14 year old Chusan Palm. 6.7.14

Trachycarpus fortunei.  14 years old.  Vancouver WA.  6.7.14

Trachycarpus fortunei.  14 years old.  Vancouver WA.  6.7.14

When we planted this tree, we thought it might not survive the winters here.  The coldest so far was last winter.  Coldest temp was 8F.   Didn't faze it.

Sometimes I trim the bottom leaves.  I don't like the trees with most of the leaves removes, so they look like a sick bird's tail.

This serves as a reference for the tree I planted recently at Battleground.  I like these trees a lot.

Chusan Palm is the same as Windmill Palm is the same as Chinese Windmill Palm.   It is one of the most cold hardy types of palm tree.

Testing the limits - Palms in Pacific Northwest

This beautiful palm is about a mile from our house. Only a couple of varieties of palm will survive here; this is a Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei). We have a smaller specimen of the same species - so far it's survived 4 winters, including 2 ice storms and a couple of snow storms.

If the world really is getting warmer, maybe we should be experimenting more with plants that need warmer and probably drier conditions. At any rate, it's fun finding out what will grow and testing the limit.