Hi I new to growing palms here in Kelowna. I recently bought 2 t fortunei ;1 is 5ft' the other is 3 ft' looking very healthy at this point. I grew up in Vancouver and know the the obvious change in climate from the humid temperate climate of the coast to the hot dry desert of the Okanagan "zone 6b" . I would like to know if my t fortunei are going to fare well in this dry environment without misting them constantly and when to transplant them into larger containers. The roots are showing through the bottom now and would like them to thrive through the summer any thoughts? I bought a package of cold hardy palms seeds sampler from rare palm seeds .com and expect to grow cold hardy needle palms"rhapidophyllum hystix" here in the ground here year round . They are cold hardy to -23 c . We rarely see temps that low for more than 2 weeks during winter ,so these high desert mountain palms should fit in well here. I would like to see more palm nuts here in the real California of Canada!!! Look forward to your comments. THANKS ,JOHNNY
T. Fortunei will not survive long term there unless you provide protection in the winter. The needle palm would probably be a good candidate.
I hope you have alot of time... growing palms from seed is a very long term project at least for the hardy varieties 5 to 10 years before you have something of size. A washingtonia robusta ( mexican fan palm ) grows fairly quickly and therefore are quite inexpencive - A friend picked up 3, 3 foot trees at Wall mart in Coquitlam on clearance in the spring for $6 each in the tropical plant section. however they are only good to 20 deg F and as low as 10 f if its dry and in well draining soil ( with a little luck too ) They make decent house plants and put em on the deck in the summer. Misting your fortunei is not nessisary and could damage it just keep it well watered
Re: Okanagan t fortunei I plan on doing both growing from seed as well as larger palms I can buy from nusuries in Kelowna and Vancouver. I have noticed that the fronds on the t. fortunei have yellow tips ,I was told to cut the yellow off and this would keep it from yellowing? I have fertilized with a high quality 20 20 20 and gave them a tsp per gallon of epsom salts 2 weeks later,with regular rain water in between. They seem to be still yellowing tip slower though. I wonder if this is because they naturally do this? I kept them in partial shade for the first week and then full sun on my patio . If I take the bottom fronds off will this speed up growth on top? They were shipped here from San Diego and don`t know if they were grown in full sun. Some sites say they like partial shade?I have seen many in Van that are grown in direct sun and have yellowing bottom fronds, but green tops.Any advice will be greatly appreciated from the forum!
I have been advised not to fertilize too much as this can cause yellowing of the fronds also not to fertalize anymore after mid july as you do not wat to promote new growth now (we are halfway to new years!) I too have a couple of palms from california (Monrovia Growers) which are turning a bit yellow. The palms grown locally seem to have tougher more ridgid foliage and will probably hold up to the cold better. Maple leaf garden centre in North Vancouver has fortunei palms for $29.00 5 gallon size about 30 inches tall a good deal its about 1/2 price or more than most other places. removing the lower fronds can make it grow abit quicker . Full sun is fine for most palms fortunei can do well in partial shade too. which grower did you buy them from? Did they ship to Canada ?
I'm not sure about kelowna nursuries - a friend from Kamloops came down to the coast to buy her palms here in North Vancouver. The price was worth the drive. It sounds like Seahawks imported his palms from California. Look up Maple leaf Garden centre in N Van - perhaps they will ship to you? Greg
Hello Alkaline I bought my palms from Art Knaps here in Kelowna they have a good selection of Trachy`s from 4ft to 2 1/2 and smaller. I found them a bit expensive 4ft $249.00 , 2 1/2ft $69.00 , 1 1/2ft $39.00. I think It`s a good investment considering it would take 5 plus years for the 4ft, 3 years for the 2 1/2 ft ,anyways you get the idea. They were partially shaded throughout the day in the nursery so I slowly moved them into full sun over a couple of weeks, and now they are opening there first new palm frond from the crown, look great ,lots of compliments!. I plan on keeping them out till we get -5 to see how well they do and then bringing them into the carport to get ready for the house for winter. I think the only way we can cold hardy them is to do this a couple of years as they were shipped from San Diego.I would think that we would need some protection after that if planted zone 6a . I think they will bring in more palms and yuccas if more of us were interested? More palms in Kelowna YEA!
Folow up to gegn ,thanks for the info about fertilizer they seem to be fine with once a month and are greening up nicely Thanks again, JOHN
