Big Mules in Texas

[ahosey01]

Anybody know where to buy big (>=25G) mule palms in Texas?

Let me know!

[Hurricanepalms]

They are advertising 15, 30, 65, 200 gallons, and field grown. 
 

Palm Professionals Tropical Nursery
20113 Southwest Freeway
5313 Gulf Freeway
Sugar Land, Texas  77479

Mailing Address:
20113 southwest freeway, Sugar Land, Tx 77479
5313 Gulf Freeway, La marque, Tx 77568

Phone: 713-621-7256
Phone2: 409-941-7256

E-mail: Sales@palmprofessionals.com
Website: PalmProfessionalsTropicalNursery.com

[RedRabbit]

55 minutes ago, Hurricanepalms said:

They are advertising 15, 30, 65, 200 gallons, and field grown. 
 

Palm Professionals Tropical Nursery
20113 Southwest Freeway
5313 Gulf Freeway
Sugar Land, Texas  77479

Mailing Address:
20113 southwest freeway, Sugar Land, Tx 77479
5313 Gulf Freeway, La marque, Tx 77568

Phone: 713-621-7256
Phone2: 409-941-7256

E-mail: Sales@palmprofessionals.com
Website: PalmProfessionalsTropicalNursery.com

They’ve got a very impressive selection, particularly for somewhere that’s not especially warm.

[Xenon]

There are like a dozen places in Houston alone..here's another one: Verdant Tree Farm 

Not sure why you'd want mules in Brownsville though, consensus seems to be they don't grow particularly well down there. "Cocoqueen" (Syagrus schizophylla x romanzoffiana) grows great though 

[ahosey01]

1 hour ago, Xenon said:

There are like a dozen places in Houston alone..here's another one: Verdant Tree Farm 

Not sure why you'd want mules in Brownsville though, consensus seems to be they don't grow particularly well down there. "Cocoqueen" (Syagrus schizophylla x romanzoffiana) grows great though 

Where have you heard this?

Anywhere to source some big coco queens?

[Fusca]

21 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

Where have you heard this?

Anywhere to source some big coco queens?

I've heard the same thing about mules from a couple PSST members here.  I have 4 planted here about 30 miles to the north of Brownsville and three are doing fine but not growing much.  The fourth was transplanted from SA about 18 months ago and it's still in recovery mode.  There's two really nice trunking ones less than a mile from me that flower and produce fruits.  Not sure about the issue with them but it seems to be either the soil or irrigation.  I don't know of anyone selling coco queens in the area.  I bought a seedling from Erik before he retired and it's almost ready to plant out.  There might be some nursery in the area selling big mules but I haven't been looking for them.  Welcome to the RGV!

[5am]

On one of my visits to Dyer in Weslaco, the owner pointed out a handful of large mules in the ground lining one side of a greenhouse, but I didn't ask if they're for sale. Now I wasn't looking for the size you're after but they had a lot of mules in smaller pots a week ago. Might be worth a call.

5 hours ago, Xenon said:

consensus seems to be they don't grow particularly well down there.

I keep hearing that too but I'm not sure why because I see both parents around.  Pindos are far less common than queens but there are some beautiful examples around, at least in the Harlingen area. I'll have to plan some detours through the residential areas of McAllen and Brownsville to find more. But maybe that's just it? You can throw a rock in any direction and hit a queen. Not so with pindos. 

[ahosey01]

2 minutes ago, 5am said:

On one of my visits to Dyer in Weslaco, the owner pointed out a handful of large mules in the ground lining one side of a greenhouse, but I didn't ask if they're for sale. Now I wasn't looking for the size you're after but they had a lot of mules in smaller pots a week ago. Might be worth a call.

I keep hearing that too but I'm not sure why because I see both parents around.  Pindos are far less common than queens but there are some beautiful examples around, at least in the Harlingen area. I'll have to plan some detours through the residential areas of McAllen and Brownsville to find more. But maybe that's just it? You can throw a rock in any direction and hit a queen. Not so with pindos. 

I also notice that at least down here in Brownsville, the queens look really nice.  Like, I'd-buy-one-level-nice.  What's the place called?  Dyer?

@5am and @Fusca we should get together one of these days.  Would love to see your gardens.  I live right next to Olmito but I have a Brownsville address.

[Fusca]

2 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

 

@5am and @Fusca we should get together one of these days.  Would love to see your gardens.  I live right next to Olmito but I have a Brownsville address.

Sounds like a plan - we should set up a PRA.

[ahosey01]

9 hours ago, Fusca said:

Sounds like a plan - we should set up a PRA.

Forgive my ignorance but what is a PRA? lol

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

@ahosey01 I get the feeling your worried about another Palmageddon? Living where your @ i would plant with a yolo mentality haha Also instant gratification is nice but to start off your Jungle, i would look into making a Floribunda order. Or get some sabals from @Sabal King especially the more tropical ones like Mauritiiformis. Planting out 5g palms have the best results imo. Also if you are worried about some cold again you can get you some Patric hybrids for some wow factor. 

T J 

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, ahosey01 said:

Forgive my ignorance but what is a PRA? lol

PRA = Palm Related Activity :) 

[Sabal King]

4 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

@ahosey01 I get the feeling your worried about another Palmageddon? Living where your @ i would plant with a yolo mentality haha Also instant gratification is nice but to start off your Jungle, i would look into making a Floribunda order. Or get some sabals from @Sabal King especially the more tropical ones like Mauritiiformis. Planting out 5g palms have the best results imo. Also if you are worried about some cold again you can get you some Patric hybrids for some wow factor. 

T J 

haha YOLO mentality.  I do indeed have Sabals, so let me know if I can help!

[ahosey01]

1 hour ago, Sabal King said:

haha YOLO mentality.  I do indeed have Sabals, so let me know if I can help!

Can you PM me your phone number?

Are you down in the RGV?

[Sabal King]

6 minutes ago, ahosey01 said:

Can you PM me your phone number?

Are you down in the RGV?

PM sent.

[thyerr01]

@Fusca I'm curious about the mules you mentioned setting fruit. Do you have any idea what is pollinating them? I was under the impression that they only efficiently set fruit from Butia pollen (out of the normal pollen donors), being both self-sterile and pretty resistant to being pollinated with Syagrus pollen - but that Butia were quite uncommon in far South Texas. I would love to see more systematic attempts to generate F2 mules in the hopes of getting ones which are self-fertile.

[Fusca]

19 hours ago, thyerr01 said:

@Fusca I'm curious about the mules you mentioned setting fruit. Do you have any idea what is pollinating them? I was under the impression that they only efficiently set fruit from Butia pollen (out of the normal pollen donors), being both self-sterile and pretty resistant to being pollinated with Syagrus pollen - but that Butia were quite uncommon in far South Texas. I would love to see more systematic attempts to generate F2 mules in the hopes of getting ones which are self-fertile.

There are a bunch of queen palms in the immediate area but certainly at least a handful are flowering.  There's also 2 Butia within ½ mile or so of them but have yet to see them flower even though they are certainly large enough.  I've kept my eye on the largest Butia which is quite silver but never any fruit and looks pretty rough.    I collected several fruits from the mules in the summer of 2022 but didn't notice any last year when it was so hot/dry.  The seeds were quite small (round like B. odorata but the size of B. catarinensis) and looked to be undeveloped as none of them germinated.  I collected fruit from a mule at Mercer Arboretum several years ago that had a few huge queens planted in the same area and a Butia somewhat close to it.  Didn't get any germination from those seeds either but the seeds looked normal sized for Syagrus.

[ahosey01]

40 minutes ago, Fusca said:

There are a bunch of queen palms in the immediate area but certainly at least a handful are flowering.  There's also 2 Butia within ½ mile or so of them but have yet to see them flower even though they are certainly large enough.  I've kept my eye on the largest Butia which is quite silver but never any fruit and looks pretty rough.    I collected several fruits from the mules in the summer of 2022 but didn't notice any last year when it was so hot/dry.  The seeds were quite small (round like B. odorata but the size of B. catarinensis) and looked to be undeveloped as none of them germinated.  I collected fruit from a mule at Mercer Arboretum several years ago that had a few huge queens planted in the same area and a Butia somewhat close to it.  Didn't get any germination from those seeds either but the seeds looked normal sized for Syagrus.

Are your palms on drip out here or is the native rainfall sufficient to keep them alive?

[Fusca]

21 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

Are your palms on drip out here or is the native rainfall sufficient to keep them alive?

Rainfall is sufficient for some of my palms - when I first bought the property and rented it out for a couple of years I intentionally planted drought tolerant and mostly cold hardy species.  Since then I've added some more thirsty types.  The two summers that I've lived here have been pretty intense with below "normal" rain totals based on previous 30-year average.  I've had to water more than I expected.  And I've had to irrigate new plantings more than I have had to do in the past.  It's quite windy here and tons of sun.  I never lost a transplanted Butia before but it happened here my first summer.

[richtrav]

I have a big coco queen in the back yard and it does better than a queen and way better than a mule. But I’m using pretty alkaline well water which the mules in particular don’t like, must be the Butia in them. All survived the ‘21 freeze, though the leaves burned on the queen and coco queen.

At my former place in Olmito the soil was a heavier clay, I planted a mule there in the late ‘90s and it took right off and always looked good. But queens in general look better from about San Benito on south where the soil is blacker. They are heavy feeders and love rich dark riverine soils that get plenty of water.

In Phoenix mule palms seem to be taking off as replacements for queen palms, evidently they do better in the heat and dry air. I was there a few weeks ago and quite a few nurseries had them. For coco queens Turner’s in Corpus may have some. 

I’ll second the use of Sabal mauritiiformis, all the ones in the area that I know of survived the ‘21 freeze and they do look tropical for a Sabal. If you have rhino beetles around you need to get the biggest one you can find and drench it with Imadicloprid until it starts trunking, they are extremely vulnerable to beetle attacks when young. Phoenix rupicola is also an underrated palm for here that survived the ‘21 freeze and looks tropical considering its genus.