Fallbrook CA Garden Update

[Hilo Jason]

As many of you know, 2 years ago I moved from Fallbrook, CA to Hilo, HI.  We still own the Fallbrook home but it is currently a rental.  I was recently in California and had the chance to stop by the garden and I took a few photos.  I'll post them below.  We will be selling this home in the near future, so if anyone here knows of anyone looking for a Palm House in Fallbrook, let me know!  

Bismarckia is getting big.  My daughter is back there in the shadows to show scale. 

Pritchardia with a Dypsis Decipiens on the left.

 

Dypsis Decipiens (Double)

Roystonea Regia that will soon be chopped by the power company.  Oh well, not sure why I planted it there, hah!!!  Although it wont actually touch the wires, but the power company likes to cut anything that gets close. 

[Hilo Jason]

Teddy Bear Triangle Hybrid - Dypsis Leptocheillos x Decary

Looking up, it's now setting seed, but most likely not viable unless it's crossing with something else which I guess could be possible?  

Veitchia Spiralis, Grown well up over the roof now but still in the Jacaranda canopy. 

[Hilo Jason]

I wish I could get my Clinostigma Savoryanum here in Hilo to look as good as this Fallbrook one!!  I'm confident this palm never realized it was in California! 

Dypsis Leptocheillos getting tall! 

Kentiopsis Oliviformis getting tall too.  Another Veitchia Spiralis and then Dypsis Leptocheillos behind that.  Three palms planted too close together since they all ended up growing at about the same speed.

 

[Hilo Jason]

Butia x Syagarus - Mule Palm: 

Bought this as Dypsis Sp Mayotte, but might just be a solitary Pembana.  Now up into the canopy and hard to see:

Archontophoenix Alexandrae double on left, Dypsis Madagascariensis on right.   Hard to take pictures in this part of the yard.  Too many palms!! 

Another Kentiopsis Oliviformis, there are several in the yard, all are now about this size or larger.  Such a perfect palm for Southern California.  

[Hilo Jason]

Jungle shots:

This Archontophoenix Tuckerii thinks its a Roystonea! 

[Hilo Jason]

Dypsis Pembana now over the second story roof.  I like how it curved up to make it into the light. 

Rhopalostylis Baurei:

Rhopalostylis Sapida (now flowering)

Howea Belmoreana, planted way too close to other palms!  This is another example where all the nearby palms ended up growing at similar speeds.  

 

[Tropicdoc]

[Hilo Jason]

Backyard Jungle as seen from the roof of the detached garage (there's a bridge that takes you to this area).   Crazy to think that this used to be a full sun area and I had to put up shade cloth to get a lot of these palms started! 

another angle of a Dypsis Madagascariensis:

 

[Hilo Jason]

This was probably my favorite spot in the garden, nice to see it all looking good.   Dypsis Leptocheillos (2), Chambeyronia Macrocarpa and Archontophoenix Purpuraea

Pseudophoenix Sargentii:

Beccariophoenix Madagascariensis getting big and doing a good job looking like Coconuts! 

Another one:

 

 

[Hilo Jason]

And saving the best for last, two Foxy Ladies (the palm and my wife) and the one and only California grown Attalea Geraensis (or so the tag said).  Too big to photograph, but you get the idea.  I'd say the leaves must be about 25 feet tall now.  

Talk about 2 palms that should not have been planted next to each other!  But little did I know 10 years ago that the Attalea would survive and not only that, but thrive.  Makes for a cool jungle vibe, just not good for getting pictures! 

Thanks for looking!  

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Hilo Jason said:

Pseudophoenix Sargentii:

The ring spacing on yours is very impressive for California!  I have a slightly different form of this species (navassana) but it's showing nowhere near that type of ring spacing.  I would guess mine shows about half that spacing at best.  They probably appreciate the Fallbrook heat better than what mine gets in my yard.

[The Gerg]

2 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

 

This was probably my favorite spot in the garden, nice to see it all looking good.   Dypsis Leptocheillos (2), Chambeyronia Macrocarpa and Archontophoenix Purpuraea

 

 

I have to tell you, I have seen pictures of your Fallbrook garden online before and your Chambeyronia Macrocarpa side by side with the Archontopheonix pupurea motivated me to do the same. I loved the green crown shaft of the chambeyronia next to the purplish crown shaft of the purpurea. That worked out well in my opinion. Some day I hope it works out as well for me.

Although you have started a new palm garden in the ultimate location..............., it must be a little sad to think about selling your house and leaving this one behind. Hopefully your palm collection survives the future homeowner. 

Greg

[Hilo Jason]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

The ring spacing on yours is very impressive for California!  I have a slightly different form of this species (navassana) but it's showing nowhere near that type of ring spacing.  I would guess mine shows about half that spacing at best.  They probably appreciate the Fallbrook heat better than what mine gets in my yard.

I’ve thought the same thing about this. From what I recall, even in Florida the spacing is usually much tighter. And this is in full blazing sun so I would think it would be tighter?  I had other pseudophoenix Sargentii and none of them ever had this kind of spacing. So yeah, not sure about what that’s means. 

[Hilo Jason]

12 minutes ago, The Gerg said:

I have to tell you, I have seen pictures of your Fallbrook garden online before and your Chambeyronia Macrocarpa side by side with the Archontopheonix pupurea motivated me to do the same. I loved the green crown shaft of the chambeyronia next to the purplish crown shaft of the purpurea. That worked out well in my opinion. Some day I hope it works out as well for me.

Although you have started a new palm garden in the ultimate location..............., it must be a little sad to think about selling your house and leaving this one behind. Hopefully your palm collection survives the future homeowner. 

Greg

Sweet, glad photos of my palms provided some inspiration for your plantings!  

You are very correct about my feelings towards selling that house / garden. We’ve had great tenants for the past 2 years and they’ve really loved the garden. But they will be moving out and we just don’t feel like having a rental anymore and would prefer to sell it. I have to get myself to the point where I am ok with letting go of it completely. Part of that will be a relief though as I am very ready to focus all of my time and mental energy on living in Hawaii and working on my garden here.  

I’m eager for my Hilo garden to get mature but that will happen quickly here! 

[Rickybobby]

Just amazing Jason!

[Palm Tree Jim]

Jason,

It must be very comforting to know that the garden has done so well since you moved. 

And I can not believe how much your daughter has grown!

Hope all is well my friend.

[OverGrown]

Amazing growth.  Nicely done Jason! 

[Hilo Jason]

6 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Jason,

It must be very comforting to know that the garden has done so well since you moved. 

And I can not believe how much your daughter has grown!

Hope all is well my friend.

Hey Jim,

Overall I have been very happy with how the garden has done in my absence. I control the sprinklers from my phone so I know that has helped a lot. Some plants died but mostly small stuff and that was expected. And yeah, kids grow faster than palms at this age!!  

 

[Hilo Jason]

55 minutes ago, OverGrown said:

Amazing growth.  Nicely done Jason! 

Thanks! 

[ChrisJordanDDS]

Beautiful garden!  When did you start planting?  I'm curious as to how old some of those specimens are now.

[Chris Chance]

Great to see your Fallbrook garden looking so good! I remember the first time I showed up there and you had shade structures everywhere and now it's completely different. I see the Kentiopsis we moved years ago is getting trunk. The mule is massive! I have one I think will look the same some day and now I'm realizing it might shade a big area of the garden in the future. Sad to see that house sold off. Got some great memories over the last 10 years or so visiting it and hope my garden can look half as good. 

[James B]

That Clinostigma is amazing! What were your winter lows like? I know fallbrook can get over 110 in summer like me here. I want to plant one once my canopy gets a bit bigger. Just curious what kind of lows it can handle. In 5 years haven’t been below 30 degrees so I’d say I am very much on the cusp of 9B/10A here.

[Tyrone]

Thats a stunning garden there. Glad you had good tennants. 

I had to leave my palm garden over 5 years ago and rented it out. I didnt have a good experience with tennants. We sold it early last year after we got it absolutely perfect. What a job. It was very sad to leave, but i was grateful thst the new owners loved it. Ive never had the guts to drive past since though.

All the best selling your beautiful place and your new life in hawaii. 

[Hilo Jason]

On 7/9/2019 at 12:22 PM, ChrisJordanDDS said:

Beautiful garden!  When did you start planting?  I'm curious as to how old some of those specimens are now.

Thank you. I started it in 2009 and most palms that are large now we’re most likely planted in 2009-2011 or so. 

[Kim]

Who would guess this is Fallbrook, looking at the garden photos! All those palms have majorly kicked in since I visited some years back. Very impressive! I hope you are lucky enough to find a buyer who appreciates the tropical look. And talk about growth, your daughter has gotten tall!

[Hilo Jason]

On 7/9/2019 at 12:59 PM, Chris Chance said:

Great to see your Fallbrook garden looking so good! I remember the first time I showed up there and you had shade structures everywhere and now it's completely different. I see the Kentiopsis we moved years ago is getting trunk. The mule is massive! I have one I think will look the same some day and now I'm realizing it might shade a big area of the garden in the future. Sad to see that house sold off. Got some great memories over the last 10 years or so visiting it and hope my garden can look half as good. 

Thanks Chris. Yeah that Kentiopsis never skipped a beat, such a great palm.  I’m sure it would be even bigger if I was still living there as nothing gets fertilizer anymore or any extra hand watering on hot days. Hopefully when we do sell it, the new buyers appreciate the yard and try to keep it somewhat of a jungle. 

[Hilo Jason]

On 7/9/2019 at 1:10 PM, James B said:

That Clinostigma is amazing! What were your winter lows like? I know fallbrook can get over 110 in summer like me here. I want to plant one once my canopy gets a bit bigger. Just curious what kind of lows it can handle. In 5 years haven’t been below 30 degrees so I’d say I am very much on the cusp of 9B/10A here.

Hi James, I agree it is amazing!!  I can’t really take any credit, I think it just had exceptional genes and a strong will to live like it was in the tropics!  I had another planted next to it that was maybe half the size of this one. Still healthy looking but not nearly as robust as this one. That smaller one got sold and dug out of the yard before I moved and the house became a rental. The big one was just too big to move so I didn’t want to even try. 

As far as my low temps, the lowest it saw was probably 29 / 30. That was only once but it did have some low 30s every once in a while. Average winter lows would have a few nights in the mid to high 30s each year. Highs could get up over 100 and my yard hit 114 once. But this palm is under a large Jacaranda tree as canopy so that really helped it with cold and shaded it during the hottest times of the day. 

They do seem like fairly tough palms though so I say go for it and try one (or more!). I had other sensitive palms in the yard show damage much more than Clinostogma ever did. 

[Hilo Jason]

On 7/9/2019 at 1:28 PM, Tyrone said:

Thats a stunning garden there. Glad you had good tennants. 

I had to leave my palm garden over 5 years ago and rented it out. I didnt have a good experience with tennants. We sold it early last year after we got it absolutely perfect. What a job. It was very sad to leave, but i was grateful thst the new owners loved it. Ive never had the guts to drive past since though.

All the best selling your beautiful place and your new life in hawaii. 

Thank you Tyrone.  I appreciate the compliments. 

We have been very fortunate to have found tenants that loved the yard so they wanted to make sure it stayed nice and tropical feeling. But since they are moving out soon, we don’t want to take the chance of finding tenants like them again and have decided to sell it. I’m hoping that if someone is buying this home, part of the reason for that will be the yard. There are plenty of “normal” homes for sale in the area so if they don’t want a mini tropical jungle then this wouldn’t be the place for them. But time will tell. I’m thankful I’ve had a couple of years to slowly separate myself from the place and I’m more than happy about my new home / garden in Hawaii. 

[Hilo Jason]

1 hour ago, Kim said:

Who would guess this is Fallbrook, looking at the garden photos! All those palms have majorly kicked in since I visited some years back. Very impressive! I hope you are lucky enough to find a buyer who appreciates the tropical look. And talk about growth, your daughter has gotten tall!

Thanks Kim!

yeah it’s hard to use Mercy for scale in photos when she’s growing so much!  Hah. 

Im hoping that my Hilo garden will show this level of growth much sooner than the 10 years that it took in Fallbrook. Based on pictures of your place and so many other Big Island gardens over the years, I think I’ll have a jungle here in no time!! 

[el-blanco]

Awesome!!!!!!!  Attalea in California... who knew.  I just saw two massive ones outside the gates of Fosters Garden in HNL.   How old is the Olivoformus?  I have one from a small 1 gallon that just set trunk.  About 12 years old now and probably 20'tall with a 6" trunk.  Very long leaves.  I love it!

You have a lovely family as well!

JW Dana Point