Canary Island Date Palms Phoenix canariensis Sun 5 June 2005

Note I did try to correct a few spelling and other minor errors in yesterday's entry but the EDIT function and my computer didn't get along, so I'll not worry.

The Palms refered to yesterday where The Canary Island Date Palm Phoenix canariensis

This is native to the Canary Islands off the West African coast, a province of Spain

These palms are widely planted around the world in temperate areas where sustained cold freezes DO NOT occur

They can certainly tolerate short lived frosts of something like -12 Degrees Celcius, if the air is not too damp.

Male and Female are on separate trees, which can achieve a height of 10 metres or more over 100 years. The trunks are some 2 to 3 feet diameter, the fronds being some 4 metres long each, when full sized

In cooler temperate climates like the South Island of New Zealand and the South coast of England growth will be quite slow

In production plant nurseries in Brisbane Qld Australia, pushed along by constant watering and fertiliser, they get from seed to a full sized crown of fronds within 6 years and then 400 mm or 16 inches of trunk height growth every year thereafter......if I remember the details correctly. Note that this is under absolutely optimum plant nursery conditions

In cooler climates then can be grown as in indoor plant for many years, fertilised seldom they'll stay small and conveniently potplant sized, but need a brightly lit areas. Note that those leaflets closest to the base of the frond, become SHARP SPINES. On larger and full sized fronds, these spines are large, hard and potentially dangerous. On smaller potplant sized specimens they are no real worry.

In marginal areas they can be grown in a large tub the size you'd need a forklift to move. I have seen on tv Px cny palms in large tubs in a Paris, France park. They are apparently able to be shifted under cover at least, or perhaps a large un-heated glasshouse, for the coldest part of the mid-Winter period.

Fresh seed can be collected from around the base of female trees and sprouts easily within 3 to 6 weeks, expect 95 % + of seeds to sprout

Initially the palm sprouts look something like a blade of crinkled grass, only after 2 years or so do the single leaves commence to split into the conventional palm-frond shape

Good for climates to USDA zone 8 Winter cold, but in those cooler areas get them as big as posssible in a large pot/tub then plant out one Spring after danger of frost is past, allowing it a whole growing season to aclimatise itself to the conditions and get properly established

Note for the first years, in marginal areas, perhaps you could try covering the crown with a blanket and tarpaulin before heavy snowfalls are forecast

Note some fabulous photographs exist of Canary Palms along th French Mediterranean sea-coast, occasional once every tens-of-years heavy snowfalls, the palms foliage barely visible under a foot or more of snow collected atop the crown of leaves high in the air. Such cold weather fronts do not last for long and the palms live on un-injured

Also in desert and semi-desert areas, the vigourous roots of the Canary palm and it's close relative the "true" date palm can allow it to live where the climate is too dry for many other plants.

It has been my experience that even the American cotton palms WASHINGTONIA ROBUSTA and FILIFERA as native to Mexico and SW USA, are simply nowhere near as drought and salt tolerant as those 2 Phoenix species.

Note also that many palms are very fussy about having their roots damaged during repotting or the digging up and transplantingof large specimens. Many palms will be set back very much often to the point of death

However the Phoenix family of palms can tolerate far far more root disturbance than most.

Severe root disturbance will take a year (or more) to rehabilitate, but given the most shocking root-prunings etc, I have had very few phoenixes that failed to survive......although many took a long while to come good afterwards

Obviously try to pot onwards younger specimens regularly, unfortunatley my own fault I have often left seedlings together in a small pot for many years, when I should have separated them out into individual post at a much earlier stage

Note that unlike normal trees etc, the biggest diameter palm root will be only something like 15 mm diameter, there'll be a spaghetti-like mass of them originating from the base of an established palm

I do not know how deep is the limit for Phoenix palm roots, if anyone out there knows then please tell me, email xena at agn dot net au

I have one of the world's best books on (the true) Date palm cultivation "Palmier Dattier". This book is in French language and draws on France's long links with Northern African countries, unfortunately I can read French to only a most basic level, plus it has very little on other Phoenix varieties like the canariensis

I have heard that wild fig trees can root down to 400 ft/ 110 metres and this is the deepest rooting plant known

I have heard that grapevines can root down 90 feet 25 metres in Californian deep sands

I'm guessing that Px canariensis and dactilyfera would be somewhere approaching the grapevine......assuming deep sandy soils. Obviously it isn't going to bother rooting any deeper than a freshwater-table if it finds one.