English Bay, Vancouver

The downtown west end of Vancouver is one of the palmiest places around!  So it's no surprise that I spend much of my spare time soaking up the sun and the palmy sights.  But its not all palms.  There are just great gardens in general in this part of town.  I call it my secret spot - not so secret - but I find parking at the tennis courts in Stanley Park provides the best starting out point to take the palm tree grand circle tour.  So, when I found myself meeting friends downtown last Saturday evening, I most certainly did a mini palm tour!!

I consider this the enchanted pathway that leeds to my palm mecca.  Just looking at this picture makes me giddy with anticipation.

This home, which I often refer to as "mine," has such a stunning garden.  Imagine what you could do with this space!  One day when I win the lottery - I suppose I should buy a ticket instead of believing the winning ticket will fall from the sky - it will be mine.

here's some yucca love along the way.  These yuccas always look pristine.

And from this angle I like it even more!!! I feel as though I share an affinity with the people of this complex.  Would it not bring you so much joy to be greeted by this every single day on your way home?

And can I just say, this summer weather is EPIC! People are sooo much happier - including myself! Ahhh, just take it in.  And of course, grab an ice cream or two if you need a cool down.  I have an even better idea... ice cream, and then coffee and then another ice cream.  (And preferably get coconut falvour in order to keep with the festivities of summer)

Back to the palm tour: As you make your way towards English Bay you are greeted with palm grove number 1...

These are the parents of two palms in my garden.  If you look down into that euphorbia you will find hundreds of baby palm seedlings!! It always takes great will power not to harvest some.  But seeing as I was meeting people for dinner I was able to control myself.

Check out all those beautiful palm seeds!!!

Another angle reveals just how many palms are in this grove. I LOVE IT!

moving on we find grove #2...  Much smaller in scale but still quite wonderful.

I suppose you might be wondering ... does he really have every single planting numbered off?  And I would have to answer that with an incredibly ecstatic, "there are too many to count!!"

I love acanthus mollis blooms!!! In fact the trachycarpus and acanthus mollis combination could be one of my personal favourites.

And of course they would have one of my beloved cordyline red sensation!

Speaking of cordylines... check out these green ones!  They might not look like it, but these things towered over my head.  I always have to pinch myself when I'm in English Bay. Like, is this for reals? Because it certainly seems to good to be true.  And that being said, these pictures don't even do it justice.

Oh and it just keeps getting better! See that tree on top of that apartment building?  It is a landmark showing the height of the old growth forest that used to go throughout where current day Metro Vancouver sits! Crazy, eh?

I love palm groupings like this.  It's ultra lush!

These palms were planted last winter at the new English Bay Cactus Club.  They seem to have settled into place just fine.

And it's not just regular trachycarpus fortunei, check out these awesome trachycarpus wagnerianus palms! I plan on collecting some pollen from these in the years to come to do some trachycarpus fortunei x wagnerianus hybrids.

Here are some of the chamaerops humilis that came through the winter 2008 fiasco. They certainly took some damage but appear to have made a nice recovery over the last few years.

Tomorrow I'll share more shots with the evening glow and sunset.  I hope you enjoyed palmy English Bay!!!!

Chamaerops Humilis lovin' in the PNW

It's no secret that I love palm trees.  But I don't share my love for chamaerops humilis (mediterranean fan palms) nearly enough!  To tell you the truth, I think they are highly underrated especially when small.  I kind of get it, 2008 rings in the memories of almost every gardener in the PNW. Snowmagedon, the ice age, whatever you wish to call it, that winter was rough.  Many of us lost our nerve - and I'll be the first to admit, we were feeling rather confident for a while. But I think people remember the chamaerops carnage!  So I feel like I need to speak for the chamaerops - "don't ignore me!"  Well that is, don't completely ignore me.  Yes, they are less hardy than trachycarpus fortunei in the PNW but oh so wonderful.  The real problem I believe is lack of heat for them to recover from any damage in the springtime and excessive moisture.  But given the right conditions, I think they deserve another chance - especially in zone 8b/9a areas of the PNW.

Here is a chamaerops I purchased years ago at our local big box wholesaler for real cheap.  It had just a small bit of trunk on it and really robust looking.

When I bought it, I had to idea that hardiness of this palm would be questionable here.  I knew it needed full hot sun to look its best and gave it the best spot in the garden.  Sun the entire day, shelter to the east and the garden shed to the north allowing for the spot to really heat up during the day.  Fast forward a couple of years and here it is after the winter of 2008.  What you can't see is that one of the suckers died that winter.  The palm was protected by throwing a string of old school christmas lights around it and a tarp.  Viola!  (It saw around -10C (14F) a few times without protection)

And here it is today... a monster at around 6ft tall!

It now takes up the entire planting space with a few crocosmia lucifer planter near the one corner.

Best of all, check out these epic spikes that arm the entire plant! careful, they do lots of damage to the hands.  I speak from much experience.

Here's one of the suckers growing out of the side of the main trunk.

And this green form has unique silvery undersides. LOVE!  And one day soon, this guy will have a new chamaerops friend.  A small chamaerops humilis cerifera - the blue form - is on its way!  They are actually reported to be even hardier than the green kind which is always a plus.