Cold hardy palms

[Kailua_Krish]

Trachycarpus fortunei are ubiquitous and look WAY better here than they do in Gainesville; they really do seem to prefer a colder climate. Very full, dark green foliage, with no yellowing unless they're overpruned. I think it helps that the Atlanta climate and clay soils are very similar to their native Asian habitat. Also, most of the city is around 1000' in elevation, so we get cool nights, even in the heat of summer.

Some of the other more tropical trachy species look really nice though in the Ocala area (probably in the Gainesville area too, but I haven't seen any there. It would be nice if Kanapaha did more to promote these species in place of fortunei. The name of the species escapes me now but there is one I have that is more of a lighter green in color and has grown very fast with no yellowing or freeze damage. T. princeps has also done well for me but is pretty slow. Hopefully in the future these will take off as an attractive replacement for fortunei where they don't thrive!

-Krishna

[stevethegator]

Very true! Trachycarpus is a fairly widely distrubuted genus, there have to other species that would be much better for Florida than fortunei

I think soil composition is a major factor as well, I saw some fortuneis in Tallahasse that looked pretty decent, and that area has pockets of clay soils similar to what we have in Atlanta