Letters
Exlibris
Jens Mundry of Hamburg is selling a very good palm
library with more than 80 titles. Scarce and important monographs
and original works, also many articles in xerox copy. Complete price
£2160 (5500DM). Please contact him direct for a detailed list.
Jens Mundry, 22559 Hamburg, Wedeler Landstr. 65, GermanyThe Tale
Continues
I read with interest the article 'A Tale of Two Washingtonias' by
Greville Arnold-Jenkins (Chamaerops, April 1993), regarding his
experience with two W. filifera seedlings. I have grown many of
these over the last five years (most of which have gone to friends
and colleagues) and have noticed significant variation in growth
rates.
Most seeds were bought from Chilterns of Cumbria,
but I did collect a fresh batch from the Canary Islands (Tenerife)
some four years ago. The seeds I collected (approx. 30) were from
the same tree in the hotel garden and almost all germinated within
4 weeks at 28¾C, and after the production of the first leaf, were
potted up into 3" pots using John Innes No.2.
Within approximately 6 months and in early summer
they were all potted on into 5" pots of J.I. No 3 (experience
has shown this particular palm to be a hungry plant from day one
and a rich compost is essential for strong and fast growth). After
12 months, around 75% were still growing strongly and required further
potting on, but the remainder all showed signs of weak, stunted
growth for no apparent reason. Their root systems were also slow
in developing, failing in many to become cramped even in 5"
pots. I believe this phenomenon is common to many species in the
plant kingdom, in that only the strong will survive, prosper and
go on to become mature specimens. John Woodhead, Whitby, North Yorkshire.
...And Trachycarpus
The article relating to seed provenance by Mr. Arnold-Jenkim
was of particular interest to me and so here's my 'Tale of Six Trachycarpus',
although, unlike him, I don't know where my seed originated. Here
I should urge readers to read Martin Gibbons' article, 'How Hardy
is Hardy?' (Chamaerops, October '91), points 8 & 9 relating
to first provenance, and second, luck. My six plants were bought
as simple-leaved seedlings six years ago; they were potted up into
the same compost and kept together in a little enclosure for protection.
Most of the winter they spent in an unheated room, and in April
they were again plunged outside in their pots. Naturally, I expected
them to make almost equal growth; but no. Two of them proved slow
starters while two others began to forge ahead.
By the third year they had all developed fan leaves
and by then I had begun to notice that one of them was different
from the rest having shorter, stiffer leaves, somewhat rounded at
the tips. This proved to be variety 'Wagnerianus', which oddly enough
was to be one of the two strong growers. By the fourth year these
were more than double the size of the two slowest. All had been
re-potted and kept under identical conditions. By this time they
were out all winter, protected only during the coldest weather.
February that year saw a heavy snowfall, which completely buried
the enclosure and the palms inside it. This was followed by a night
when the temperature fell to -11¾C. 1 was undecided as to whether
to excavate the palms and take them inside, but remembering Martin
Gibbons' point about snow proving an excellent insulator, decided
against it. When the thaw came they were completely unharmed.
That summer I decided to plant out the largest of
the T. fortunei, which was, by then, treble the size of the smallest,
as also was the 'Waggy'. The following December saw the temperature
drop to -10¾C, only this time there was no snow. I didn't think
it was low enough to worry about, considering what they had passed
through the previous winter, but I was wrong. Although they all
looked O.K. to begin with, it gradually became evident that the
four weakest were going under, and by early spring the centre spears
had just rotted and pulled away. But the one planted out and the
'Waggy', still in a pot but plunged in the ground like the others,
were quite unhanned, their foliage still green and fresh. The latter
has now also been planted out and both are still making strong growth.
Now why should there be such a difference in performance?
Seed provenance, or just luck? As Martin says, plant 6 identical
palms in a row and 3 might survive the winter and 3 die of cold.
So you pay your money and you take your chance. If I'd bought only
the four that died I'd have had nothing more to do with 'hardy palms'
saying the whole thing was a con, but the two robust survivors prove
that there's a wide difference between them. So does it boil down
to seed provenance or just chance? For this country at least, would
it not be best to use home-produced, rather than imported seed?
As things stand, when we buy a plant we have no means of knowing
where it originated, (or even sometimes whether it's what we thought
it was!).
The article, "Canary Date - Devon Style"
by David Hutchinson was also of considerable interest. It argues
that if one Phoenix canariensis can grow to maturity in that area,
then others can. Or are we back to the question of seed provenance?
Was this a particularly hardy one? Last year I planted out a 2ft.
Phoenix canariensis as an experiment and although I gave it only
the minimum amount of protection in the coldest periods of the winter
- a blanket draped over 4 stakes stuck in the ground around it -
it survived the freezing fogs around Christmas and a temperature
of -7¾C completely undamaged. Every leaf remained green, and it's
now growing away quite strongly. So perhaps they're tougher than
they've been given credit for. In contrast, a Cordyline australis
of the same size, which I thought was hardier and so left unprotected,
died.
Richard Osbourne, Loughborough, Leics, U. K.
Woodman Spare That Tree
A few months ago I read in a local newspaper that
extensions to the art gallery in Bideford, North Devon were approved,
'despite that a large palm tree would have to be destroyed'. This
referred to a tall Trachycarpus that was tucked behind the building
almost out of sight. I immediately wrote to the council and told
them of my own experience in moving Trachycarpus palms in 1987 when
our former home and garden was taken over and destroyed by the Department
of Transport. I suggested that they should not destroy this palm,
which is supposed to be about 80 years old, but to carefully transplant
it to a better position in the adjacent Victoria Park.
I am now pleased to be able to report that they
took great care of it and recently replanted it as suggested.
Rev. G F Squire, Barnstaple, Devon.
North Of Watford
Like most of the contributors to this magazine,
I would also have liked to have been able to write about some wonderful
trip I had recently returned from in the steamy tropics, clutching
a handful of seeds of a hitherto undiscovered and exotic palm. However,
this is more down to earth and shows how easy it is to grow palms,
even north of Watford. In common with other holidaymakers I always
feel I have 'arrived' at my destination upon sighting the first
palm, but it never occurred to me that I could easily emulate this
in my own small south-west facing garden here in Watford.
I was visiting a local garden centre about 5 years
ago when I chanced upon an extremely sorry looking Trachycarpus,
which was suffering badly from frost-bum. As the price was reduced
to peanuts I decided to buy it and take a chance. I removed an 18"
square patio slab, dug a good deep hole into which I planted the
Trachy with a good lot of suitable mulch, and kept my fingers crossed.
I was soon rewarded when the warmth of spring produced a clutch
of young green fronds and I thus felt confident enough to remove
the dead leaves, which form the start of the attractive trunk.
This little tree prospered and put out leaves throughout
the year and even survived a bonfire lit by my younger son just
a couple of feet away, which scorched the leaves on one side, making
it lop-sided. I have since invested in a good sized Mediterranean
Fan Palm (Chamaerops humilis) and a small but pretty Blue Mexican
Palm (Brahea armata). I'm looking forward to my Trachy getting so
tall that when, on a summer's evening with a glass in my hand I'll
be able to sit underneath it, surrounded by palms, pelargoniums
and fuschias and will be magically transported to an Italian terrazzo
or Spanish patio. Now where can I get a tape recording of cicadas?
Mrs. Pat Lincoln, Watford, Herts
Cycad Strategy
I've been fascinated by Cycads for many years I
bought my first Cycas revoluta in 1976 - yet only now do I feel
I'm beginning to get somewhere with trying to get them to grow at
a reasonable speed. It seems quite unsatisfactory that in some years
they just sit and do nothing, producing no new leaves. Worse still,
in the case of Zamia furfuracea, it can lose its leaves entirely
in winter.
I'm now convinced that many of the cycads need:
1. Lots of heat. 2. Lots of water. 3. Large pots. Where's the evidence
for these assumptions? The Zamia furfuracea on my kitchen windowsill
now produces leaves on a regular basis all year round when kept
at 15¾C minimum and is watered well at least twice a week. If this
routine stops, it drops all its leaves and any new ones abort.
My three Cycas revoluta will only produce new leaves
early every summer if the conservatory vents are kept closed, allowing
the temperature to rise to at least 35¾C and if they are very well
watered.
Large pots? I met a chap from Australia who paid
$80 for a metre-high Lepidozamia peroffskyana that he planted in
the middle of his front lawn. Eighteen months later it had made
no apparent growth and was looking very sick. He was not pleased.
Whilst tidying the border some fifteen feet away he came across
a root with nodules on. Cycad roots have nodules on. You've guessed
it! Soon afterwards a complete new set of leaves appeared.
Greg Plenty, Morley, Leeds, U. K. Letters
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