Vitex has been in bloom all over town and I have been snapping pictures will my cellphone. Forgive the fuzzy pics but I wanted to share about the beautiful tree, one of my favorites to stop and look at in bloom. Here it is definitely a tree, not a shrub, and my compatriot(e) Natal has a nice picture above of her good-looking Vitex. See my pics for interesting use on commercial property, similar to the way crepe myrtle is used here in both residential and commercial landscaping. Pretty! Click "Next" to see all 4 photos. Here is a link that might be useful: Vitex in bloom

Yes it's a beauty. I think with the ever growing selection of palms available people tend to get confused and plant something they've never heard of before and be disappointed with the result and effect. A good form of P. Sylvestris is a gorgeous thing. It's well worth taking the time to select for the characteristics that make it so lovely. A little grove of intense silvery blue Sylvestris is more evocative of place and more effective than hundreds of mixed species no matter how rare. If you are lucky and can afford, choose trunking specimens. You will immiedetly see there are differences in leaf arrangement colour and outline, so you may have to select from various growers. In younger palms this is also apparent, don't think something will turn powder blue or silver as it matures it won't, generaly what you see is what it will be with these. The only difference is with seedlings they all tend to be dark green but by the time there are at least ten to twelve leaves on a juvenile the colour is apparent so that's the size to do your selecting if going for little ones. Choose leaflets that are broad and short and have a plumose arrangement on the mid rib. Thin long narrow leaflets don't look so attractive on a mature palm even if a nice silver colour. The leaflet attachment to the mid rib should however be narrow or you are looking at a possible hybrid with a date palm. This will mean a slower growing fatter and less attractive palm, also avoid anything with fat leaf bases, Sylvestris bases are flat, strap like. The nice thing about them is it's never too late to plant one as they look just as lovely as a small fecund fountain of leaves as they do as mature adults. They have many leaves making a very nice full head. If you have small dogs and children it might be wise to choose your planting site carefully as they have quite sharp thorns. The other fantastic thing about them is that unlike most Phoenix they are very happy in high humidity and retain their colour just as well as a dry climate if not even better. So if you are in the tropics it will still thrive and look good. In fact they positively explode with regular watering and feeding, in cooler weather or during your dry season keep on the dry side to give them a rest, this encourages a deeper root system. Think of each leaf as a food storage organ, the more the stronger it will be, so only cut off when the leaf is completely dead and when doing so don't cut into any living white tissue because the sap could attract boring insects. P. lourii is a lovely Palm too. However most people tend to think because it's a Phoenix it thrives in dry arid climates and icy wet winters. However this is not so. It thrives in seasonally very high humid summer rainfall areas where it's much faster growing and more rewarding, it prefers a dry cool winter. Definitely more sub-tropical than tropical but not an arid wet winter species at all. Most you see depicted on the net and growing in parks and botanical gardens are hybrids including palmpedia. The trunk is always narrow and delicate looking only slightly thicker (and much taller) than a P. Roebelenii and smooth, the long bright green leaves with leaflets on a single plain make a lovely full head and have a characteristic arching twist to them. Happy hunting.

Jacqueline is right about our conditions, Braverichard... we have just hot hot hot summers... I have a necklace and at 110 degrees I feel it starts burning my skin when I'm outside for a long time... That was my concern about picking climbers as they will be against the wall (at least this is the look that I want to have) and everything in our yard radiates reflected heat... especially walls... for some amazing reason only Julia Child's flowers stay fresh for a long time... others by her side just get fried in a day... So I started pinching flowers away to give them the relief... Why I picked some Kordes (I saw wonderful pics of Quick Silver, Crimson Glory, Rosarium Uetersen), I read in different threads here from Chris that some of them are kind of heat tolerant... I checked Ludwig's of course... they have some amazing pictures of climbers... Wedding Garland, Leaping Salmon, High Hopes... but can't find enough of info about them... I would like to avoid leggy look of the climber... even though I can fix it with perennials I guess...And yes, SoFL Rose, I was admiring Colette here on the forum too... Such a beauty... Mcnastarana, as the beginner at growing roses and growing roses in AZ I just picked roses that are mostly common here on the forum and I read about them here or there... But I will consider your options... Liked the yellow Merechal Neil...

James, the aesthetics are totally your call. These are great trees and yours has attained some size. If it were me, I would want to see how attractive/unattractive it was once the leaves drop, as a major reason for having these is that incredible bark in winter. I have also learned (the hard way) that it is much easier to prevent these kinds of accidents than try to deal with them once they happen, which means judicious pruning when young. That split trunk, well...it split. Talk to someone who has experienced this with a Parkinsonia, or a local arborist. Also, as you drive around, look at the trunks of other pv's and note how they heal over. If you learn anything of note, I'd love to hear about it, as I'm kind of flying blind with these trees here. Not many people around me have them, although I can't think why not.