you in the case of this Brahea.

Greeting from Constance

Hello Janni! Did you visit Mainau also in 1981? And you insist that also this Phoenix canariensis was a potted palm, removed in winter in a greenhouse?

Phoenix canariensis Mainau 1981-07-17.jpg

Viva Deutschland!

Scream!

Holler!

Run down the cobblestoned streets . . . .

In the 1980s on the island of Mainau (the place with the mildest winters in Germany) there were planted many palm species besides Trachycarpus outdoors in the ground, as Phoenix canariensis, Chamaerops humilis, Sabal palmetto, Brahea armata, Chamaedorea seifrizii, and others. The place where you can see on the old photo the tall Ph. canariensis is now occupied by a huge "Palmenhaus" which was constructed during the 1990s: http://www.mainau.de/palmenhaus.html

You are right, there is no doubt about that phoenix being ground planted. Before the present greenhouse was built, they used to build up a temporary "greenhouse" around that palm, as they used to do with a few other plants. You can read it here from page 13 on (https://books.google.de/books?id=FqxlAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false)

The first big phoenix canariensis, which was planted like this, with a temporary built up greenhouse, was planted in 1888. In World War II they couldn´t build up that building again and the phoenix froze in the following winter. All the palms growing today in the modern greenhouse are technically spoken "ground planted". All other palms are potted. I wished it was possible to groundplant a phoenix here without protection, believe me! Despite the lake, which serves to a certain amount as heat reservoir, we have too cold winters for most of the palms, which are considered as cold hardy. Only the infamous Trachycarpus species, Rhapidophyllum hystrix and maybe a Sabal Minor could survive without protection here. That´s it. Sad but true...