Mature palm tree on Saltspring Island, BC, Canada

Location: Ganges, SSI, BC, Canada

Specimen: Windmill palm
Time of photo: October 2003

You can cross pollinate a Trachycarpus fortunei (shown) with another Trachycarpus such as Trachycarpus wagnerianus.

Location where Windmill palms grow well in BC:
Sunshine Coast
Vancouver area
Nanaimo
Tofino
Victoria (most favorable area for growing palm trees)
Saltspring Island & Gulf Islands (very similar to Victoria)

Other areas where palm trees are seen:
Duncan
Comox

 

palms on van. island

There is a 20 foot (6 metre) Trachycarpus fortunei planted in front of a two-story home on Jensen Street in Parksville BC, 30kms north of Nanaimo.

 

also wo large ones in portalberni b.c.

 

Should be easy to grow them at least as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands, and probably southern Alaska.

There's several large ones (6-7m tall) in Scotland (56-57°N), and they're being trialled, successfully so far, in the Faroe Islands (62°N) and even southern Iceland (64°N)

 

To me a mature windmill palm would be one with a tall, clearly visible trunk.

 

Good pic. of a mature T.fortunei on SSI Denis. Well Ron I guess you wouldn't consider a 30'ft tall fully skirted Trachy mature, since you can't see the trunk. There are lots of growers such as myself that have mature T.fortunei that don't bother to cut away the lower fronds. I have one I planted as a small palm in early 1987 that flowers and produces bag loads of seed. That palm has fronds from top to bottom and the trunk in not all that visible. Personally I do consider it mature. I also consider flowering or fruiting palms mature. They may not have reached their maximum height, but they are definately mature enough to harvest from. Joe

 

Do notice that I wrote "tall, clearly visible trunk" - two concepts. The growing point of the specimen in the photo is barely above the facia on the house. Windmill palms get alot taller than that, a plant that is well below its full size I do not consider a good example of one that is mature.

 

I agree with Joe, there are lots of mature palms on Salt Spring, mostly in private gardens where you wouldn't see them, I hope you enjoyed your visit none the less.
I've actually see that palm before! Small island.
Carol Ja