Palm Trees

We have done it! We have finally bought some palm trees of our very own for our yard. We first looked at them in the fall and almost bought some then but didn't because Tom (the palm tree guy) said he couldn't make it down our steep hill carrying the heavy palm tree with his tractor without tipping over. So, we had to wait until our friend Brian (one of our construction guys) could help us out (he got a new truck and has a trailer).

We found that the best place to buy palm trees around here is Tom's Palms, which is maybe 20 minutes south of town. Tom has a large selection of quality trees, really knows what he is doing and charges a lot less for his trees ($250 for a tree--includes the planting--that the local nurseries would charge $650 for). Construction people call Tom when they are needing to have a palm tree removed (they would just cut it down or rip it out and let it die if he didn't come get it) so he rescues the trees and keeps them or sells them. He has several trees in his own collection (not for sale) that are half black because they were near a fire. He loves his trees and has many many palms planted around his own house, which is near his business. I was amazed to see how easily palm trees can be uprooted and moved to a new place. They are not like other trees with a widespread root system...and yet they withstand hurricanes quite well.

The tree trunk on the right is half black from being scorched by a fire:



Here are some of the Sabal (also known as Cabbage) Palm trees to choose from (there were about 80 trees total):





Craig and Brian viewing the selection (each tree is unique--some are curved, some are tall, some are fat, some have many boots, etc):



This tree has "boots" (the old leaf stem bases which make a criss-cross pattern) all the way up because they were not cut off:



Another type of palm tree is the Pindo Palm. Baby Pindo Palm trees look a lot like pineapples at first:



Here's a guy digging up the Pindo Palm we choose (Pindos are more expensive than Sabals--they are priced at $150 per foot of trunk):



Here is Craig chillin' with his new transition lense glasses:



Loading the 14-ft tall Sabal Palm tree that we chose onto the trailer. Craig wanted a really fat one and we got it:



Unhooking the Sabal Palm (you can see the top where the new leaves will sprout from):



Loading the 3-ft tall (counting trunk only) Pindo Palm tree onto the trailer:



Loaded trailer is ready to go to our house:



The root ball of the Sabal Palm:



Drilling holes for the palm trees:





Checking the depth of the hole:



Transferring the Sabal Palm to be planted:



Planting the Sabal Palm tree:



Spraying and fertilizing the Sabal Palm tree:



Wiggling the Sabal Palm tree so it will settle in the moist soil and all the air bubbles will come out:



Preparing the drip hose that will keep the palm trees well watered for the first month:



Placing the drip hose at the top of the Sabal Palm tree:



Spraying the tree trunk (I found it a bit unusual that you water the whole trunk in addition to the top of the tree and the bottom of the tree):



Transferring the Pindo Palm to be planted:



Planting the Pindo Palm tree:



Roots and trunk of the Pindo Palm tree:



Fertilizing the Pindo Palm tree:



Watering the Pindo Palm tree:



The planted trees are in view of our house. The leaves on the Sabal Palm will grow back in over the next year...then it will be really beautiful.