Palm trees in El Paso....? (Houston, Austin: apartments, hotel, new house)

[rams]

Everybody on this forum is saying that El Paso has big palm trees...
Well, I am yet to find a photo of El Paso with a palm tree in it.
If indeed there are palm trees in El Paso, what kind of palm trees are they?

Thanks,

[Muhnay]

Originally Posted by rams

Everybody on this forum is saying that El Paso has big palm trees...
Well, I am yet to find a photo of El Paso with a palm tree in it.
If indeed there are palm trees in El Paso, what kind of palm trees are they?

Thanks,

All the Palm Trees are planted there, they are not natural to the area. The East side has them all over the place, any new shopping area that goes up so do the Palms. If I was still in the city I would go snap you a few pictures of the palms.

[island pride]

That's funny! But the most I've seen of palm trees in El Paso are those most recently installed palm trees on Viscount BLVD when driving down past the Selina Apartments, right before you get to Del Sol Medical Centre... Really it wasn't naturally grown and they surely look like they were "installed" into the ground and forced to grow there! Not bad for a scenary ay! or what would you say?

[rams]

Thanks!
Could you tell me what kind of palm trees are they planting?

(i'm just a palm tree nut)

[Chuco]

I wish I could add more to this conversation on what types of palms are usually grown in El Paso, but I really don't know much about palm trees other than that they are catching on like wildfire in the El Paso area. Just about every new shopping center, restaurant, hotel, etc are putting up palm trees all over the place.

I myself moved back to El Paso just about three years ago after a long stint in California and I know it wasn't like this before when I used to live here but now almost everyone has one these days..every neighborhood seems to have at least one house with palm trees on their lawn or back yard. My own house that I live in right now has two palm trees (one medium sized, one small) in my back yard that were put in by the previous owner but since I never studied up on my palms I don't really know what type they are...but they do look pretty nice, they don't need a lot of care but their dead palm branches need to be cut once in a while.

island pride, I haven't been down that part of Viscount in a few months but I did hear that they were going to install some large palms there, I even found a recent article about it on the El Paso govt website:
www.elpasotexas.gov - City of El Paso
I wonder if these are the same palm trees you were talking about in your post? They say that they are "Mexican Fan Palms, 25 to 30 feet tall." Maybe I'll head on down to that area soon to check them out.

I couldn't find many El Paso pictures with palms anywhere so the only thing I could think of was looking at the Las Palmas Marketplace (large shopping center with lots of palms) website and found a few pictures that have them on there, really tall palms too.
Las Palmas Marketplace - El Paso, Texas On your left hand side click on the photographs option, check out the bottom right pictures.

[rams]

Excellent!!! Thanks Chuco!!! These are indeed Mexican Fan Palms.

Washingtonia robusta (Mexican Fan Palm or Mexican Washingtonia) is a palm native to northwestern Mexico. It grows to 25 m tall, rarely up to 30 m. The leaves have a petiole up to 1 m long, and a palmate fan of leaflets up to 1 m long. The inflorescence is up to 3 m long, with numerous small pale orange-pink flowers. The fruit is a spherical, blue-black drupe, 6-8 mm diameter; it is edible, though thin-fleshed.

[EnjoyEP]

OK, this is a thread I can really add to...I LOVE the palm trees in El Paso.

First off, yes, there are palm trees all over the place in El Paso. For folks that seem to think that is somewhat surprising or they appear "out of place"...really, it is no different than if you go to Phoenix, Tucson, or Las Vegas NV. Those are - like El Paso - warm desert areas that also feature palm trees numerously in landscaping all over the place. So it isn't like this is unique to El Paso...pretty much any climate in the U.S. that can support palm trees (eg: is warm enough) - you will find them in (from places such as Austin TX, L.A., Houston, Phoenix, and yes, El Paso).

You will also find palms very commonly a bit north of El Paso in Las Cruces, NM and Alamogordo, NM. That is about as far north in this general vicinity you'll find palms. You'll still find a few in the small town of Truth or Consequences, NM, and even up here in Albuquerque, they are starting to catch on in some landscaping...however, Albuquerque is a colder winter climate than El Paso is, so palms often are "iffy" in ABQ, whereas again, they are used like gangbusters all over EP similar to how they are used in Phoenix or Tucson.

Now...the types of palms that are common in EP:

-Washingtonia Filifera / "California Fan Palm" - The most common palm in El Paso. They grow fairly big and tall and are native to California. You see tons of these also in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, etc.

-Washingtonia Robusta / "Mexican Fan Palm" - Also very common in El Paso, it is the less-cold hardy cousin of the California Fan Palm. These are native of northern Mexico and look very similar to the California Fan Palms, typically grow a little taller and skinnier than the Californias. Found commonly in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, L.A., etc. also. These are a little more sensitive to winter freezes, so typically in El Paso they should be planted a little bit older (versus the Californias which can be planted young).

-Trachycarpus Fortunei / "Windmill Palm" - These are the kind generally used in Albuquerque landscaping, because they are quite hardy to winter freezes. They are not quite as common in El Paso due to EP's ability to support more cold hardy palms, but you'll still see quite a few. These are the ones that have "hairy" trunks, and they look GREAT the majority of the year - including winter - in EP.

-Mediterranean (European) Fan Palms - Cousins of the Windmill Palms, these are found in spot in EP. They look similar in some regards to the Windmill palms with furry trunks, but they often grow in "bunches" are do not get as big and tall as most other El Paso palm varieties do.

-Phoenix Canariensis and Phoenix Dactylifera / "Date Palm" - The Date Palm is probably easily the 3rd most popular palm used in El Paso after the California Fan Palms and the Mexican Fan Palms. This one has a different look than the fan palms and almost looks more of a tropical style look.

-There are also several other palm varieties used, although not as commonly. Furthermore, you'll see quite a few Sago Palms used, which actually, despite their name and appearance, are not true palm trees but are still great plants.

But yes, like Phoenix or Vegas, you will find palms of all shapes, heights and sizes all over El Paso - they are used extremely extensively in landscaping for restaurants, malls, stores, houses, streets, etc. They really are quite beautiful and do very well in El Paso's climate. They also do not use tons of watering which lends well to the desert climate (including their love for sun and heat).

It is true...my family with decades of history in El Paso notes that palms are much more commonly used now in EP that they used to be, however, they also note that many palms there are indeed 30, 40 years old at least...as many now are extremely tall and aged.

As for pictures, look at photos here of some incredibly large and beautiful palms in El Paso, along with some interesting further discussion of palm trees in EP:

Pictures of some of the old-timer palms in El Paso - Southwestern Gardening Forum - GardenWeb

Hope this helps. I love the palms and varied cacti, yuccas, and succulents you can find all over EP.

[rams]

Thanks EnjoyEP! Great post!! Just the info I needed...
The photos don't download though...

rams

[Six Foot Three]

Originally Posted by Chuco

they are catching on like wildfire in the El Paso area. Just about every new shopping center, restaurant, hotel, etc are putting up palm trees all over the place.

Thats so cool to hear about Palm Trees catching on in El Paso. It makes it look/feel so tropical like Miami/Ft.Lauderdale and the Carribean Islands (without the ocean). Several years back i toured Phoenix and Tucson Arizona and Phoenix with all its Palm Trees blew away Tucson in beauty with these Palm Trees all over and i was in the older core area (I-17 and Indian School) not the newer outer areas and the Palms were in the medians, shopping centers, motels, hospitals, malls and houses etc...

[Chuco]

Originally Posted by EnjoyEP

OK, this is a thread I can really add to...I LOVE the palm trees in El Paso.

Now...the types of palms that are common in EP:

-Washingtonia Filifera / "California Fan Palm" - The most common palm in El Paso. They grow fairly big and tall and are native to California. You see tons of these also in Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, etc.

-Washingtonia Robusta / "Mexican Fan Palm" - Also very common in El Paso, it is the less-cold hardy cousin of the California Fan Palm. These are native of northern Mexico and look very similar to the California Fan Palms, typically grow a little taller and skinnier than the Californias. Found commonly in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, L.A., etc. also. These are a little more sensitive to winter freezes, so typically in El Paso they should be planted a little bit older (versus the Californias which can be planted young).

Thanks for the info EnjoyEP, after some research I have narrowed my palms to being either California or Mexican Palms..Can't really tell which kind I got though since they look similar, but I'm leaning towards California Palms since my palms got larger trunks than what I saw on pictures of Mexican palms..but still not 100%

Originally Posted by harry o

Thats so cool to hear about Palm Trees catching on in El Paso. It makes it look/feel so tropical like Miami/Ft.Lauderdale and the Carribean Islands (without the ocean). Several years back i toured Phoenix and Tucson Arizona and Phoenix with all its Palm Trees blew away Tucson in beauty with these Palm Trees all over and i was in the older core area (I-17 and Indian School) not the newer outer areas and the Palms were in the medians, shopping centers, motels, hospitals, malls and houses etc...

I agree Harry, we still got a while to go to catch up to what Phoenix, Tucson, and let say Las Vegas have in palm trees..but its nice to see the palm catching on in El Paso. But yup almost every new shopping center, hotel, restaurant, and even a lot of the new houses are getting them on their front lawns now.
The palms helps the city look a lot nicer IMO.

BTW, I drove by Viscount to see those new palms and sure enough they are up already, they are fairly tall and their palm branches(?) were all cut off so they look bald for now. They will look nice soon though when they get their new palm branches.

I will try to get the digital camera and take some pics of some of the palms in the area and post them up soon if time permits me to.