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Trachycarpus fortunei (Windmill Palm)
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April 2005 I purchased this palm on eBay as a 15 gallon plant. I had it in March, but I waited until April to plant it to help reduce the transplant shock. It was shipped bare root. All of the spring and most of the summer it sat there and just wouldn't grow. It didn't look unhealthy, it just wouldn't grow. It was getting acclimated to its new home. |
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November 2005 |
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March 2006 Here we are still in the palm's first year (winter is finally over). This is the protection scheme I used. It's basically a custom built greenhouse around the palm, using the fence as a wall support. |
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March 2006 (still) Here's what I saw when I uncovered the palm for the first time since last fall. I couldn't believe how green it was! It looked very happy. Unfortunately, it wasn't as happy as it looked. I got spear pull which means a portion of the bud or growing tip rotted. When that happens, as long as it can recover, it won't start growing until mid summer, basically wasting a half of the growing season. |
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September 2006 Fast forward the entire growing season and here's what I got. Even with spear pull, I was happy with the total growth. |
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October 2007 Another full year of growth gone by. It had spear pull again this spring, but luckily as this beast gets older, it grows faster and faster. |
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September 2008 No spear pull this season, so it grew all summer long. I can finally see a difference when I walk past the tree. My sister was over to visit in July and she noticed how "huge" it got. I'm very happy that it's healthy. I'm probably going to trim it to look more like a "classic" palm tree (more trunk showing) only because it's a personal preference. These palms seem to naturally retain more of the their older leaves than other palms do. |
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October 2009 Once again, no spear pull. When it's healthy, fed, and watered, it really grows well, probably just as fast as the Washingtonia robusta. The tops of the leaves are about 9' tall and the trunk is about 5' tall. |
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November 2010 This tree is definitely the fastest palm tree I have. It can consistently put on 1.5 feet of trunk every year, possibly 2 feet. In the middle of summer I finally decided to trim the palm to look more traditional. I got rid of all of the lower leaves. I love the look, but the negative side is that it immediately slowed its growth when it lost its lower leaves. That's OK. It's finally to a nice height and I really enjoy being able to walk under the crown of leaves. |
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October 2011 Another foot of growth even though I didn't save as many leaves. In the spring I gave the trunk the shaved look which I really like. It looks more tropical to me. The second pic is late October when we had a freak 8" snow storm (very rare for October)!. I don't think there was any damage at all to the palm. |
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