Visit to Darold Petty's garden and Chamaerops dig

[Jdiaz31089]

This weekend I made a flash visit to Darold Petty's place in San Francisco. It was a pleasure to meet him and get to experience his garden. Yes - the garden tour is quite the experience. Not only are there palms in various stages of maturity at every turn - you're surprised by a dangling lapageria flower here! a bomarea there! another lapageria above your head, deppea splendens blooms dangling like little jewels among the palms! An exotic aroid staring you in the face when you turn! Yellow clivia in bloom! Darold's carved tiki (and palmtalk profile avatar) appearing from behind a howea frond! It's like visiting a well-curated conservatory or botanical garden. Darold's attention to detail does not go un-noticed. There seems to be rhyme and reason to every plant and non-plant item in his garden and house. 

From the balcony, looking toward the ocean a few hundred yards away, you see three palms which can arguably only be grown to perfection in Darold's climate (in the US) - rhopalostylis sapida x bauerii, Howea forsteriana, & ceroxylon vogelianum (or perhaps another ceroxylon, I can't quite remember. There were several species in his garden)

Darold was very generous with his time, and alas, I was there to take a large Chamaerops humilis v. argentea he was parting with, so that's where most of my time was spent. When I arrived, Darold had already dug the palm and was just waiting for me to load it up. He's clearly experienced in moving palms - I would have been overwhelmed with the task. 

 

 

 

 

[Jdiaz31089]

The after shot - more space for palms!

After some creative maneuvering, this beauty was all bundled up and ready for the 190 mile drive back to Fresno. (We fit this into a VW jetta! NICE!)

And this morning I was up before daylight to get this beauty situated into its new home. 

 

Edited October 23, 2017 by Jdiaz31089

[Jdiaz31089]

There... Fronds untied and stretching as if awakening from a long nap. "Wait, where am I?" 

[Jdiaz31089]

Isn't it beautiful? 

[PalmatierMeg]

It is gorgeous! So is your house & garden. The view from Darold's balcony is one of a kind for me. Kudos to both of you.

[Darold Petty]

Thanks for the kind remarks, I'm glad the palm is in a more suitable place.  Josh, your front garden is really nice !

The balcony photo far palm is Ceroxylon quindiuense, with about  8 meters (25 feet) of trunk. 

[Jdiaz31089]

1 hour ago, PalmatierMeg said:

It is gorgeous! So is your house & garden. The view from Darold's balcony is one of a kind for me. Kudos to both of you.

 

44 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

Thanks for the kind remarks, I'm glad the palm is in a more suitable place.  Josh, your front garden is really nice !

The balcony photo far palm is Ceroxylon quindiuense, with about  8 meters (25 feet) of trunk. 

Thanks for the compliments :)

[Neil C]

That is a stunning Chamaerops and looks to be in a perfect spot. Palmtalkers are a generous bunch!

Regards Neil

[Shon]

Nice yard! Would never guess that it's in Fresno. 

[Silas_Sancona]

 .." ( We fit this into a VW Jetta, Nice!)"  .. Yep, def amazing what can "fit" into a small/er car in a pinch..

 Great gifts and purchases are always worth the " limited " view in the rear view window, lol   

Yard looks great btw.. How are your Kopsia seedlings doing??

Edited October 24, 2017 by Silas_Sancona

[Phoenikakias]

Can't see any ocean in the first picture! So you did not have to dig around the Chamaerops, only to lift it up. This has been imo more generous than the donation of the plant itself! Don't see a big root ball, maybe you should remove most of the old leaves?

[Jdiaz31089]

Thank you @Shon. We have been known to have pretty bad freezes every decade or so, but plants are resilient. You'd be surprised what some people grow out here. 

@Silas_Sancona lol I know about fitting large palms in that car all too well

The kopsia are slow, but they're growing. I'll be putting them in a greenhouse this winter and hope they speed up. 

 

Here's a full view of the front yard. It'll become crowded with time, but i guess I'll sort things out as needed. The big phoenix is in my neighbor's yard. The main feature palms on our side are phoenix rupicola, Phoenix reclinata (x2), brahea super silver, jubaeopsis, beccariophoenix alfredii and now chamaerops. There is a Bismark in there also which I'm unsure of how long it'll live here, and dypsis decipiens, but those are small and you can't really see them from this far in the picture. I've got some dwarf brahea in the mix - pimo and moorei.

 

[Jdiaz31089]

11 minutes ago, Phoenikakias said:

Can't see any ocean in the first picture! So you did not have to dig around the Chamaerops, only to lift it up. This has been imo more generous than the donation of the plant itself! Don't see a big root ball, maybe you should remove most of the old leaves?

yes, the picture was taken facing west as the sun was low on the horizon, so the lighting washed out the background. I took the photo with my phone too, so the quality isn't great. 

Could you believe Darold did most of the lifting also?

Darold dug the palm with a large rootball. The soil is almost purely sand though, so a good amount of it fell off as the palm was moved around. the actual roots were in tact. I watered it thoroughly today and will monitor it closely so see if there are any ill effects from the move.

[Phoenikakias]

Your Jubaeosis look quite good. How long has it been in this spot? About the Chamaerops it has just came in to my mind that a couple of decades ago I have separated from a potted specimen an old offshoot by sawing through the entire root ball, meaning that the offshoot was equiped by a root ball with some soil on it. Nevertheless the transplant shock had been considerable.

[Phoenikakias]

7 minutes ago, Jdiaz31089 said:

 

Could you believe Darold did most of the lifting also?

 

He is a SUPER Darold!!!!!!!!!!

[Jdiaz31089]

@Phoenikakias the jubaeopsis has been in the ground a little over a year i think - or just about. And i had it in a pot a few months before that. 

[Missi]

19 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

It is gorgeous! So is your house & garden. The view from Darold's balcony is one of a kind for me. Kudos to both of you.

I second what Meg said! 

[Missi]

5 hours ago, Jdiaz31089 said:

 

[Jdiaz31089]

@Phoenikakias Here is a closer shot of the jubaeopsis. If anyone has suggestions on how to avoid the browning on the tips of the leaflets, I'd love to hear it. I don't know if it's due to underwatering, or too much sun exposure, mineral deficiency? 

[Phoenikakias]

1 hour ago, Jdiaz31089 said:

@Phoenikakias Here is a closer shot of the jubaeopsis. If anyone has suggestions on how to avoid the browning on the tips of the leaflets, I'd love to hear it. I don't know if it's due to underwatering, or too much sun exposure, mineral deficiency? 

Might be underwatering ( I am not aware of the watering regime  in your garden during past summer), might be overwatering during your very rainy past winter, might be simply sun scorch  of a shade grown exemplary during the acclimatization to full sun, but the least probable is imo nutritional deficiency.

[Silas_Sancona]

On Tue Oct 24 2017 00:11:56 GMT-0700, Jdiaz31089 said:

Thank you @Shon. We have been known to have pretty bad freezes every decade or so, but plants are resilient. You'd be surprised what some people grow out here. 

@Silas_Sancona lol I know about fitting large palms in that car all too well

The kopsia are slow, but they're growing. I'll be putting them in a greenhouse this winter and hope they speed up. 

 

Here's a full view of the front yard. It'll become crowded with time, but i guess I'll sort things out as needed. The big phoenix is in my neighbor's yard. The main feature palms on our side are phoenix rupicola, Phoenix reclinata (x2), brahea super silver, jubaeopsis, beccariophoenix alfredii and now chamaerops. There is a Bismark in there also which I'm unsure of how long it'll live here, and dypsis decipiens, but those are small and you can't really see them from this far in the picture. I've got some dwarf brahea in the mix - pimo and moorei.

 

.. Agree,  in the greenhouse this winter is a good idea. The  K. arborea didn't move much, and went through a weird phase earlier on this summer, than went through a good growth spurt after the heat started to settle down. Biggest is probably ready for a 3 gal come spring. anyhow,,

Yard looks great. You'll get the flow settled out as things start growing and you see how it all starts coming together.

I'd think the Bismarck should do fine there in Fresno, esp as it gets going. I noticed you planted a Jatropha ( red flowers) also.. if you can get away with that,  and the Rangoon Creeper, the Bismarck should be a breeze.