Filifera CAN grow in the southeast

[smithgn]

3 hours ago, Brad Mondel said:

The cold and wet winter rains have arrived and my young filifera is yellowing up a little. I haven't been by the large filifera lately but I'll check on it soon. Hopefully my youngster will pull through. 

It seems like every time it rains, no matter how much or little, winter or summertime, my in ground filifera  lowest fronds brown severely. It's a bit unsightly but that's what I get planting a desert palm.

[Phoenikakias]

2 hours ago, smithgn said:

It seems like every time it rains, no matter how much or little, winter or summertime, my in ground filifera  lowest fronds brown severely. It's a bit unsightly but that's what I get planting a desert palm.

Oh, that's nothing! Mine does it all the time, in summer due to lack of adequate water, in winter because of wet and cold. It harms though not, as this sp is very versatile and produces new foliage any season year round. Just take care of unimpended air movement and full sun exposure for fungus prevention on meristem. As long as this is still possible skirt from old leaves should be removed for a better aeration of the trunk.

Edited December 5, 2016 by Phoenikakias

[Phoenikakias]

On 5/8/2016, 3:34:53, _Keith said:

But how to you know absolutely for sure it is not 'filibusta'?

 

How can I explain that a purported filibusta with a look very close to a flawless filifera: A. Is more susceptible to fungus than a purported filibusta closer to robusta (it even caught once pink rot, when very small under deep shade B. It grows considerably slower than latter, in fact it bloomed for the first time 4 years later after latter had done so and it is already about 5 years older than latter. C. Fruits and seeds of former are markedly smaller than those of latter (pictures below) 

[Joe NC]

I've seen this one in person and I assume it is as close (maybe 100%?) to a pure filifera as I my limited knowledge can tell.  It's been there at least 8 years that I have observed, likely more (suffering various amounts of cold damage).  It is planted at a landscaping company in nearly pure sand just north of Carolina Beach NC, so I'm sure the drainage helps it deal with the moisture. 

 

A crappy screen grab from google earth.

 

 

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Here's a grove in Miami - quite impressive, actually!

[Xerarch]

17 hours ago, smithgn said:

I just looked up st. George Utah and apparently just recently they saw a low of -1 degrees in 2013. Pretty impressive. St. George record low is -11; don't think they'd survive that.

I kept an eye on that situation from a distance, it didn't just get down to -1, it stayed very cold for days, it was a pretty unprecedented event in terms of the duration, I think it down near 0 like 3 nights in a row. Amazingly almost all the filiferas bounced back, nobody in town knew what to expect because nobody had been there during an event quite like that. Even more amazing perhaps is that I have verified that P. dactylifera and a number of P. canariensis also survived, unfortunately some mature P dacty's also perished, but not all of them. A testament to how many palms survive cold better in desert climates. 

[smithgn]

17 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Oh, that's nothing! Mine does it all the time, in summer due to lack of adequate water, in winter because of wet and cold. It harms though not, as this sp is very versatile and produces new foliage any season year round. Just take care of unimpended air movement and full sun exposure for fungus prevention on meristem. As long as this is still possible skirt from old leaves should be removed for a better aeration of the trunk.

Lol It seems to be fussy but tough enough to endure it. After reading about giving the filifera proper air flow, I have to say that I"m pretty lucky. Mine was planted last year, about knee high in heighth, and over the winter I put a small greenhouse around it. We had a lot of rain in December and I kept the greenhouse over it. Lucky no mold invaded it. 

Very interesting tip on trimming the old leaves! I will certainly remember that as it gets older and really starts throwing new leaves left and right.

2 hours ago, Xerarch said:

I kept an eye on that situation from a distance, it didn't just get down to -1, it stayed very cold for days, it was a pretty unprecedented event in terms of the duration, I think it down near 0 like 3 nights in a row. Amazingly almost all the filiferas bounced back, nobody in town knew what to expect because nobody had been there during an event quite like that. Even more amazing perhaps is that I have verified that P. dactylifera and a number of P. canariensis also survived, unfortunately some mature P dacty's also perished, but not all of them. A testament to how many palms survive cold better in desert climates. 

Wowsers, thats interesting stuff right there. I mean, thats 6B temperatures. Amazing! Thanks for your insight on that; this should give hope to many out west and maybe some far inland in the SE. So far, we have a few dactyliferas that survived 10 and 11 degrees in my area and only one canariensis that I know of. This thread makes me want to start planting a dozen filiferas in a row against my fence Lol

[Matthew92]

I have always thought that Washingtonia filifera can't grow that well in the Southeast U.S. due to humidity. A success story here and there, but nothing like ones out west. However, I recently saw the grove at the Montgomery Botanical Center in Miami, FL (same as picture above posted by Keith). I was told by staff that these came from seed collected directly from native stands in habitat in the Western U.S. Don't look to be suffering in any way from humidity. Only major difference is the trunk width. I would think that the reason they are not as fat as ones in arid areas is that here they don't need as much water to store in the trunk in this climate.

[Brad Mondel]

I'm sad to report that the Filifera at Greenville tech has been removed. I'm not sure why though because it had a full crown of fronds last summer. 

 

[kinzyjr]

Washingtonia filifera is one of my favorite palms.  I'm trying to get a grove of them going here using elevated planting.  We'll see.  If it doesn't work, more seeds aren't that expensive and a lot of people are happy to get rid of them.

[RJ]

5 hours ago, Brad Mondel said:

I'm sad to report that the Filifera at Greenville tech has been removed. I'm not sure why though because it had a full crown of fronds last summer. 

 

 That's a royal bummer. 

 

How are your two doing? 

 

 

[sonoranfans]

They can grow in the SE, but almost invariably they don't look "happy".  If they do grow moderately thick trunks(2') the crowns are usually thin.  I would go with a filibusta instead, at least they grow well and look happy.  These things can be real monsters with up to 4' thick trunks out west. 

[Brad Mondel]

Mine died last winter when we got slammed with a low of 14F. Looking for replacements!

[kinzyjr]

17 minutes ago, Brad Mondel said:

Mine died last winter when we got slammed with a low of 14F. Looking for replacements!

Try these out.  They come from an area to the northeast of Las Vegas.  I've actually seen the parent plant in person.  Buy a bunch and keep the ones that best tolerate moisture and humidity.  Or just buy some off @TexasColdHardyPalms - they weed out the weak ones.

Washingtonia filifera 'Moapa Valley'

[RyManUtah]

1 hour ago, Brad Mondel said:

Mine died last winter when we got slammed with a low of 14F. Looking for replacements!

I have some seeds I could share. They regularly see into the the teens. (Aforementioned survivors of 2013). 
PM me if interested. 

[Lou-StAugFL]

I spent a lot of time visiting my grandparents in southeast Texas growing up in the Galveston County area and I always thought the filifera looked great and it is just as humid if not more than Florida.  I'm 63 years old and both of these sets of trees have been there since before I was a very little boy.  I really like them since they don't get as tall as the robusta and stand up to cold and hurricanes very well.  Both sets of those trees have to be at least 70-75 years old since I have family photos on both of these from the 1950s and they were already that height.  The first set is in Texas City and the other photo is on the island (Galveston).

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3933717,-94.9169733,3a,75y,325.33h,97.02t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5ICnVvHcLxZp_eHXjQNvIA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.3029145,-94.7816908,3a,75y,48.75h,90.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sKSFlWN3SLgLn7YXBi7dwgg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Edited January 7, 2020 by Lou-StAugFL

[sonoranfans]

While texas can be as humid as florida it isn't as consistently wet as florida. Houston gets about half the rain (vs bradenton) from june through september.  Even though bradenton only averages 6-7" more per year, it comes at twice the rate in 4 months.  We do know some nice filiferas can be grown in interior texas(dallas,san antonio, austin), those houston ones dont look that happy, the crowns are thin as might be expected.

[UK_Palms]

Washingtonia Filifera seem to do very well in the southeast of England at 51N. There's a few big specimens around, but people have only just clocked on to their potential here in recent years, so most plantings are quite recent and subsequently still quite small. Much like my own. Although FIlifera is under-utilised and underestimated around here still, in my opinion. I can see that changing though, in the coming years.

Here are some of the bigger Filifera in the southeast, planted outside of London's urban heat island. Yet they seem to be thriving still. They probably see around 20 inches of rain a year, and they have to deal with a decent amount of wet-cold during the cooler half of the year. But they seem to stand up very well to the cool-wet winter conditions, which is a testament to their hardiness and survivability. The summers around here are warm and dry though, generally speaking, which probably helps them a lot. And they don't have to endure waterlogged ground ever as the water table is very low and rainfall is rarely, if ever heavy. 

Then again the more cold sensitive Robusta's seem to do pretty good here as well. I am seeing Robusta's pop up everywhere, which still grow quickly, like weeds, in our less than favourable climate. I have attached a few pics of the relatively young Robusta's around here. No doubt there will be a lot of big specimens in the years to come, now that they are being planted en-mass. 

I am also yet to see any Washie killed off in the southeast of England, even 30 miles inland, outside of London and the extreme south coast. These palms are certainly 'hardy'.