Dropped off John's Foxtail today, and always look forward to seeing his plant collection.
Plant visits always remind me of a growth ruler on the door...everything's so much larger than last time.
my dinky little digital camera wasn't up for this session...should've had one of those "fisheye" lenses with peripheral vision to take it all in.

Palms are inside in every room of the lovely home, and some seedlings and 20 gallon palms greet visitors in the foyer.
Look left, look right...everywhere gorgeous windows, gorgeous palms.
Wicker...tile...hardwood...warm paint colours, lots of glass...very tropical.
Could be Florida.
But it's Kelowna.

Now the garage. Picture in your mind palms wall-to-wall in a double garage, 10 foot ceiling, and having to drag out the door a couple of 20 gallon palms just to begin to have a path through part of it. And that's just one building, there's another building full of palms too.

In the next pic, look up at the light bulb above John's head...actually look at the spear of the Queen Palm that's scraping the ceiling!
John's explaining that his bananas always get off to an early start as soon as the heat hits. They're everywhere and look realy good, including the Musa basjoo I donated to John in summer (it would've been a slimy wilted mess by now at my house...looks good at John's!)

<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04177" />

...struggling...made it to the Queen Palm, other palms whipping the back of my head

<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04178" />

Next pic: I can tell he's getting tired of my ooh-ing and aah-ing, but look at that Bird of Paradise 10 feet tall at the right!
That thing must weight 200 or 300 pounds!

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And somewhere is another bamboo....here, found it, John says!
<img src=" " width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04181" />

One of several gorgeous Butia capitata:
<img src=" " width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04182" />

Camera batteries were acting up...didn't take photos of the two poly pyramids (poly-mids) outside with his oldest Trachies and needles.
One poly-mid was tilted open, the other had a porthole open to the mild day. John can post those pics from his camera, as well as the 6 foot tall black-caned bamboo planted out unprotected and looking great.

Then we visited a place 2 miles away where a woman had bought 3 Trachies from John, and promised to winter-protect them.
They certainly did a nice job.
2 plastic-covered structures with ~1 foot gap between were joined by a dryer vent hose. Heater located in one sent the warm air into the 2nd one. Good taping job around duct and plastic joins. Clever, without buying another heater. But with only a 1-foot gap between, perhaps one larger structure would have worked as well.

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This third hut had its own small heater.
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04185" />

It'd be great if the owner would join us on PN!

Thanks John and Lillian for your hospitality.
Oh and look what followed me home!
A gorgeous Sabal Riverside ...
<img src=" " width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04202" />

NO TRIP to Kelowna is complete without visiting a GH...and other sites.
(1) the RONA greenhouse
(2) Plastic Palm residence

First the RONA GH, always well stocked with reasonable prices. Hopefully there'll be Needle Palms in here next year!
I'm glad they're bringing in lots of 2 gallon Trachies.
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04193" />

All big-box GHs should look this well stocked at this time of year, good variety too.
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04191" />

<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04187" />

<img src=" " width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04190" />

<img src=" " width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04188" />

<img src=" " width="500" height="375" alt="DSC04186" />

OK...DRUMROLL...
you've heard about Kelowna's Plastic Palm Residence.

Here it is:

<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04196" />

<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04198" />

<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04200" />

Palms look well constructed, with pretty good likeness to CIDP detail:
<img src=" " width="375" height="500" alt="DSC04201" />

A great day in Kelowna!
Barb