Trachycarpus fortunei

It’s snowing today. This may not sound like much of a proclamation for much of the country, but here in the desert it is more than a little deal. After all, it is the desert. You know, defined by low amounts of precipitation. It rarely snows much around here, although this year has been an anomaly. To snow, there has to be water and it has to be cold enough. This year is weird. Last week was 60 degrees.

I was looking at some of my borderline plants and wondering 1. if they would make it, and 2. how miserable they are not being in their preferred environment. I mean how much am I torturing them by forcing them to live in this climate? Even if they make it, and aren’t particularly more miserable than they would otherwise be, they still look miserable. Although some of the Cistus looked fine, others looked awful, with brown leaf edges and a withered look. The Ceanothus had green leaves at the base, but the upper half of the branches were full of crispy brown leaves. The Teucrium fruticans looked more like a used Kleenex than it should. Maybe I should focus on hardier things. I’ll change my mind once spring comes, of course.

One plant that has surprised me is Trachycarpus fortunei, the Chinese Fan Palm. My friend Rick always frowns whenever he comes to visit. “I can’t get used to seeing a palm here,” he says, “It just doesn’t look right.” I remind him that this is my “California Dreaming” garden, and the whole intent is to make this little courtyard look like it’s somewhere else. He just shakes his head. I do have to admit that the plant likes water.


But the Trachy seems to do fine in the winter. It may burn a few tips of the young fronds, but it doesn’t seem to faze it too much. It grows very slowly through the winter, then picks up as the weather warms. The roof drips on it and freezes big clumps of ice to the fronds, which turn the dark color of frozen lettuce leaves. But unlike the lettuce leaves, these recover. I’m not sure how it’s going to do with all this snow, however.

It might lead to crown rot. In Palms Don’t Grow Here and other Myths, by David A. Francko, he warns of this happening. He suggests dousing the crown bud with a broad spectrum antifungal/antibacterial. I don’t like this idea. I think the environment has enough antibiotics in it and we don’t need more superbugs to infect our children. If these plants croak, I’ll replace them. Maybe with a hardier version of Trachycarpus fortunei. Or the hardier needle palm Rhapidophyllum hystrix. There’s a lot to trial from the Plant Delights catalog (search Palm), or from YuccaDo. I’m tempted also to try the Dwarf Sabal Palm, Sabal minor. Then there’s also the Mazari Palm (Nannorhops ritchiana) which is said to come from cold deserts. That should make it happy here.