Monday, May 11, 2009

Phoenix Sylvestris

The centerpiece of my new garden is a beautiful palm, Phoenix Sylvestris, also called the silver date palm, wild date palm, or sylvester date palm.


I bought it from Doug Murray, owner of Flying Cow Tree Farm in Wellington, FL. He and his father planted seeds they got from India about 20 years ago. This tree weighed somewhere between 1500-2500 pounds. Check out the size of the rootball!


It came in by crane.


The 'boots' are cut off, leaving diamond shaped leaf scars along the trunk.





The leafstalks are blue-green and are covered with long spines. I wouldn't want to mess with them. The head stays tied up for about 3 weeks. It reminds me of a troll.


Wouldn't you just love to lie on the hammock underneith this beautiful palm tree?

4 comments:

Katie said...

HAHA the troll is so funny! I like the tree!

Sarah said...

The root ball looks like a moon! And when you said troll, didn't you mean nudnik? Ha ha

JudyBop said...

haha - now you just need to get a purple tree to match that troll. Good tree story!

Susan said...

We did call those trolls nudniks!