Home & Away

Having learned much about palm growing in his native New Zealand, Charles is putting his experience to work here in his adoptive home.
Charles Jackson, 66 The Ridgeway, Westcliffe on Sea, Essex, SSO 8NU, U.K.
Chamaerops No. 12, published online 23-09-2002

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Above: Forested countryside overlooking Auckland. North Island, New Zealand.
Below: Nikau Palms and Tree Ferns at an east coast bay near Auckland.

Having just become a member of the European Palm Society, I thought it may be of interest to readers to hear about my experiences in growing exotic plants in both my native and my adopted homelands. I was born and brought up in New Zealand where I gardened until I drove my family mad. My obsession is exotic indigenous plants of New Zealand as well as the foreign introductions, specifically; I adore palms, tree ferns, Eucalyptus and Norfold Island Pines of which there are countless specimens growing in New Zealand.

In my younger years, I was fascinated by the huge imposing palms and tree ferns growing in my local town of Timaru, and I often wondered how they managed to grow there, as I thought that these types of plants were in need of a far warmer climate. I knew that tree ferns grow in weed-like profuision in the warmer wetter North Island of New Zealand but how did they manage to live in my hometown's very dry climate? Anyway, this wondering led me to a holiday of avid plant spotting, and also into trying to grow these plants that I so loved. Firstly, though, the climate locally had to be taken into account. New Zealand has a very mild oceanic climate that varies somewhat from north to south and my hometown is in the South Island, on the east coast in the lower half of the province of Canterbury. This meant that some of my favourite species may be difficult to grow as Timaru is very dry in summer and rather frosty in winter where 40-50 frosts a year are recorded. Some of those are very hard i.e. -8¾C and occasionally more. Rainfall there is only about 25" a year, mainly in spring and autumn. This amount of precipitation would lend itself admirably to species that like drier conditions. Armed with this knowledge, I proceeded with my experimentation in growing exotica.

My favourite plant is the Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis), which thrives in New Zealand's climate and not just around its coasts. Timaru's famous Caroline Bay is lined with beautiful specimens that are many years old, and stand about 40 feet tall. Not only do they grow on the shore where no doubt it is a little milder, but also inland where I have successfully grown a specimen that is occasionally covered in snow. The largest outdoor specimen I know is at a small town called Pleasant Point, about 12 miles inland from Timaru which is very frosty indeed in winter. This specimen is a good 20 feet tall and even the cold winter weather has not made it spindly or malformed; it grows with a very stout trunk and very thick petioles and leaflets. The only harm that Phoenix palms seem to suffer in the South Canterbury climate is a yellowing of the fronds in winter due to cold but this rapidly reverts to green in the summer sunshine.

I found after trying several times that planting young Phoenix palms is only successful in September which is the equivalent of March in Britain, but I think here it would be a little early. Possibly April would be the time. Planting them this early in the season gives them the whole of the spring, summer and autumn to establish a really good root system which they do rapidly if watered profusely during the first few seasons.

Another thing that I believe helps Phoenix palms survive the cold weather is the maturing of their leaflets in hot sunshine each season - basically they ripen, and therefore are cold resistant. There is to this day a nice healthy specimen that I planted in my parent's garden in 1973, and although growing slowly due to a very dry location, it is very stout and healthy. I also know of a large specimen growing in the city of Dunedin in Otago Province, which is New Zealand's second most southerly province. Winters there can be very harsh with snow and ice lying on the ground for up to two weeks. Having lived in Dunedin on and off for a few years and experiencing five snowfalls in just one winter I am amazed that anyone would contemplate trying a Phoenix palm there but they have and it is a commendable tree in very good condition.

It seems to me that the provenance of the New Zealand grown Phoenix palms, particularly the more southerly ones, would make the seeds they produce excellent for growing in the UK, as the plants I have tried growing in this country seem not as hardy as their New Zealand counterparts. Those growing here seem to be rather tatty and windburnt, with uneven trunks, for example those on the Isles of Scilly, and the specimen in Torquay, Devon, which was the subject of a recent article in Chamaerops. I think I will collect some seeds the next time I am in New Zealand, and give them a try here. I believe with the New Zealand variety I could successfully grow them in my garden in Westcliffe-on-Sea, Essex, which is south facing, dry (we only get 22" of rain a year here) and surprisingly sunny. Occasionally they would have to put up with a bad winter and some snow and ice, but generally speaking it seems that the climate of Westcliff is not very different from that of Timaru and in fact suffers far fewer (about 12-20) frosts in the wintertime.

Norfolk Island Pines and Eucalyptus are other loves of mine, and with the former I have had plenty of success both here in the UK and back home. There they grow everywhere, no matter where you go you will see the good old gum trees even up at very high altitudes, and withstanding very severe alpine winters. The most common species which seeds itself everywhere is the Great Blue Gum which experts would have us believe is tender in this northern climate of ours but there are Blue Gums growing fast and successfully in the Westcliff Parade Gardens, which have survived bad winters of the late 1980's. So you can't believe everything you are told! I think people in the UK are finding that these magnificent Gum trees are a lot hardier than first thought, and not only the Blue Gum. There are many, many varieties, which will flourish here from the very hardy E. gunnii, niphophylla, nicholsir, stellulata, perinrana, etc. As long as you are thoughtful as to their position and don't plant them where they will be exposed to icy winter winds there should be no problem. They must always be staked though, and the bases of their trunks wrapped in bubble wrap (2-3 layers) for the first two or three seasons. This ensures that the first snowfall and subsequent ice and chill will not freeze the trunk through at just above ground level. They are such wonderful trees to grow and take no real looking after once established, and grow at a speed that just amazes everyone.

Unfortunately, my success with Eucalyptus hasn't been transferred to my beloved Norfolk Island Pines. Alas, this is a fabulous tree that I cannot get to grow outdoors in this country at all. The first frosts turn the needles brown, they split and ooze resin, so sadly my last Norfolk Island Pine is a tub plant for the summer patio only. Again, it must be a question of provenance, as in New Zealand, you find the finest specimens of these trees outside of their native Norfolk Island. They grow everywhere that the Phoenix Palm can grow (even in cold Dunedin there are good-sized specimens). New Zealand's climate, being so oceanic, is perfect for these majestic trees that must have abundant moisture (most of the best specimens are in New Zealand's North Island) above all else. The New Zealand bred trees take the frosts, and some snow and ice (i.e. in Dunedin where they tend to grow slower and squatter).

Even in Timaru, they will grow happily, and there are some very good trees slightly further down the coast at the very picturesque town of Oamaru. Unfortunately, except for some especially favoured spots, these superb pines, unlike the Phoenix palms, can really only survive in truly coastal conditions, where the cold is tempered by a sea breeze. Hence, they are frequently used as municipal trees in huge avenues along foreshores in both Australia and New Zealand - the latter sporting the better specimens, as Australia's very warm, dry climate tends to send these pines gangly and straggly. Anyway, I shall persist with my Norfolk Island Pine, as I love them for their wonderful architectural shape.

One plant that has been successful for me in the UK and New Zealand is Agave americana, which in both countries has proven itself to withstand pretty much anything as long as it is planted in a hot dry position. My splendid little Agave happily survives the very worst weather in my unheated garden shed and in normal winters stays out all through, protected only by the sunny wall of the house. New Zealand has superb specimens of this plant and it grows to its full size and flowers there! The good old Trachycarpus palm is naturally perfectly at home in the UK and throughout New Zealand, and is, of course, the southernmost most cultivated palm in the world. Specimens happily live as far south as Invercargill in the very deep, cold, wet southern province of Southland.

Tree ferns, and that other wonderful New Zealand native, the Nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) are particular favourites of mine, and the ferns are difficult little blighters to grow in the UK unless you live somewhere very favourable. They hate wind and only when very established tend to be reasonably indifferent to frost, or so I have found, when growing them in Timaru. They like to be moist but if the climate is dry they seem happy to make do with a shady spot in the garden, and flourish there. In New Zealand snow and ice does not seem to harm them and they grow throughout the country including the most southerly island, Stewart Island, the offshore islands, and into the gullies in the foothills of mountain ranges.

Fortunately, there is one Australasian variety that is hardy enough to be grown in the UK. It is, of course, the magnificent Dicksonia antarctica, but even this species needs a shady, sheltered position in the garden or on the patio. I have experimented in New Zealand and in the UK with various tree ferns, the biggest success was Dicksonia fibrosa, which grew happily as a tub plant for a number of years, and then one winter in an unheated garden shed, it succumbed to just one night at -8¾C, the only really cold night that winter. Why, you may ask, did it do this when it had happily survived previous winters? Well, I am as mystified as you might be! I had a similar thing happen with a Phoenix palm that was in a tub and four years old. It had survived all those winters in my garden shed, then 'wallop', it just decided that one last cold night was too much, and its centre rotted, and the plant died.

In my experience tree ferns are hardier than Phoenix palms, given favourable conditions, so I am at a loss to know why they aren't more extensively grown in the UK. Some of the species are wonderful, from the enormous Black Tree Fern (Cyathea medullaris) which in New Zealand can attain 40-50 feet, with a spread approximately the same as that of a Coconut palm, to the smaller and beautiful forest ferns such as Dicksonia fibrosa, D. squarrosa, Cyathea dealbata etc. I really do think these ferns should be given a try here as they are really worth it.

My final favourite is that very special and very unusually shaped New Zealand native, the Nikau Palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) that is a superb tree tall, narrow and compact. It grows only in milder coastal areas in New Zealand and is particularly prolific in the North Island and its offshore islands. There is also a separate species called the Kermadec Island Nikau, native, of course, to that island.

In northern New Zealand's very warm temperate, almost sub-tropical climate of the provinces of Auckland and Northland, it is another plant that grows like a weed in the bush-clad countryside. One can look down from the hills overlooking Auckland city across thousands and thousands of these palms pushing their heads above the forest canopy. Naturally, Auckland city is somewhat favoured with a very mild climate where the temperature has never been known to fall below 4¾C since records started, but its surrounding areas and the hills do get quite frosty in winter. But this palm thrives, alongside all the other wonderful plants that can be grown in and around Auckland such as bananas, citrus, avocados, guavas, Kentias, Washingtonias, etc. Nevertheless, the Nikau can happily withstand the cold in the more southerly regions of New Zealand and has its natural southern limits on the Banks Peninsula on the South Island's east coast, and down the warm, wet, west coast of the South Island as well.

A particularly good specimen though is growing at Glenfalloch Gardens on the Otago Peninsular, at Dunedin, that rather chilly southern city, so I am giving a Nikau a try here, not in the ground, but as an indoors/outdoors plant. The one I have now is about 3 years old and I purchased it from a nursery specialising in New Zealand plants in Hornchurch, Essex, where the owner said that these Nikaus had even been frozen in their pots during the winter in his unheated greenhouses, and had come to no harm. Even the very tiny 1-year-old seedlings have survived, so I think I'm on to a winner with mine as the seed was collected in New Zealand, and the provenance is good. As it is, it has grown quite rapidly this summer in a pot in the garden but I will keep a very close eye on it a and will bring it under shelter for the first few winters.

I could go on and on about the growing of exotics in New Zealand but I won't as I fully believe that by obtaining seed of the right provenance from New Zealand, many of these wonderful plants could be grown successfully here in Britain, at least in coastal areas or warm inner-cities. At the moment the provenance of the plants available in the UK seems to make growing them a somewhat hit and miss affair with the occasional bit of luck i.e. the Devon Phoenix the Torquay Jubaea, etc. But, I'm sure we can do better than this, in fact, I'm positive, especially with having myself persevered and having been successful in one of the chillier regions of New Zealand. So, c'mon everyone, why not here?

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