Lois Rossten emphasizes the importance of a greenhouse,
and the ease with which you can grow beautiful, lush palms once
you have a basic concept of growing tropical palms in a temperate
climate. Lois has a small greenhouse which is shaded from sunlight
by the canopy formed by her mature palms. She keeps the temperature
warm during the winter months with a natural gas heater. The temperature
seldom exceeds 80°F (25°C), or drops below 60°F (15°C).
Lois finds that most small palms will not grow well in a temperate
climate without winter protection and greenhouse-induced size. She
heaves the palms in the greenhouse until they are ready to move
from a four inch into a one gallon container at which time she places
them outdoors to harden off. Lois hikes to bring the palms out of
the greenhouse in the spring after the night-time temperatures stabilize
at or above the high 5O°F(13-15° C) . She then allows the
palms to grow to a large one gallon size outdoors and plants them
in the ground during the spring and summer months as a one gallon,
digging a hole just large enough for the palm to fit into.
Lois' philosophy is basically to plant the palm
and wait. Nothing happens at first. Nothing happens next. Nothing
might happen after a year. And just when it seems that the plant
is going to remain a runt forever it begins to grow and it continues
to grow, becoming a large, fast-growing palm. Her system is simple
and highly successful, but it does require more patience than most
other systems. Lois has a fabulous palm collection with over 150
species on her standard city lot. Included in her collection of
specimen palms are Veitchia joannis, V. arecina, Dictyosperma album
var. rubrum, Wallichia disticha, Carpentaria acuminata, Roystonea
regia, R. elata and Parajubea cocoides.
Ralph Velez also stresses the importance of a greenhouse,
and the ultimate size and time to plant most palms outdoors. Ralph
has two greenhouses, and a palm growing career which has included
some form of greenhouse from the beginning. Ralph's lower greenhouse
is his cool greenhouse in which he grows many 'greenhouse only'
palms. His upper greenhouse is the warm one in which he grows his
seedlings to planting size. Ralph installed his upper greenhouse
because the sunlight to the lower greenhouse became blocked by his
mature palms.
California Dreaming
