I agree most people think its cool,some are scared,some stop and stair,the rest I,m a little concerned their head might explode,(why did he plant that stuff it would already be growing here if etc etc)but you never know its kind of funny,a teenage girl I believe french,stopped and said"are those cold hardy palms"so I guess(in this case) I was more surprised then anyone!

Here is a link that might be useful:

How long have those palms been in the ground at your place?

I tell them I ran out of guns to clean.

About 10 years ago, I offered to do the landscaping at our new chapel in Spring, Texas (north Houston), and so I got the blueprints of the site plan from the coordinator of the chapel. I got a piece of vellum and traced all the buildings, then went about designing what I thought would be an attractive and relatively low maintenance landscape that centered around palms that are hardy for the Houston area, along with some flowering shrubs and a few of the hardier citrus varieties.

I spent hours designing the landscape, and my wife and I were actually going to do all the planting for free as a donation to the chapel. I submitted my plan to the coordinator and when I asked what he thought about it, he said something to the effect that he "didn't like palm trees" and wanted the chapel to have a southwest mission look to it and that he might "let me plant a bougainvillea or two"! I told our priest this and he said, "Who wouldn't like palm trees?" Well our coordinator that's who. Obviously he never did his research or he would know that many of the missions in the southwestern states have palm trees growing around them! (California fans, Mexican fans, and Texas palms to be exact.) Anyway he made my wife and I so angry and offended we withdrew our offer to do any landscaping there.

Another instance I ran into was when I lived in South Florida, and someone who went to our church there said that some of the people who lived in their subdivision in Jupiter didn't like palm trees, and I said, "Then why in the hell did they move to south Florida?"!!! People who don't like palm trees honestly are not normal people!

I use them as palm fertilizer!

Josh when you said you use them for fertilizer, I got this scene in my head from the movie Fargo when the big bad guy threw the little bad guy in the wood chipper..lol.

I think Jim planted those hardy palms in front of his house just to pick up the ladies..lol...Jim is your last name McLovin..lmao

Cheers Everybody

Jeffery the weffery

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Some folks like English Cottage gardens - to me it's just a bunch of weeds, but to each his own.

I have a simple reason as to why I like tropical plants: many people work hard all year so they can go on vacation someplace exotic for a week or 2 out of the year. With a little effort I can re-create some of that same exotic/ tropical mood in my own yard for several months, so to me it's worth it.

x

Being very active in the local palm society and having palms at my nursery, I seem to see more people who like palms than people who don't. Where I deal with anti palm people is on some of these forums. I answer questions on about 8 different forums and you see the anti palm person every once in a while. When landscaping was the largest part of my business, every once in a while I got the, "no way I want any palms in my landscape" people and what they wanted was always the perfectly shaped and uniformly laid out landscape.
I started seeing a pattern after a while. There would be people who love the tropical look where the plants flow out and these people liked palms. The people who wanted perfectly cut bushes in little squares all lined up in a row, don't like the frilly look. I became to understand what each of these types of people wanted and was ok with that. Just because I like palms and cycads, doesn't mean that everybody does.
Another reason why I can see some people not liking palms is that in general, even though there are about 2500 described species and another 500 yet to be species, there are only about a dozen palms being used in the landscapes in Florida. Sure, every once in a while a creative person will do something different, but for the most part, you see queens, washingtonias, pigmies, and a few others, and after a while, if this is all you see and you don't have a high interest in palms, you can get bored with them and not like the look. Some people, who I do get annoyed with, dislike palms and can't say why, they just hate palms. Some of these people say that palms are trash plants, and that upsets me, but I don't let any people like this bother me too much.
Some people hate palms because they think all of them attract roaches and other bugs, but they are not educated enough on palms to know that isn't always true and the self cleaning types don't have good places for bugs to hang out in.
This may be off subject a little, but I was told something a long time ago that I notice a lot when I am showing plants to people in general. I was told that many people who like palms also like cycads. They also have an interest in plants like bromeliads and agaves, because all these plants have a fountain form. If you think about it, these all make good companion plants and they do have that same look. What amazed me when he told me this, was that I love all these plants, and he was so right. I like all these and also some of the birdsnest sansevarias are my favorite of that group, so I am one of these people. Who here has noticed that they fall into this category?

For my part, I guess that I no longer care whether people like 1) what I plant 2) what I wear 3)who I sleep with.... you get the picture. You get to a certain age and it is very free-ing...... so the 'plant nazis' don't want you to plant non- natives? oh, well.... just keep smiling and growing, brother

nyssaman- I wish it worked that way!but that would be cool if.........e-coz me sir did you plnt all zee palms? why yes I did young beautiful lady!...will you mak zee love to mawaa? well of coarseLOL I'd settle for a dirty look these days!Well at least I have my palms,we will see when winter comes again,I figure I have about 7 months to finish figuring out how to protect all of them.cheers!

I have to agree, some of the English cottage or formal flower gardens can look weedy and burned out by the middle of the summer. Palms and tropicals look their best when facing all the heat and humidity that summer can dish out. I also think some people think that if something doesn't look palmy or tropicalesque, it has to be native and belongs.

I doubt most of the critics know what a native plant really is......

I have never personally had a run in with an ANTI-palm person. But i have heard some bad stories, one of which springs to mind is a neighbour who poured weed killer onto a the crown of a rapidly growing CIDP as one of the fronds had touched their fence, luckily the palm pulled through after a couple of years but the audacity!

Trachyhead:

That person who poisoned a nice palm like that should be sent on a one way all expenses paid trip to THE TOWER OF LONDON!

I am a palm fanatic but I dont really like the look of tropical plants especially not in my area,tropical plants are too green and luscious looking to fit in with the brown and rock landscape here in Albuquerque,not that they would grow here but Im sure there are some that you could push like hardy bananas but I hate the look of those.

I can see why some people may hate palms after awhile,the robustas when full grown look like those wooden electic posts,but part of the fun of growing a palm is caring for it and growing it in an area where they dont usually grow.

wineandlobos: I can see your point in your area, but yuccas, cactus, agave and joshua trees would look awesome with Washingtonias and some Mexican Sabal Palms planted near them where you live.

There are alot of Mississippians here who dont believe palms should grow this far north. Normally I just tell them that theyve been in the ground and pretty much unprotected for the past several years and they can see how well they are doing. I let my Pindos do my talking for me, why should I waste my breath?

the virginian--I do agree I think washingtonia would look good with cacti and agave around them and I even have some in my yard that I put around my filiferas and 1 robusta.

Robustas and Filiferas are great palms for the desert and blend in well with the landscape and to me they are my favorite palms for some reason,but to the palm haters,lets say like in California I have heard people say that they look like electic poles and they do nothing for the landscape.

too bad filiferas dont grow very well in Albuquerque,although most that are planted around here have done well,but most people seem to think your crazy for planting palms in Albuquerque or even in New Mexico,but if you go down into southern NM you'll see 20-30ft washingtonias all around.

Kevin , you should tell them that Mississippi is not that far north..lol

cheers

Jeff

When I started gardening fifteen years ago, it didn't take long for me to appreciate how a garden benefits from native plants. Since then I've always been a native plant booster, although I haven't gardened for the last dozen years. Then JimHardy got on a kick for hardy bananas and hardy palms. He was so enthusiastic about it, I just watched instead of trying to talk up native plants. It was obvious nothing else would do for him but to have these tropical-looking aliens beamed down to the Iowa field and prairie scape.

I'm going somewhere with this....

He wants to push the envelope, and from the reactions I've seen, he's doing that. He's stretching people's concepts of what is possible and he's adjusting their perceptions of reality to a larger scope.

So maybe, since they've been stretched, they'll stretch in other areas, too. Heaven knows, we all need more tolerance and bigger scopes to understand more about reality.

Maybe they'll stretch so much they'll accomodate some far-out concept like my new favorite: fairies. Hey, if palms can be happy in Iowa, then it ought to be totally conceivable that fairies are, too, right?

Ah, well, in the meantime, I think Jim will have a lot of people to stretch.

Cheers, hardy palm lovers, here's a native plant lover who's on the same team!

~ Woodsfairy

Here is a link that might be useful: Fairies

Well my palms here in Connecticut- I have been looked at by visitors as an eccentric, or worse. I gave some friends who recently moved to eastern CT from the Washington DC area (Maryland side SE) a small trachycarpus wag- in a pot. for their deck and sun room. The wife asked me of this plant was the same one 'I have growing in my garden'. I replied Yes. I said put it on the deck now and leave it out till early December......she seemed confused. Oh well.

I have a palm garden and fairies,goblins underneath.

they have'nt been bit by the bug yet.they don't know what there missing.

What could be prettier than a tall palm with fronds illuminated by the last rays of sunlight against a dark, storm-approaching sky.

Comment: "... but palm trees aren't native to this area."
Response: "Neither am I - so what's your point? You want me to move back to Puerto Rico?"

Comment: "I don't like palm trees."
Response: "Then I'll try not to plant any in YOUR yard."

Comment: "Those palm trees don't fit in with nature this far north."
Response: "Give it a few decades... the way global warming is going, soon we'll be growing oranges and bananas too!"

Lol... no, I haven't come across anyone who doesn't like the idea of growing palms up here YET. Everyone I mention it too think it's awesome.

LOL! I was just going to say my response to those palm-haters would be: "Well, with global warming, palms will soon be common in our area... so get used to it!"