Palms in Utah? Yes!

[Xerarch]

I know the issue of palms being in St. George Utah has been touched upon a few times on the forum but I was there in March and took some photos. Thought you might like to see how many there are in an area that few would expect. Sorry about the Brahea pic, didn't turn out so well, there are a few nice ones in town though.

[Xerarch]

The P. dacty's got hit pretty hard this year, I have been watching these ones for several years, they survived the '07 freeze and I expect that they will pull through this one. These trachy's are pretty tall and old, the crowns look like they are getting smaller with age.

[DoomsDave]

wHOA!

Very nice

[velutina]

I drive through St. George many times per year. The only palms I see much of are W. filifera, trachys, European fan palms, and W. robustas. The robustas get hit hard many winters. I have an uncle who lives there and he lost all his robustas a few years ago (2007 I believe). He also grows CIDP, butia, brahea and a few others but those are very rare from my observations.

[Xerarch]

I know of a handful of areas around town that have CIDP's, they got hit hard but I know of a number of them that survived the '07 freeze. The Butia and Brahea seemed to fare well this winter, of course the trachy's and med palms are ok, filiferas are ok as well as seen above.

The highs in St. George aren't much different than Vegas, well over 100 degress in July and 50 degrees in January. It's the lows that separate it, it does get colder at night which hurts the Phoenix and robustas that do better in Vegas. I'm not entirely sure why such a difference between the two. The west side of Las Vegas has elevations equal to or even higher than St. George, yet you see CIDP's like crazy, and St. George really isn't that much farther north. Maybe it's just the urban heat island in Vegas that really makes the difference.

[velutina]

You're right about the west side of town. You don't see the mature CIDPs and robustas there like you see on the east side though. The elevation at my house is 1800 ft, while the west side of town can get over 3000 ft. They get snow there when its rainy and 45 degrees at my house.

Las Vegas got mid 20s this winter. St. George got mid teens I believe.

[RyManUtah]

@Xerarch do you mind if I add some photos to bring this thread back to life? I live here. 

[Sabal Steve]

#Utah’sPalmyPotential

[Meangreen94z]

Yeah, feel free to post. The whole goal of this forum is to interact and share information. Only for sale threads I would ask for permission. St. George is heaven. You’re so close to Zion, Grand Canyon, etc. , I would move there if I could. Maybe one day.

Edited October 18, 2019 by Meangreen94z

[RyManUtah]

1 hour ago, Meangreen94z said:

Yeah, feel free to post. The whole goal of this forum is to interact and share information. Only for sale threads I would ask for permission. St. George is heaven. You’re so close to Zion, Grand Canyon, etc. , I would move there if I could. Maybe one day.

I agree, but I didn’t want to hijak hour thread. When i saw it, I thought it would be a good place to share random photos, instead of doing a new post like I have been. 

I love it. It took some drastic changes to get here, but it’s where I wanted to be. I’m also getting a new canvas to work with soon, as I had to get a bigger place. Exciting things to come. It gets really cold, but it doesn’t last very long. This year has been exceptionally hot and dry. Hasn’t rained for over 120 days. 

It does have everything. You have the Mojave, Great Basin and Colorado plateau. It’s my hiking paradise. 

[RyManUtah]

Very happy parking lot Brahea. 

[RyManUtah]

The cities Washingtonia farm. 

[RyManUtah]

Some tall stuff. The Phoenix are either tall (as recent plantings) or relatively small. Robustas are hit or miss as well. 

[RyManUtah]

City Park

[RyManUtah]

This ones too tall me me to tell what it is. I’m assuming filibusta. Trunk it about 1.5-2’ thick

[RyManUtah]

Filifera “weeds”

[RyManUtah]

Trachycarpus everywhere. They look better in the shade (personal preference) 

[RyManUtah]

( Deleted )

Edited October 18, 2019 by Ryagra
Palm was actually in Nevada

[RyManUtah]

Biggest canariensis of which I’m aware 

 

Edited October 18, 2019 by Ryagra
Wrong photo

[RyManUtah]

Some randoms I’ve enjoying seeing 

last one was during today’s wind storm. The crossed palms always look impressive to me when they’re blowing.

[RyManUtah]

Nice looking butia 

[RyManUtah]

More brahea. These are on my bucket list. 

[RyManUtah]

This one shocked me. Likely won’t last long. But I’m sure it’s enjoyed the summer! 

[branislav]

19 minutes ago, Ryagra said:

last one was during today’s wind storm. The crossed palms always look impressive to me when they’re blowing.

I wonder what In-n-Out does in places where even the Washies can't survive. Do they build some imitations for their classic crossed palms?

[RyManUtah]

Just now, branislav said:

I wonder what In-n-Out does in places where even the Washies can't survive. Do they build some imitations for their classic crossed palms?

Not a huge fan so I haven’t paid a lot of attention, but.. There are some in northern Utah that don’t have anything crossing. Just Rocky Mountain plants.  

[kinzyjr]

@Ryagra Thanks for sharing all of the photos.  Only about a month until I hit the Las Vegas strip for a bit.  Can hardly wait now.

[RyManUtah]

7 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

@Ryagra Thanks for sharing all of the photos.  Only about a month until I hit the Las Vegas strip for a bit.  Can hardly wait now.

Of course. 

I was just thinking about that when o went down there the other day. I’m excited for you as well! 

[bubba]

St. George is cool...

[Xerarch]

On 10/17/2019 at 7:27 PM, Ryagra said:

@Xerarch do you mind if I add some photos to bring this thread back to life? I live here. 

Hi Ryan, I’m a bit late getting back on here, but please post away! And I’m glad you went ahead anyway. 

[Xerarch]

On 10/17/2019 at 10:13 PM, Ryagra said:

Some tall stuff. The Phoenix are either tall (as recent plantings) or relatively small. Robustas are hit or miss as well. 

Wow where is that huge group of P dacty’s? I’ve seen a few here and there around town but never that many large ones together. 

[Xerarch]

On 10/17/2019 at 10:47 PM, Ryagra said:

This one shocked me. Likely won’t last long. But I’m sure it’s enjoyed the summer! 

Now that’s optimistic, you don’t even see those in Mesquite. You can use them as annuals in St. George lol. 

[Xerarch]

On 10/17/2019 at 10:23 PM, Ryagra said:

Biggest canariensis of which I’m aware 

 

Looks about as big as that one at the Hilton just west of where Bluff St. and I-15 meet. Maybe this one is slightly bigger, you would probably know better. 

[RyManUtah]

2 hours ago, Xerarch said:

Wow where is that huge group of P dacty’s? I’ve seen a few here and there around town but never that many large ones together. 

They’re brand new. parkway / desert color area. That whole area is exploding like crazy. They’ve got houses all along the border now 

[RyManUtah]

2 hours ago, Xerarch said:

Now that’s optimistic, you don’t even see those in Mesquite. You can use them as annuals in St. George lol. 

That’s what I was thinking. Quite a pretry annual 

[RyManUtah]

2 hours ago, Xerarch said:

Looks about as big as that one at the Hilton just west of where Bluff St. and I-15 meet. Maybe this one is slightly bigger, you would probably know better. 

It’s at Buick gmc, the two story warehouse looking one. The building is taller than it appears. 

[Meangreen94z]

What is the typical winter low for St. George? 19*F? What is the record low over the last 20 years?

[RyManUtah]

10 minutes ago, Meangreen94z said:

What is the typical winter low for St. George? 19*F? What is the record low over the last 20 years?

Last 20, I cannot answer. I have lived her less than a decade. The coldest I have seen is 7F, briefly. The record low ever is -11F.

Typically it dips into the mid teens, but not every year, putting it as a cold 8b. It gets very hot, similar to Las Vegas, without the urban heat at night. It warms up fast, however, and is rarely below freezing during the daytime. It is very sunny all winter. 

[Meangreen94z]

Interesting to see some of the above palms survive those temperatures. But I guess A) being dry and B)only briefly touching single digits, before rapidly warming up isn’t enough to kill them.

[RyManUtah]

31 minutes ago, Meangreen94z said:

Interesting to see some of the above palms survive those temperatures. But I guess A) being dry and B)only briefly touching single digits, before rapidly warming up isn’t enough to kill them.

Agreed. It is very, very dry. RH is usually below 20. It’s fhw radial cooling that does it. The city is in abowl and it can’t drain the cold air down the gorge fast enough sometimes I guess. 

Oddly enough it heats up the fastest the morning after if/when it snows. Solar Reflection? 

The Washingtonia bounce back really fast. The robustas burn every couple years pretty badly. The Phoenix really struggle. Most of the long terms were seed sown. I’m curious to see how the giant dactylifera do. They were installed at that size. They usually aren’t long term to adulthood 

[jfrye01@live.com]

On 10/17/2019 at 9:48 PM, branislav said:

I wonder what In-n-Out does in places where even the Washies can't survive. Do they build some imitations for their classic crossed palms?

In Dallas, they use S. Palmetto...I imagine they're cheaper to get there.