My Garden in Pyrgos...

[Kostas]

This photo was taken by a friend of ours,me on the left and another family friend on the right

I hope you liked it!

[Phoenikakias]

Dimitris and Kostas I admire your courage to try that many new spss in your area. But I must warn you that one day, it doesn't matter if this day will be in 2 or 12 or 20 years, you will experience an extraordinary cold spell, which will be lethal for many of your precious collection palms and cycads. As far as the snow is concerned my opinion is completely opposite to this of Kostas. I hold snow for a devastating factor simply because it makes the freeze or frost wet. You will realize what an enormous difference lies between wet and dry frost. Fortunately these lethal cold spells are very rare in southern Greece. That makes for us financially affordable to provide to our sensitive palms at these black days some artificial heating. Have you ever thought to use heating cables with a thermostat?

[Kostas]

Thank you for your comments Phoenikakias

I know that at some point my area can get a freak cold incidence and that it can go down to -3,6C(which is the record cold documented so far) at the coldest point of the night,just before sunrise. I also know that many of my palms stand a good chance of dying at that temperature and at best will probably be defoliated. However,i hope and wish that the size my palms will have by then,especially my marginal but fast growing species,will be enough to make them survive that record cold with just some leaf damage. Also,as they grow taller,they get higher than the frost zone and that should also help a lot after a certain height. Of course,all this is just guesses taking into account as well the massive canopy my garden must have 15-20years down the road. And as its proven many times,canopy does miracles at keeping cold and death away!

As for my cycads,i am totally certain none of my cycads stand any chance of dying from our record cold temperatures in Pyrgos. At worst,a few of my tropical Zamia may be defoliated,none will die though as they have seen such temperatures in Melissia undamaged!

I can understand your fear of snow because of your awful experience with it one of the worst winter we have had,which cause you to lose some very precious and loved palms However,me living in Melissia,where i get snow,freezes and cold annually,i must say that snow is my friend in a freeze. At the same minimum temperatures,when it has snowed and my small palms have a good cover of it on them,i get no damage while without it,i get damage. Snow,in generous quantities like we get here,acts as insulation and is good. I can agree that snow can be more damaging than just temperature when its very little and a freeze follows as it adds ice on the foliage and results in burn. You surely got marginal snow cover there that bad winter and that added extra damage to the low temperatures. It may have been the deciding factor for severe damage or death to some of your palms. As i said before though,snow,in generous quantities,would have surely helped your palms not experience your ultimate lows.

As for Pyrgos, it only snows about once every 20years and so little that it doesnt even comes close to forming any kind of ground cover. It melts as soon as it touches the ground and the weather usually changes to rain afterwards so no sign of it remains. Still,this does make for a wet freeze afterwards,if it freezes that night. As for wet and dry freezes,the wet are more damaging than the dry indeed but still,the palm needs to be sensitive to the min temperature of the freeze or a little less,for damage to occur,and the palm need to be exposed,under the open sky,for damage to occur. Pyrgos is a wet region in winter,with lots and lots of rain and water everywhere! And even though it certainly doesnt rain every day of the winter,dew falls on most if not all nights and gets everything wet from early in the night. So,realistically,most of the freezes in Pyrgos are wet freezes and the pattern of a wet freeze can be seen on exposed,tender plants in freak frost events. So,most of my experience in Pyrgos is with wet freezes but i do have seen some dry ones too there. I am not happy to have any freeze but wet freezes are indeed more damaging if the plant is not under canopy. I dont think it plays any role at all under canopy though as frost never forms there...

About heating cables,yes,i do have thought on using them and plan to do use them in the soil and on the trunk of a few extremely marginal plantings i plan on doing at some point. But that will only be 2-3 plants at most and i dont plan to use them elsewhere. I prefer to grow by the nature and try to intervene the least. If i lived in Pyrgos though and if i ever go to live there permanently,or if i catch a bad freeze while i am there,i plan on using 2-3 propane space heaters for the night,set in places where my most sensitive and loved plants are,to keep temperatures above the damage point for those plants on that record cold night only. My garden is in flat landscape so the heat from the space heaters should be able to keep the whole garden warmer and the min temperature safe for my plants. But that will only happen if the record cold night finds me vacating in Pyrgos or if i move and live there permanently,both of which are unknown factors for the time being...For now,and probably all their lives,they are at natures and Gods Mercy....

May we enjoy many decades free from record cold temperatures and may we design our gardens in the meantime in a way that will allow our plants to flourish for centuries to come!

[dimitris]

Dimitris and Kostas I admire your courage to try that many new spss in your area. But I must warn you that one day, it doesn't matter if this day will be in 2 or 12 or 20 years, you will experience an extraordinary cold spell, which will be lethal for many of your precious collection palms and cycads. As far as the snow is concerned my opinion is completely opposite to this of Kostas. I hold snow for a devastating factor simply because it makes the freeze or frost wet. You will realize what an enormous difference lies between wet and dry frost. Fortunately these lethal cold spells are very rare in southern Greece. That makes for us financially affordable to provide to our sensitive palms at these black days some artificial heating. Have you ever thought to use heating cables with a thermostat?

Thanks a lot about the warning ! The past years the only thing i was concern was the freezing temperatures , thats why before choose the palms i am going to plant in my garden i spent hours , days and months trying to find informations about hardiness and then confirm them somehow , now i have the RP weevil worrying about . At least five of my palms have been attacked by the weevil and none of them was Phoenix canariensis . Thankfully i noticed in time the infection and take care of it . But the danger is in the air and my garden is like buffet for those in my area . As for the previous all of mine large specimen can handle quite more low temperatures and frost that we get ! If you noticed i have a lot of Wasingtonias , Butias , Brahea , Chamaerops , Phoenix , the more tropical looking Syagrus , and many Trachycarpus the most of them are 3 years old so they aren 't visible in the pictures i posted . The past spring i planted one Bismarckia nobilis and one Archontophoenix probably cunninghamiana in my garden because the first needed root trimming to being kept to its pot and the archonto got tall enough that didn't fit anymore to my greenhouse .

I am easily get excited when i see a new palm or cycad and the most times i usually buy it even if i know its going never thrive in my garden so i keep it as potted plant bring it out when gets warmer . Some of my palms just don't grow in their pots so i am going to plant them in the ground , and some others are getting to big and heavy for bring them indoors and if they are going to stay out its better to be ground planted . For the first years of their lives and as long their height allows to me , i can give them some protection . I am sorry about you having as Kostas said a very bad experience but if you don't try you 'll never succeed !

I am not a great believer about hardiness zones , our climate is changing and this is our fault , environmental pollution , global warming , ice meltdown , deforestation , fires etc. We can see the changes now , two seasons , hotter summers and colder winters , extreme weather events. I hope things get better for us and our planet .

By the way , i would like to tell me some more information about the system with heating cables and the thermostat , sales points , energy consumption and some price .

regards .

[Kostas]

Rhynchophorus ferrugineus and Paysadisia archon,both of which are present in our area,dont attack P. canariensis only,they can practically attack any palm and they do it,especially as they are running out of the delicious P. canariensis. I use Biorend R + insect pathogenic nematodes(Steinernema carpocapsae) distributed in Greece by Bio-Insecta,and i have no problems with them at all as long as i apply them once a month. If its summer and i am half a month late for my application,i see holes in the emerging spear of my Trachycarpus...As soon as i apply it,the damage stops and no more holes are seen This product is totally safe for everything,plants,pets and us humans and we can practically drink it without any side effects other than thirst induced by the natural polymer Chitosan the liquid contains

About zones,they do are useful in comparing results from 2 different areas but alone,surely,they arent of too great value. Its always good to know the record lows of an area and what survived the last record lows seen....I think that with size and a good amount of thick canopy,zone 10a plants should be able to make it through the record lows of our area,simply because they wont be exposed to them in that microclimate and because they will have the energy reserves to survive a defoliation that may be caused.

Our area always had the 20year record lows it has so i am considering whatever weather happens as pretty normal variation,given that official observation are not available for many years back and thus its impossible to tell that something had not happened before. I surely do hope somehow the deforestation,forest fires and pollution stops though

What Phoenikakias is talking about is simply heating cables connected to a thermostat and operating when temperatures reach 0C or close to that. The running cost is negligible as it operates for brief amounts of time,keeping the temperature above a set point. These cables can be buried in the ground near the base and at the immediate root zone of a tender plant and also,another set of heating cables can be wrapped around the trunk and growing point of plant and then covered with fabric. This offers complete protection to the vital parts of a plant and allows it to live through a cold a few to many degrees lower than it would tolerate otherwise. The leafs are lost if the temperature falls below what they can withstand but the palm has good chances of recovering. It is a good solution for a few,extremely tender species so that you can enjoy them outside but its a lot of work,twice annually, if you want to do your whole garden.

Heating cables are pretty hard to find in Greece unfortunately,few greenhouse suppliers have them and these are hard to find too. I bought mine many years ago from a company in Thessaloniki but cant remember the supplier at all...They are not too pricy but not to cheap either,thats all i can remember about their price.

[Kostas]

I thought i would do an update on my garden

I kept going to Pyrgos every month since my last update but for various reasons(kept forgetting the camera in Melissia,being a little pissed about the winter damage i had on a few precious palms of mine,lots of garden work to do,etc),i didnt manage to get any photos till last time i was there,about a month ago. My mother took these photos as i was busy working in the garden full time,attaching epiphytes on the trees and planting palms,cycads and yet another banana! Here are the pictures my mother took last time!

Washingtonia robusta(Sonora),Howea fosteriana,newly rock mounted Alcantarea imperialis(Dark Form) and Trachycarpus fortunei

Callistemon laevis,Strelitzia reginae and Ananas comosus ''MD-2''

[Kostas]

Syagrus romanzoffiana,once more passing the winter tied to stakes/tree as it was slightly wobbly after the first winter rains and feared it would lean again like last year if left without support...Its showing Boron deficiency once more on the emerging leaf as well,even after fertilizing it during winter. I added more fertilizer and hopefully the next leaf will be ok again. Next to it,you can see a Howea fosteriana with leaf burn from summer's heat plus sun as well as from the unusual cold of last winter(-2,5C). Once the Syagrus grows and spreads its canopy above the Howea fosteriana's,burns of all kind should be history! I really look forward to it!!!!

Howea fosteriana with some burned leafs,most from August's heat coupled with scorching sun plus a little damage from the unusual winter cold of -2,5C we had. The winter damage was not much though,even with such a low!

Archontophoenix alexandrae. This one just got slight damage at the most exposed part of the leafs facing away from the roof. It retained all its leafs through the unusually cold winter and continued to look in excellent shape! It got some longitudinal splits on its trunk though in the spring from very fast trunk expanding. Dont know why but its definitely not cold damage and its not my fault as i didnt water it more than normal or changed anything of its culture. I think this is a result of it reaching more sun and wanting to expand its trunk caliper to strengthen it and support the bigger,sun leafs.

[Kostas]

Magnolia grandiflora

My other Archontophoenix alexandrae,growing below the open sky but still next to Magnolia grandiflora,got lots of leaf damage but still,less than last year,which was a very pleasant surprise! Its really funny how the -0,1C suddenly after a month of 25C,was more damaging than -2,5C late in the winter,after days of cool temperatures and lots of rains! I am happy for that and that leaf damage was only partial on all its leafs and no leaf got total leaflet burn,all leafs retained the non-horizontial portions of their leaflets as well as the more protected lower leaflets and all leaf rachis were undamaged too. The spear got a little tip damage and that was all. It opened fast when spring came and now has 2 new leafs already and an emerging spear! No set back from the winter cold of -2,5C! Woohooo!!!!

[Kostas]

Chamaedorea tepejilote(Blanco) unfazed from the -2,5C of last winter!

Castanospermum australe and newly rock mounted Alcantarea imperialis(Rubra)

Ceroxylon amazonicum

[Kostas]

Olea europea with epiphytes growing on it!

Aechmea fulgens var. discolor(waiting for it to flower to confirm its ID)

Newly mounted Canistrum seidelianum and Stanhopea tigrina

[Kostas]

Neoregelia concentrica(waiting for it to flower to confirm its ID)

Cattleya maxima(Highland Form),Hohenbergia correia-araujoi,Epidendrum parkinsonianum(now flowering for the first time in my garden,my first orchid to flower in my garden!!!!!! Looks great and is nicely scented too) and Sedirea japonica(one of them is in bud!)

[Kostas]

Ziziphus sp. with epiphytes! You can clearly see the Hohenbergia correia-araujoi growing on it but there are many more!

Newly planted Musa ''Pisang Ceylon''

A view behind the old bakery building...

[Kostas]

Musa ''Orinoco''

Straight trunked Dicksonia antarctica growing new leafs!

Grevillea robusta and leaning Dicksonia antarctica growing underneath!

[Kostas]

Musa ''Kandrian''. I look forward to seeing this one grow even bigger and hopefully flower either towards the end of this summer or late spring/early summer next year

These are all the pictures i have from the last time. I will be going to Pyrgos again this weekend and hope to mount and plant some more plants and maybe a palm too!

I hope you liked it!!!

[Phoenikakias]

Have you used heating cables? What about the new caledonian spss and the cycads?

[Kostas]

Hi Phoenikakias!

No,i havent used heating cables nor did i protected any of my plants in any manner other than selecting better microclimates for my more tender plants. All new Caledonian species i am growing(Chambeyronia macrocarpa,Kentiopsis magnifica)came through winter completely undamaged Some of my Cycas multipinnata defoliated but the majority came through undamaged too. Some Cycas micronesica,Zamia standleyi and my Encephalartos concinnus had partial leaf burn but they were in exposed locations. I lost one of my seedling E. concinnus to rot unfortunately as we got 450mm of rain in a single month in February and i had it planted in a winter shade area My other one seems to be fine though. My Zamia hamannii also got crown rot but at least till last time i saw it,does have chances of survival as the caudex hadnt rotted,only the growing point. I had no more cycad casualties from rot thankfully despite the heavy rains that were enough to flood my neighbor's yard with 30-50cm of water for a good few days I have found cold not to be much of a problem for cycads,even very tropical species.

[Phoenikakias]

It was a snowless frost fortunately. Hope I will be able to collect seeds from your rare palms in the future

[Kostas]

Producing seeds from my palms and plants would sure be nice! I also look forward to it!

Its been quite some time from my last update so its time for one! I will start with pictures taken on June 26th and then proceed to the newest ones taken last week!

Here they are!

Coning male Cycas revoluta

[Kostas]

Washingtonia robusta(Sonora)...

...along with Howea fosteriana

Alcantarea imperialis

Trachycarpus fortunei

[Kostas]

Bismarckia nobilis(Silver) recovering from falling over and leaf shredding from strong winds coupled with heavy rain on February

[Kostas]

Washingtonia robusta(Sonora)

Encephalartos concinnus

Cycas micronesica(Rota)

Ceroxylon amazonicum

[Kostas]

Musa ''Kandrian''. The biggest pup on the left was removed shortly after the photo and given to my Uncle as it wouldnt fit once mature where it was growing...

Lepidozamia hopei

Straight trunked Dicksonia antarctica

[Kostas]

Ceroxylon amazonicum

Newly planted Musa ''Brazilian Tall''. Its soil was bone dry and probably has been that way for a good week or more so its rugged appearance is in fact really good for what it went through!

Syagrus romanzoffiana

Musa ''Orinoco''

[Kostas]

Musa ''Pisang Ceylon''

Howea fosteriana still acclimating...

Potted Howea fosteriana having frequent problems with clogged dripper...

Potted Allocasia odora,Xanthosoma violaceum,Mollineria capitulata and Howea fosteriana,all waiting to be planted!

[Kostas]

Another Howea fosteriana acclimating...

Chamaedorea tepejilote(Blanco) and Ceratozamia miqueliana

Cycas multipinnata and potted Allocasia odora

Chambeyronia macrocarpa(Hookeri)

[Kostas]

Monstera deliciosa with Lepidozamia hopei in front

Stanhopea tigrina and Prosthechea cochleata

Epiphyllum oxypetalum,Stanhopea tigrina,Canistrum seidelianum,Aechmea fulgens var. discolor and Sedirea japonica

Nidullarium innocentii and Stanhopea tigrina

[Kostas]

Sedirea japonica

My Olea europea with the epiphytes...Many species visible!

Epidendrum parkinsonianum,Cattleya maxima(Highland Form) and Hohenbergia correia-araujoi

Neoregelia concentrica

[Kostas]

Alcantarea imperialis

Cyathea medullaris

Dioon spinulossum flushing!

[Kostas]

Allocasia odora

Archontophoenix alexandrae

Female Cycas revoluta coning!

[Kostas]

Callistemon laevis,Syagrus romanzoffiana and Howea fosteriana

Howea fosteriana

Archontophoenix alexandrae

[Kostas]

My Aechmea fulgens var. discolor flowered a month latter,at the end of July and proved to be the pure species!!!! That is quite rare as hybrids have mostly replaced this species from cultivation. I hope i find it an unrelated specimen of the same species so that some pure seeds can be produced!

[Kostas]

And now the photos from last week!

View from the veranda...

[Kostas]

[Kostas]

[Kostas]

Washingtonia robusta(Sonora) and Trachycarpus fortunei

Howea fosteriana

Alcantarea imperialis and Livistona mariae

[Kostas]

Cryosophila warcewiczii

Dypsis lasteliana

[Kostas]

Chambeyronia macrocarpa(Hookeri)

Washingtonia robusta(Sonora)

Encephalartos concinnus

Stangeria eriopus(Forest Form)

[Kostas]

Roystonea elata 1month in the ground!

Cycas micronesica(Rota)

Another Cycas micronesica(Rota) flushing. The previous flushes kept getting destroyed and thus i fenced it!

[Phoenikakias]

It is clear from your pics that apart from some exceptions your palms have suffered a lot this year. Too cold in past winter and too hot in past summer. At least you had not had any losses. Lets hope that this winter will be a mild one. The first romazoffiana looks like a mess, any explanation?

[Kostas]

My palms havent suffered too much in general but its true that due to having many acclimating palms,my garden didnt look too good at that point and still isnt perfect as there are still palms that need to outgrow their sun burned leafs and also shade loving plants that are still waiting for their shade trees to grow and thus are always sun burned in the meantime or have unsightly shade cloth over them. Not much i can do but wait for their shade trees to grow. The advantage to doing that though, is that in the meantime,the shade loving plants grow too and far faster than in the shade and the eventual result will be good sized shade plants from day 1 once their shade trees grow and the area is shaded.

The damaged ones you see mainly are sun burned acclimating ones and very few are from cold damage. Only the tattering on my Archontophoenix,a single damaged Ceroxylon and a small part of the Howea fosteriana damage are cold damage in the photos you see,the rest are sun burn of acclimating palms! As will be seen in the photos i am posting,most of my plants have done excellently this summer with the exception of a single loss from bud rot,a Ceroxylon amazonicum in too much sun which probably weakened it coupled with the hot summer we had this year in Pyrgos(hottest summer of the last 5 years).

The Syagrus romanzoffiana you refer to was planted last fall,didnt do much till summer and lost the leafs it had when i got it to sun burn and clogged drippers. I cleaned the drippers cleaned once i noticed it in mid summer and now its really starting to look good again and grow fast! Pictures of it will follow!

I sure wish for a mild winter as i always do!!! Hope we get what we wish for!

Continuing with the photo update,here is my Musa ''Kandrian''!