A Paradise of Palms
Palms are the most elegant landscape trees, and now is the time to think about planting them. Unlike other trees, whose root growth occurs in the fall, palm tree roots do their growing in hot weather...
Category Archives: Palms
Palm Trees or California Dandelions
In this city, no tree elicits more mixed emotions and extreme reactions than the palm. Its promoters praise it as the essence of class and elegance while its detractors call it the California dandeli...
King Palms, Throatworts, & Sunflowers
It was nearly 20 years ago that I paid my first visit to the Virginia Robinson Gardens in Beverly Hills. Many of the plants that I saw on that visit have disappeared but the Iochromas remain. Iochrom...
A Grove of Trees
I must have pulled at least 10,000 Washington palm seedlings in my lifetime. They come up everywhere in Los Angeles and require nothing but smog to survive. For years, I found nothing redeeming about...
Dwarf Avocadoes & Kentia Palms
Question: I purchased a dwarf avocado tree some years ago at Roger’s Gardens. Two years ago I had five fruit. Last year nothing stuck. This year there are lots of flower buds but it looks like ...
Succulents & Palms for Courtyard Planters
Deciding what to put in a courtyard planter can present an interesting conundrum. Found in most apartment buildings and multistory condominium complexes, courtyard planters have much in common, expos...
How Palmdale Got Its Name
Q: I have heard that palm trees once grew in Palmdale and that’s how the city got its name, but I have never seen any palms here. Can you grow palms in Palmdale? — Jack McCarthy Pa...
Kentia Palm
The uniqueness of the Kentia palm begins with where it grows wild. Lord Howe Island, a tiny dot in the ocean between Australia and New Zealand, is only seven miles long and 3 1/2 miles wide, yet Lord...
Lady Palms Tougher than You Think
Gardeners are a defiant group. If a gardener is eager to grow a certain plant but is told by the experts “you can’t grow that here,” the gardener may persist and plant “that&#...
Abundant Harvests from Mountain Tops
Psalm 72 foretells the Messianic age, when heretofore imaginary phenomena – such as universal peace and prosperity – will become real, replacing the strife and poverty the world has known...
