Palm trees in El Paso

[atrabilius]

Originally Posted by 9162

I can honestly say I have seen maybe one or two tall Canary Island Date Palms, the dramatic type you see in Southern California, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, but they didn't seem to be flourishing. The closest I see, is the dactylifera version similar to the palms shown on CNN during Iraqi, middle East, North Africa news coverage. I remember, I think it was back in 2011 there was a cold snap where temps went down to around zero, and it seems that killed off a lot of existing palms, and even a lot of cactus. The irony, is, I have a friend that lives in Massachusetts that has a prickly pear cactus in his yard, I can't believe it, but it survives a New England winter. I saw small prickly pear cactus' for sale at a green house in Rhode Island and asked about that; I mentioned that in El Paso some died off, yet there is actually one that survives in MA. She said it has a lot to do with how acclimated that particular plant is to the climate, that in TX the cactus may not have ever been accustomed to any severe temp changes in that past which creates a sensitivity for the plant. I don't know, how true it is but it seemed like a good answer. I also wonder if the Seguaro cactus could survive in El Paso if any were to be transplanted...

I haven't seen any saguaro. Has anybody ever seen saguaro cacti in El Paso?

[SW Desert Dweller]

Originally Posted by atrabilius

I haven't seen any saguaro. Has anybody ever seen saguaro cacti in El Paso?

There were transplanted saguaro that were thriving prior to the deep freeze 6 years ago. I had one in my yard that was doing quite well (although it takes decades for them to grow big enough to have "arms").

The said deep freeze killed all or most saguaros, including one that was quite large in a neighbor's back yard.

[tfinvold]

It depends really. I found that with marginal areas for palm trees & cactus it's where you get the original seed from that determines the success. If you want to grow a saguaro then saguaro seeds harvested from the high elevation slopes of Mount Lemmon near Tucson some of those Saguros are growing above 4,000ft and have seen many extremely cold nights and would do OK on a south side location of your house even during a big freeze. The ones most people get their Saguaros from are typically lowland ones growing around Phoenix which doesn't really see those types of temps. As far as palms go it seems that Canary Island Date Palms grow well in zone 8 just about everywhere I've seen. Fan palms would probably do better if they were a hybrid California x Mexican fan palm. Thing I've seen is they'll do OK for a bad freeze one time but it dramatically shortens their lifespan and they seem to not be able to draw water up to the stem of a really tall one. They just kinda top out in most zone 8 areas at about 50-60ft unless there's a really long mellow spell. The ones in Phoenix have mild winters similar to winters in California. I don't think most places in the southwest like El Paso have that mild of a winter so a few bad winters just causes them to stop growing and die at some point as the environment is pretty much at the edge of their growing zone. I noticed when I lived in Sierra Vista about 4 hours west of El Paso there seems to be a few mature trees despite it being in the same growing zone, the only real difference is that it rains more. I'm thinking they need more water especially during hot months than El Paso can throw out of the sky.

[R1070]

I remember seeing some pics of all of the palms that died back in 2011 all bent over with burned palm fronds.

[9162]

Originally Posted by atrabilius

I haven't seen any saguaro. Has anybody ever seen saguaro cacti in El Paso?

What is so ironic, is that “Old El Paso” taco seasoning mix, taco sauce, shells, etc, display seguaro cactus on their labels, yet are no where to be found in El Paso, TX.