Rio Grande Valley areas of interest

[Meangreen94z]

Since most of the Texas members hang out in this section, I posted it in here. I’ve been to South Padre Island, downtown Brownsville, Boca Chica , neighborhoods in Harlingen, McAllen etc.  Any specific recommendations on areas to go see palms or other plants of interest? 

[Little Tex]

3 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

Since most of the Texas members hang out in this section, I posted it in here. I’ve been to South Padre Island, downtown Brownsville, Boca Chica , neighborhoods in Harlingen, McAllen etc.  Any specific recommendations on areas to go see palms or other plants of interest? 

Palmview, Its literally in the name, Its inbetween mission and La Joya, they view of all the palms, Syagrus, Washingtonia, Sabal and even some roystonea and wodetyia is stunning from the elevation from the highway going straight through it is beautiful.

[Little Tex]

[MarcusH]

3 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

Since most of the Texas members hang out in this section, I posted it in here. I’ve been to South Padre Island, downtown Brownsville, Boca Chica , neighborhoods in Harlingen, McAllen etc.  Any specific recommendations on areas to go see palms or other plants of interest? 

Look for any Queen palms and Royals

[Xenon]

Sent you a PM 

[Little Tex]

1 hour ago, MarcusH said:

Look for any Queen palms and Royals

You can find Queens, Royals, Kings, Foxtails are far NE as Rio Grande city, everything rarer then that perished, however, I saw a coconut planting in Rio that was doing pretty well along with one at a car dealership in Mcallen, in Rio Grande City downtown(historic not economic) there are a few royals and plenty of queens but royals and queens become much more common in residential new developments. There Is a truly massive queen at the hospital in Rio, like cali size. and some monster royals in palmview and Mission, even some big ones in Rio if you look hard enough, there are also a few triangle palms and some regrown Chrysalidocarpus decipins around edinburgh, I know of some people in mcallen with some protected bottle palms and king palms. 

[Xenon]

8 minutes ago, Little Tex said:

You can find Queens, Royals, Kings, Foxtails are far NE as Rio Grande city, everything rarer then that perished, however, I saw a coconut planting in Rio that was doing pretty well along with one at a car dealership in Mcallen, in Rio Grande City downtown(historic not economic) there are a few royals and plenty of queens but royals and queens become much more common in residential new developments. There Is a truly massive queen at the hospital in Rio, like cali size. and some monster royals in palmview and Mission, even some big ones in Rio if you look hard enough, there are also a few triangle palms and some regrown Chrysalidocarpus decipins around edinburgh, I know of some people in mcallen with some protected bottle palms and king palms. 

 

2 hours ago, MarcusH said:

Look for any Queen palms and Royals

Yeah there are thousands and thousands of royals in Brownsville/the coast and along/south of US-83 from Harlingen to Mission. The stretch of US-83 between McAllen and Mission has the highest concentration of towering royals visible from the freeway. The neighborhoods south of there, especially along Shary Rd are filled with royals. 

I know of several big Archontophoenix spp. that survived the freeze in RGV, but kings have always been very rare down there. There is some really cool stuff in private collections too. 

Queen palms? Hahahaha 

[Little Tex]

11 hours ago, Xenon said:

 

Yeah there are thousands and thousands of royals in Brownsville/the coast and along/south of US-83 from Harlingen to Mission. The stretch of US-83 between McAllen and Mission has the highest concentration of towering royals visible from the freeway. The neighborhoods south of there, especially along Shary Rd are filled with royals. 

I know of several big Archontophoenix spp. that survived the freeze in RGV, but kings have always been very rare down there. There is some really cool stuff in private collections too. 

Queen palms? Hahahaha 

I should add at the movie theater in Rio Grande city, there is a green bismarkia that was planted by accident with sabal Mexicana and it is the largest (green) one I have ever seen

[ChrisA]

There are some nice highway plantings as well along IH-2 that include some good-sized Bismarck palms.  The ones I saw were somewhere west of where US 281 meets IH-2.

[fr8train]

Are there any nurseries down there that sell more unusual hardy palms? Like Brahea or blue Mediterranean fan palms?

[WisTex]

6 hours ago, fr8train said:

Are there any nurseries down there that sell more unusual hardy palms? Like Brahea or blue Mediterranean fan palms?

If there isn't, there needs to be along with Sabals other than Mexican and Palmetto.   Just to get Corpus Christi area nurseries and landscapers off the the Mexican Fan and Sabal, Palmetto, Sylvester, Pigmy Palm and Queen palm planting ad nauseum.  Then there is the palm seller's sell and replace cash cow, the Foxtail. btw:  Doesn't Brahea transplant with difficulty?

Edited February 12, 2023 by WisTex

[Meangreen94z]

8 hours ago, fr8train said:

Are there any nurseries down there that sell more unusual hardy palms? Like Brahea or blue Mediterranean fan palms?

You can get those in the Austin or San Antonio area. Most Brahea don’t like the humidity of the coast 

[GoatLockerGuns]

8 hours ago, fr8train said:

Are there any nurseries down there that sell more unusual hardy palms? Like Brahea or blue Mediterranean fan palms?

I saw some Brahea calcarea (labeled Brahea nitida) for sale at Rainbow Gardens in San Antonio (both locations) last spring.  They usually start getting in cooler stuff in late February / early March.  Picture was taken in March of 2022.

[Little Tex]

13 hours ago, fr8train said:

Are there any nurseries down there that sell more unusual hardy palms? Like Brahea or blue Mediterranean fan palms?

No need for them, it ranges from 9b/10a west rgv to debatably 11a SPI people down there aren’t interested in cold hardy stuff, just fast stuff to fill in developing areas, the hardiest thing mass planted is the native sabal mexicana, but I see way more foxtail/royal/adonidia then sabal/Phoenix/Washingtonia being newly planted.

[fr8train]

19 hours ago, Meangreen94z said:

You can get those in the Austin or San Antonio area. Most Brahea don’t like the humidity of the coast 

I haven't seen any smaller sized brahea here, just a few huge ones at palm buddha that are probably over a grand.

21 hours ago, WisTex said:

If there isn't, there needs to be along with Sabals other than Mexican and Palmetto.   Just to get Corpus Christi area nurseries and landscapers off the the Mexican Fan and Sabal, Palmetto, Sylvester, Pigmy Palm and Queen palm planting ad nauseum.  Then there is the palm seller's sell and replace cash cow, the Foxtail. btw:  Doesn't Brahea transplant with difficulty?

I've read they do, yeah. Still, there's nothing quite like armata that's hardy enough to grow here.

19 hours ago, GoatLockerGuns said:

I saw some Brahea calcarea (labeled Brahea nitida) for sale at Rainbow Gardens in San Antonio (both locations) last spring.  They usually start getting in cooler stuff in late February / early March.  Picture was taken in March of 2022.

Interesting, I'll have to check them out again in a few weeks.

[Meangreen94z]

2 hours ago, fr8train said:

I haven't seen any smaller sized brahea here, just a few huge ones at palm buddha that are probably over a grand.

I've read they do, yeah. Still, there's nothing quite like armata that's hardy enough to grow here.

Interesting, I'll have to check them out again in a few weeks.

Barton Springs Nursery had house grown, nice sized  1 gallon Brahea armata for $15, I grabbed the last 4. They usually have Washingtonia filifera , Phoenix sylvestris, Sabal brazoriensis, and Sabal minor for a similar price. They currently have the silver form of Serenoa repens in 5 gallons, I think $40 or so, and a few other palms. They should have alot more next month. Their in house grown palms are thinning out, ownership changed in 2021. The palms purchased wholesale from western suppliers are a lot more money. They have box sized Brahea armata for $800 currently.