I have heard stories about Chamaerops humilis handling some cold temps but now I'm a true believer. I think this is the coldest winter I have seen since moving to Vancouver in 2004, or maybe it's just because I'm growing palms now and paying closer attention to cold weather. There has been 21 nights this winter that have seen temps in my area below 0c, the coldest night being -5c and two daytime highs in December that didn't even climb above 0c. This palm has remained outside, in a pot and looks great. I took a close up of what I believe is a seed pod emerging for it's first time. The only winter protection this palm has received is a roof overhang, otherwise it is exposed to whatever the weather wants to give it. I couldn't help but take a picture of the Chamaerops with the last big snowfall we got :)
I have a little Chamaerops humilis var. Argentea (about 30" tall) that's been in ground for about 5 years now - it's not protected in any way - and it's doing just fine
That's awesome. I'm glad they're hardy for this area. They're beautiful palms. I have two that I started from seed last year. When do the leaves start to turn blue? Right now mine only have two green strap leaves. The strap leaves appear to be very hardy, they're like a ruff plastic. Can't wait till the divided leaves appear.
They perform well indoors as well. I find this palm more attractive than the windmill palms commonly found growing in our area. Not having seen any outdoors I just assumed they weren't hardy here.
I actually bought it from Canadian Tire of all places (they were clearing out a bunch of 1 gallon pots at $10 each); it was labeled as a "blue palm" and the leaves had that nice blueish hue to them then so I'm really not sure when they get color. When I bought it, it was also flowering at the time (one of the reasons I bought that particular one) so I'm not sure if this unusual for this palm, or if in fact the tree is really a miniature of some kind as it was less than 24" tall at that time.
Wow, I need to start paying more attention to what Canadian tire is selling. That's a sweet deal. I know they often sell lots of sago palms but I have never seen them selling Chamaerops. That's a nice find.
I find Canadian Tire, Home Depot and Rona will often surprise you with what they sell. As they tend to sell based on size of pot, they tend to labeled most of their plants as "tropical plant".....but if you know what you are looking for you can pick out the gems Some of the "tropicals" I've picked up over the years from these stores include finger limes Microcitrus australiasica, fishtail palms Caryota mitis (not cold hardy) and assorted bottlebrush Callistemon sp. (some of which have been in ground for 5 years are doing just fine in my gardens as well) FYI, I tend to check out these places at the end of the growing season for their clearance items; they often don't know what they have and just want to sell it.
Not to hi-jack your thread, but another palm that has proved to be surprisingly hardy is the Chamaedorea microspadix. I bought one from a supplier in Montreal that was close to 6ft tall in 2012 (the winter of which proofed deadly for a number of my plants). Unfortunately I did lose that plant during the winter but in the spring of 2013 it sent up little shoots. Since then, every spring they get a little bigger and more come up. And the only thing I do is to put a little cloth tent over it during the winters to prevent it from being crushed. This picture was taken late summer of 2016
Add supermarkets to the list. That's where I purchased one of mine many years ago; it was also sold as a tropical.
