It is so frustrating to me that we here in Vancouver cannot get a sabal minor. No one carries them in stock.
If you want a trachy there are millions of them but no needles or sabals.
They would easily make it here without protection.
I tried to convince some nurseries to bring them in but they won't.
I have talked to Rice Road in Ontario and they will be brining them in but they are not sure they want to ship to Vancouver.
I am so frustrated.

Very cool, hope the animals are ok too!

WEst North Van......

The Sabals wouldnt have a problem, but wouldnt the needle palms need protection in the winter, just from the heavy rains you get? As far as Im aware, Needle palms need to be kepts somewhat dry for the winter..... Mabey thats why they dont carry them?

Also, check out southcoast gardens. I belive the ship plants, at least in ontario..........

I have a needle palm that has been in the garden for 4 years and during that time we have had some of the coldest temps that I have ever seen here in Vancouver and they have done well unprotected. Never any frond damage or anything.
They are rock solid here.
I know Banana Joe has a very large one in his garden and it is fine also.

YEs, but i know they can handle anything vancouver can throw at them temp wise, but im talking more about the HUGE amounts of rain you get in the winter. Double that will cool temps, doesnt that usual mean the end of a needle palm?

Im just going by what ive read and heard from other people. Unfortnatly I dont have one of my own.

Im not saying they can or cant ( im glad your survived there so well!), im just interested in the whole " they cant grow here because...."

Of course theres more to the plants survival then moisture and temp right? How well your soil drains, duration of temps/moistiure, sunlight wind and dozen of other facters play a part.

I do undetstand about plants being unavailable. Its hard to find Canna here, let alone bamboo, palms, or bananas. Ive never even seen musa sold as houseplants here. Almost every "tropical" or tropical looking plant i have was shipped here. ( I got lucky with my Fargesia Rufa, Colocasia and Alocasia. Walmart had a small amount of colocasia bulbs, and a local grocery store had 6 Alocasia Odora bulbs for sale, so far thats the best ive seen).

It is so frustrating to me that we here in Vancouver cannot get a sabal minor. No one carries them in stock.
If you want a trachy there are millions of them but no needles or sabals.
They would easily make it here without protection.
I tried to convince some nurseries to bring them in but they won't.
I have talked to Rice Road in Ontario and they will be brining them in but they are not sure they want to ship to Vancouver.
I am so frustrated.

They are not exactly in abundance here either- and we are a 3 hour drive from their northern edge. I found two at a local nursery, but they were tucked away in a dark corner of the facility. They were not priced and the clerk had to confer with the manager and look up the SKU number. They also randomly pop up at Home Depot now and then. Otherwise, yea, its all Trachys and Needles, all the time.

All together I have 5 after 2 mail order casualties.

great photos! I've never seen such detail from that area.....thanks for sharing.

Tim,
you're welcome. I loved it down there and can't wait to go back next month. W has a mandatory training nearby in Arkansas so we're hoping to make a date weekend out of it.
Mike,
critter's are all fine, both up here on the farm (OK, a bit of frost bite, but no deaths) and down in McCurtain County.
Jack,
make a road trip south and share photos!
--Erik

Eric... you get any big storms down there today? The weather channel here was talking about tornado activity down there..

Jessie,
thanks for asking.
We had a delightful spring storm!
I went crazy and moved most indoor plants outside to catch real rain water. We got only about 2 cm. I brought all but the largest plants outside for it, then brought most back in or at least tucked them up under the eaves as we will get to about -1C tonight.
--Erik

I cant wait till we get out first storm of the year. Ill probably end up doing the same thing as you LOL.

I concider it a good sign. Warm air is moving north. Only a matter of time now 😈 😈 😈 😈

Thanks again for the pics.

I can see why Erik's so smitten with Sabals.
Beautiful strap leaves on these little guys.

Sabal mexicana
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04506" />

Sabal riverside
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04505" />

Needles have done well here so I guess the rain doesn't bother them. I think the biggest problem for both sabal minor and needles is the lack of summer heat. We barely get above 85F and they need a lot of that to grow well.
They are slow growers here in Vancouver but they do survive.
I checked on South Coast Gardens and when I google them I got some hits in California and some in Florida.
Do you know the exact website?
Thanks!

Anyone bought anything from them?
They seem to have a good selection of needles and s. minors.

The Montreal plants guy posts here sometimes. Maybe you can send him a PM? Someone must recall his username...

South coast is redoing their website right now, so I think they are offline for a while. Hopefully they will be finished soon!