Nicolas Cock's experiences, trials, hopes and
dreams about growing hardy palms. by Nicholas Cock, Southend on sea, Essex Chamaerops No.38, published online
31-08-2000
Geonoma weberbaueri, at 2900 m in Ecuador.
Palms in the winter
It‘s been almost 3 years now since I was "bitten
by the bug" and took the first step of purchasing my first
palm, a Dypsis Lutescens, which was summarily executed due to my
lack of experience. I have, however, bounced back since those dark
days and can now happily boast almost 100 palms in my collection,
of every conceivable shape and size. It was about a year before
I found out that there were mad men and women out there growing
palms in their gardens, even over the winter. I decided to investigate
further, which leads me to where I am today. I have developed the
obsession of leaving these poor defenceless plants to the mercy
of the weather and carefully recording exactly what effect our winter
climate has on them, sometimes with unexpected results.
To start with I was dubious about leaving any palms
in the garden--going out and spending a few hundred pounds on plants
just to see them zapped into oblivion was not exactly my idea of
enjoyable gardening--but once the palmophile comes out in you, you
begin to notice palms that have been growing in your neighbourhood,
right under your nose, many of them years old, and so I thought
to myself, why not? I live in Southend on sea (South Essex riviera!!!)
where I personally believe we have the best that the weather has
to offer, especially when it comes to palm growing. Our yearly precipitation
is the lowest in the UK, we have some of the highest summer temperatures,
and winter temperatures don‘t drop too low. This past winter
saw an absolute low of -4°C, and we only had to suffer a few
nights of below 0 temperatures. Granted we don‘t get the full
effect of the Gulf Stream that the South West gets, but, no offence
to its people, it‘s too wet there! I feel the River Thames
helps keep temperatures a degree or so higher, so I‘m in no
rush to move.
Although still a "beginner" by a lot of
people‘s accounts, I‘ve learned a tremendous amount over
the last couple of years. The question of cold hardiness in palms
is one of the subjects that fascinates me the most. The internet
and various magazines are crammed full of information regarding
hardiness and growing zones that our American cousins seem to covet
so much, but I think here in the UK and Europe we have to look at
things a different way. Technically where I live is situated in
Zone 9 (which means a minimum winter temperature of -1 to -6°C),
and being that -5°C is usually our absolute minimum, we feel
that we can firmly place ourselves in that zone. However, compare
that to another Zone 9 area such as Central and most of Southern
Florida, and it doesn‘t take an expert to work out that there
is no comparison when it comes to climate. Although Florida can
get several degrees of frost overnight, this is usually followed
by day temperatures of 15-20°C; in other words, back to the
conditions palms are used to growing in.
Seasonal Palm Growing
