Where to buy palm trees in Great Vancouver area

Hi, I am looking for a 3-4 foot trunk windmill palm and possible a date palm if I can find. Does any one know which nursery has good selections and price ? thanks

 

Re: Where to but palm trees in Great Vancouver area

I take it you are referring to the "common" windmill palm Trachycarpus fortunei, in which case almost any nursery will have this palm in various sizes; Art's, Cedar Rim, Triple Tree, Garden Works etc. (there are other types of "windmill" palm that are not so easily acquired such as the 'waggie' - Trachycarpus wagnerianus)

The date palm could be an issue; you may find one as a "houseplant" at some of the larger nurseries but if you really want one you will most likely have to resort to ordering one online.......I would recommend Mike at Montreal Plants http://montrealplants.com/, I'm sure he can get one for you but I would suggest getting the pygmy date palm - Phoenix roebelenii - as they are less than half the height of the date palm - Phoenix dactylifera
Whatever you do, DO NOT buy anything online that would be coming from outside of Canada as it will never make it into the country without the proper paperwork (phytosanitary certificate is a must and that equals $$)

 

Re: Where to but palm trees in Great Vancouver area

Thanks for the reply, i have checked arts and gardenwors, the prices for a 4 ft trunk fortunei aren't too cheap, almost doubled the price from Montrealpants.

Anyway i checked the web and found south grove nersery in Langley, seems very decent and they claim to sell Phoenix canariensis too, any one delt with them before?

 

Re: Where to but palm trees in Great Vancouver area

I've heard of South Grove but never dealt with them.
As for Montreal plants, he has good prices and good stock but you would be looking at shipping costs from Montreal to Vancouver, and for this reason I don't recommend buying anything too large because just finding a shipper will be hard to do (no carrier will transport a package over a certain height, and if they do, they will not guarantee that you get the item alive or in one piece because it will be shipped ground and that could take several weeks. I went through this a couple of years ago while trying to get a 72" radicalis palm - Chamaedorea radicalis - from there to here.

Regarding the Phoenix canariensis, keep in mind that you are dealing with a tropical tree; one that never evolved in our climate so it is unlikely to survive and should only to be kept as a 'houseplant'. I've tried many types of palms and bananas but have found very, very few that will survive our wet winters.......it's not our cool winters that do in the plants but the dampness....it rots the plants. If you are looking for an unusual palm that should survive our climate, try the needle palm - Rhapidophyllum hystrix (I've got one that I've had in-ground for going onto 5 years now, even though I almost lost it during the winter of 2013/14). The Blue Hesper palm - Brahea armata - should also survive our winter climate. FYI, my C. Radicalis also survived the winter of 2013/14 and I'm hoping it will continue to do so.

If you are looking for additional information of keeping palms, I recommend contacting the PNWP&EPS (Pacific Northwest Palm & Exotic Plant Society) located here in Vancouver - they have a wealth of experience and information.
http://www.hardypalm.com/

 

Re: Where to but palm trees in Great Vancouver area

For most people the Trachycarpus fortunei and T. wagnerianus, maybe one or two others are going to be the only outdoor palms for this area. The Brahea, like so many other plants that "should" be hardy here based on brief periods of low temperatures in the South can't take the freezing of the soil that occurs during northern Arctic Fronts. The fact that such plants persist until a serious cold snap comes along shows that it actually is the winter cold - and not the rain - that does them in.

Even the European native Chamaerops sooner or later gets zapped at this latitude.

 

Re: Where to but palm trees in Great Vancouver area

Note that "Trachycarpus wagnerianus" is just a semi-dwarf cultivar group of Trachycarpus fortunei, not a separate species at all. Correctly Trachycarpus fortunei Wagnerianus Group.

 

Re: Where to but palm trees in Great Vancouver area

I'm not saying that the cold and freezing soil will not do them in; what I am saying is that I find that our cool wet/rainy winters tends to kill more plants from rot well before the freeze ever gets to them.......we don't always get stretches of below zero temperature and frozen soil but we always get rain.
Those palms of mine that survived the 2 weeks of minus 10C temperature we had in the winter of 2013/2014 included: Sabal Minor, Trachycarpus Wagnerianus, Brahea Armata, Rhapidophyllum Hystrix and Chamaedorea Radicalis (though I must admit this last one had a little winter protection). And I'm not saying they came through unscathed, but they did survive with little or no protection.

 

about a month ago I bought a Pygmy date palm from sunrise garden centre on Fraser highway. There is still two left, one had spear pull, the other was a relatively healthy 5' specimen with 3 trunks. They are hidden out back behind the greenhouse in the palms section.
As for south grove nursery, I bought a t. Wagnerianus off of him in July as well and found him to be reasonably priced. Mostly selling wagnerianus but he had several other species there.
My next trick will be to start some jubaea from seed. Possibly a hybrid.
Ciao

 

You can buy palms in Vancouver from www.ParadisePalms.ca
Lots of 3-4ft palms and taller, as well as some pine palms..
The date palm doesn't do so well in our climate.
Your best bet is a Chilean Pine Palm for that look.