Sable Palm Plant

Preparing the landscape for hurricane season

I guess I don’t need to remind you that June through November is the official hurricane season. The news media has done a pretty good job of making everyone aware of this fact. For peace of mind, take a few minutes to walk around your yard and see what might be done to make you landscape safer in the event of a big storm.

Your first goal is to determine whether any of your large trees are vulnerable to wind damage. The type of tree plays a big role in this. Trees such as Winged Elm, Live Oak, American Holly, Sable Palm, Yaupon Holly, Red Oak, Red Maple and Loblolly Pine are all pretty good choices. They are generally well rooted and resist wind and flooding well. Trees like Chinese Tallow, Chinaberry, Ash, Water oak, Sweet Gum and Cherry Laurel, on the other hand, are not good choices.

Getting started now will allow you the time needed to prune trees and large shrubs so the proper pruning cuts can be made and branches can be safely collected and hauled off. It’s a lot better to do this pruning now rather than waiting until you have to remove a large tree limb from you living room.

The main objective in pre-hurricane pruning is to reduce the area of wind resistance, much like reducing the sail area on a sailboat. Selective removal of branches to open the canopy of the tree will permit the wind to pass through the tree without breaking branches or uprooting and toppling of trees during a hurricane.

The most wind-resistant form for a tree is one with a central leader and a well-spaced framework of branches that go around and up and down the trunk. There should be no narrow forks or branches leaving the trunk at an acute angle, since these branches are likely to split under stress. Limb crotches that form a U shape (45- to 90-degree angle) are less likely to split than narrow V-crotches of less than 40 degrees.

A wind-resistant tree is the result of regular care starting when the tree is young. Young trees should not be cut back to make them bushy, but rather be encouraged to form a strong leader with well-spaced branches.

Some pruning is better done by a professional. If you have to stand on a ladder or raise a chainsaw overhead, contact a pro. Look for someone who is ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) certified. Search the ISA website for certified arborists at www.isa-arbor.com/arborists/arbsearch and check your local yellow pages for a listing of arborists in your area. Get three bids, so you have a better understanding of the cost and amount of trimming that needs to be done. Be sure to compare the bid specifications for items such as amount of trimming included and debris removal, not just the cost.

Cold Hardy Palm Trees For Northern Garden Planting | Winter Garden ...

Palm trees were once thought to be suitable for planting only in tropical landscapes, however, several cold hardy palm trees occur naturally, growing in America, where snows fall during winter. The windmill palm tree, Trachycarpus fortunei; the Dwarf Palmetto palm tree, Sabal minor; the Saw palmetto, Serenoa repens; and the Sabal Palm, sabal palmetto; and the Needle Palm, Rhapidophyllun hystrix; Much of the information that is published in book from, magazine articles and Internet websites is extremely conservative, perhaps because the testing for national cold hardiness is of a recent origin; and also temperature fluctuations caused by global warming increases the survival rate of palm tree plantings in recent years. Try buying a few palm trees in your garden to plant and grow. Very large specimen palm trees can be purchased for semi-truck fast delivery at a few Internet nursery websites.

The Windmill palm tree, Trachycarpus fortunei, also is called a Chusan palm and a Chinese Windmill palm tree, was imported from Japan, perhaps first, into the United States, but most botanists believe that this palm tree originated in China, where many seed and specimen trees were purchased to import into the US. Windmill palm trees are a common landscape sight throughout Europe, the United States, and Canada. These Windmill palm trees are very cold hardy, and can be see flourishing along the city streets of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, where the palms grow up to 40ft in height. The slender, graceful trunks are covered with brown-black fibers that appear as hair from a distance, and with aging, the fibers turn gray, and on large old trees the fibers fall off to reveal a slick beautiful trunk. The waxy leaves are bright green above and silver-green below; growing 2 feet long and 2 feet wide, smaller than most other palm trees. Windmill palm trees grow a flower stalk 2 feet long, with yellow, pleasantly aromatic flowers developing into ½” long blue fruits.

Windmill palm trees, Trachycarpus fortunei, are so cold hardy that semi-truck loads of large specimen sized trees have been nursery distributed for customers in Canada who wish to buy a palm to place in a tropical landscape design. The famous Cloister Hotel at Sea Island, Georgia plants grouping of large Windmill palms, some 20-30 feet for planting near entrances and landscape positions close to buildings. Windmill palms are tolerant of salt water spray and are very adaptable for planting and growing in most areas of the United States.

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