Beautiful Palms of Tampa, Oct/Nov 2023

[PalmatierMeg]

I'm trying to clear a backlog of photos of palms in Tampa I took last fall. We temporarily moved to Airbnbs for 2+ months while my husband was treated at Moffitt Cancer Center with CAR T therapy for lymphoma. I wanted to take lots of photos of local Tampa palms but as we spent 10-12 hours per day at the hospital my choices of photo ops were limited. I had no time nor energy to visit really well known gardens like Kopsick so I settled on 3 venues: 1) some of the nicely curated palms on Moffitt campus; 2) a commercial nursery a couple miles from our Airbnb; and 3) a small botanical garden associated with USF campus. It was having a botanical festival that weekend. I bought a Philodendron Pink Princess but no palms as I already have more stuff than they did.

As I was and still am a 24/7 caregiver and am responsible for all house and yard maintenance now these photos have been moldering on my Apple desktop waiting to be posted. That time came ~4 a.m. this morning in some predawn quiet.

I only got a look at them when I named and sorted them yesterday but (at least last fall) Tampa had some impressive looking palms - as long as someone's willing to provide them proper care. Anyway, on with the show.

Venue #1: TREEMART      SEE NEXT PAGE

Venue #2: Landscape palms on the Moffitt Cancer Center grounds. Lots of Wodyetia with more Adonidias thrown in. Moffitt takes very good care of its palms. What hospital patients fighting incurable cancer want to see dying palms outside the windows?

Venue #3: a small botanical garden just south of Moffitt's campus. It's associated with USF, I'm sure. If you're ever up to that part of Tampa, check it out. The day I went the main garden was closed to visitors but there was a plant sale going on.

Chamaedorea seifrizii seeding grove

Chamaedorea brachypoda? or stolonoifera? grove, not seeding

Areca vestiaria red/maroon in pots. Too bad they don't survive for me

Also, Bismarckia, Copernicia alba, Phoenix sp/hyb, Serenoa repens silver, Cycas ??? with large cone

 

 

[PalmatierMeg]

Venue #1: TREEMART is the only decent sized nursery in the vicinity around Moffitt. So I don't have to write tomes about every photo, I will summarize some of the palms you will see

Phoenix: probably the most common genus I saw in Tampa, far commoner than in more tropical Cape Coral. I am aware most Phoenix in FL are likely hybrids but I saw a number of Phoenix that looked close to pure, i.e, sylvestris, roebelenii, reclinata. I think I saw one CIDP (hybrid?) awaiting a lift to AZ. Canaries need dry arid desert conditions and despise and look diseased and fungus-ridden in FL's swelter. So, do them a favor and go with sylvestris which I believe is far more elegant and desirable and also grows well in FL. 

Bismarckia, Chamaerops, Butia, Hyophorbe (but only lagenicaulis, no spindles to be found), Wodyetia by the score, Roystonea regia, a few Adonidias for the Swooners and one sickly Cocos

[Hurricanepalms]

@PalmatierMeg, thanks for sharing your photos. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your husband. God bless. 

[PalmatierMeg]

44 minutes ago, Hurricanepalms said:

@PalmatierMeg, thanks for sharing your photos. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your husband. God bless. 

thank you