Mobile, The City of Palms

[JMBreland]

That is, the city of palms in Alabama. I know, plenty more cities in the US can lay claim to that title, and rightfully so. Anyway, I just stumbled across this nice write-up by the area's gardening guru, Bill Finch. He's a genius and truly understands the area's climatic quirks and endlessly preaches a break from the traditional lower South gardening (zones 7-8) that tends to invade the area since Mobile sits just inside the tiny silver of true subtropical climate right along the gulf coast (zone 9). He's always encouraging the readership to grow palms, bananas, citrus, salvias, and many other subtropical plants. I grew up there and much of my horticultural beginnings were influenced by his writings.

I disagree, though, that his pronouncement of the use of queen palms in the area is a "disaster". They have their place in the warmest parts of the region and I have witnessed good success with them. Unfortunately, they were wiped out by the polar vortex a couple years ago. Still, I say, replant. (The picture of the coconut palms in the article is clearly a mistake.)

http://www.mobilebaymag.com/Mobile-Bay/September-2015/The-City-of-Palms/

[RedRabbit]

Good article! When I think of palms Mobile sure doesn't come to mind, though I suppose it is the best of what Alabama has to offer.

[JMBreland]

Pretty much, yep. Thanks to the catastrophic freezes of the 80s, you'd be hard-pressed to find any pre-80s Butias in the region.

[NorCalKing]

I think the risk of these severe cold fronts/polar vortex are always the elephant in the room for these fringe zone 7/8 areas. Nine out of ten years they can be a solid 9 zone, but inevitably those cold fronts come and wipe out any borderline palms. 

[JMBreland]

I agree, norcalking. Mobile was a solid zone 9 for 14 years between 1996 and 2010. Many queens got quite large during that time. The larger ones survived the 18F low in 2010. Then came the polar vortex and wiped them all.

[RedRabbit]

2 hours ago, JMBreland said:

I agree, norcalking. Mobile was a solid zone 9 for 14 years between 1996 and 2010. Many queens got quite large during that time. The larger ones survived the 18F low in 2010. Then came the polar vortex and wiped them all.

How cold did it get during the polar vortex? 2014 right? Funny how that was such a bad winter for some people, but C Florida wasn't effected.

[Pedro 65]

2 hours ago, JMBreland said:

I agree, norcalking. Mobile was a solid zone 9 for 14 years between 1996 and 2010. Many queens got quite large during that time. The larger ones survived the 18F low in 2010. Then came the polar vortex and wiped them all.

Jeremy, I guess these above  years where a very long El Nino which came to an end in 2010, nothing last forever.

Pete  :)

[JMBreland]

Just noticed I said 14 years, I meant 24 years.