Palm trees in parksville?

is there one that does not grow bigger than say 10 ft and survives the winters?
thanks all

 

are there still those palm trees - for as long as I can remember - in the old intersection as one leaves the Departure Bay Ferry Terminal - one can either (at that point) turn north toward Parksville - or south toward Downtown Nanaimo / Duncan? (kind of near the infamous Tally Ho Inn)

they always wrapped them up in winter - burlap.

I wonder what those are?

I know of other palm trees - outside the Sylvia Hotel (just a bit east) - Beach and Denman intersection I think. I bet the parks board - or someone at Van Dusen or UBC Botanical could tell you. (Vancouver BC)

if you have any old Gardens West mag (it passed away last fall) - I think there were articles about "tropicals" in this coast climate.

 

Those are Trachycarpus fortunei , Windmill Palm. They're quite common in the Vancouver area.

 

That's the only palm that really thrives in the area. Takes quite a while for them to grow past 10 feet.

 

But one in Tacoma was 48' tall some years ago. And you can't shorten the trunk.

 

I guess we will have to do without.
thanks all

 

There is also the Miniature Chusan Palm - Trachycarpus wagnerianus, or "waggie". Although they will still grow large, they actually seem to be a little hardier than the T. fortunei....but are also much harder to acquire.

They are very tolerant to cold in combination with humidity; have small stiff leaves and have a good tolerance of wind. Unlike t. fortunei they seem to have originated from Japan and Korea at higher altitudes. This means the palm needs to adapt to more summer heat and humidity combined with extreme winter cold, making it a very adaptable "cold hardy palm".

.....mine weathers the winters much better than my "trachy"

 

This also grows more than triple the desired heat but is slow - maybe if it took 15-20 years (or more) to get 10' tall that would be acceptable in this instance. There might be some at an outlet up there because a garden center here just took delivery of this sometime this month. It would depend on if they brought them up themselves or if a truck made a round of deliveries in the region (including Vancouver).

 

maybe this place near the border in South Langley, BC?
http://southgrove.ca/index.php

 

I could not find a "waggie" locally (but then this is going back a few years) so I ordered it from Mike at Montreal Plants (in Montreal) - http://montrealplants.com/ - he ships across Canada

Good selection and good quality, I've never been disappointed in his stock, and he will even help source plants for special requests.

 

Southgrove Nursery (link provided by Georgia Straight above) appears to stock wagnerianus; rather than imoprting, it appears most are seedlings started from their own seed.