Costa del Chamaerops
(page 5)
Gardens
Regardless of how it fares in the wild Chamaerops
will continue to flourish in gardens not only in the Costa Blanca
but throughout the world. In the Costa Blanca there are many stunning
examples of this lovely plant both in civic settings and private
gardens small or large. I have scrutinised hundreds of gardens associated
with newer houses in the area and approximately one in three have
one or more examples of palmito either as a single dressed plant
or a natural colony.
There are local variations depending on availability
and the age of the development. Areas of slower development tend
to be the richer in Chamaerops as newcomers are influenced by existing
gardens whereas in a completely new isolated development there is
still the strong influence of the gardens people left behind in
their country of origin.
Chamaerops does not transplant readily from the
wild and even planting out pot reared plants can be a failure. I
have no doubt that in the past large specimens were taken from the
wild. These were valuable plants and great care would have been
taken in their recovery. Large plants are now rare in the wild,
or at least in areas accessible to an ageing botanist. Examples
of current prices for nursery grown plants are: Five years from
seed 25 ecu; large plant group 500 - 800 ecu (1 metre trunk with
ring of satellites). These larger plants take anything up to fifty
years to grow. Investing for the future like that is a thing of
the past but was once typical of family businesses.
Under nursery conditions cleaned seeds of Chamaerops
germinate fairly rapidly but whole fruit germinate more slowly and
the germination rate is usually such lower. Fruit planted in a garden
can take several years to germinate. Examples of garden-grown fruit
after twenty five years have reached the size of seven year nursery
grown plants. The garden grown tend to be more robust.
Studies on growth rate in the wild are projects
only for the young. In spite of this I have some germination and
growth trials in progress. Under propagation conditions germination
of fresh seed can be as quick as six weeks but I know of plantings
of fruits in unattended gardens that have taken up to three years
to germinate. Chamaerops is such a versatile plant and is suitable
for everything from a patio pot to a grand garden. Newcomers tend
to buy Phoenix because they are cheaper and grow faster only to
find their limited space has been swamped. There are so many wonderful
examples to be found where the architectural qualities of Chamaerops
have been brought out in civic plantings and to set off new buildings.
Sometimes the palmito forms a perfect interface between old and
new buildings. I have chosen just two out of my many favourite examples.
Plate 15 shows the palmito as a pampered aristocrat but on the hillside
in the background its stunted cousins are struggling to survive.
Plate 16 needs no explanation.
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