Outdoor palm tree

I have a space ear marked for a palm tree, it’s in full sun, protected from high winds and in good drained soil.

id like to know if anyone could recommend a hardy palm tree. I’m thinking the Corey line is perhaps the toughest purely based on the amount I see locally.

I’m based on the east coast of Yorkshire

 

Cordyline australis, not a true palm, or Trachycarpus are the hardiest.
Smaller in stature Chamaerops is pretty hardy also.

 

The advantage with Cordyline, at least when they're young, is that you can tie up the leaves over the growing point, to protect it from cold and wet. They're not spiky and objectionable to handle either

 

Thanks. I previously had a cordyline which suffered in some heavy snow and the trunk rotted. I had to chop the infected trunk down to about a foot off the ground but it did live. It sprouted two new trunks from the base and flourished quite well

 

I have young cordylines and chamaerops but the one I really want, and as mentioned, the more true looking palm, is the trachycarpus. These things are really impressive as mature specimens. They seem to be pretty expensive as well, even smallish ones. If I knew that they were fast growers, which I suspect they're not, I'd probably get a small one to grow out.

 

Not sure how typical mine is, due to different climates, but I was given a baby seedling 6 years ago and it's 2m high now.

 

Lol, I'm not surprised you get growth like that in the south of France!

Tropical species of plants/trees, the hardy varieties of course, are very popular in the UK now.

There's something not quite right though when you see gardens with a tropical theme, lush planting, very Mediterranean looking, and yet the weathers usually cold and it's absolutely *issing it down, lol.

Gotta love the blighty climate.

 

I get growth on the cordys here in the south of England like Noisette gets, plus they self seed everywhere.
Go for a trachycarpus. A bog standard trachy grows single trunk and will outlive a typical Yorky winter with little or no protection. Also, as Pete says, chamaerops which is a multi stemmed shrubby palm with vicious spines on the petioles(leaf stems).
For those who don't like latin descriptions, chusan palm and european fan palm

 

I find Trachycarpus is slow in pots but gets a move on a year or so after planting out.
Not sure if @noisette47 was referring to Trachycarpus or cordyline for that growth rate.

I also find that Trachycarpus needs a lot of water during the growing season if you really want it to move.

 

It's a Trachy. The Cordyline that I planted 13 years ago is a 4-trunked tree more like 3m high.
One other thing to perhaps bear in mind when deciding is the palm moth? I believe it's present in UK. It's heartbreaking to plant a true palm only to have it destroyed by the larvae tunnelling up through the trunk.

 

I always thought that Cordylines would produce a single trunk. You see loads of them about like that. But also, as with yours, they split into multiple trunks sometimes.

How do you know, when you buy a young cordyline, whether you have a "single" or a "multiple". Are they the same strain of cordyline, or are they a slightly different variety?

Someone once told me that Cordylines are usually single, and if you end up with a multiple there is a good chance it isn't a true cordyline, but indeed could be a hardy outside yukka instead, which I believe do actually give multiple stems.

Is there any truth in this?

 

No, basically.
Cordylines, like most of the family branch after flowering, the flower forms on the end of the growing point so usually they put out a couple of new shoots below the flower to carry on growing.
Personally I've never had a multi stem one, from the ground, form without some kind of damage take place, but I think some will form multiple stems naturally.
But they are still Cordyline australis, just natural variation.

I believe a lot are now produced by micro propagation so are the same plant with the same characteristics, mine are all seed grown.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Also, I believe the purply pink varieties, although beautiful, are not as hardy as the green ones?

What outside winter temps are we talking about that would finish the purple ones off? Mine are green but I'd like a purple one.

 

Just wanted to put a good word in for the European fan palm (chaemerops humilis) which has beautiful leaves, even if they do feel a bit prickly. Its natural tendency is to form a dome of foliage, but can be encouraged upwards by taking out shoots as they appear at the bottom. I've had one in an urn for two or three years now, it has grown well and shrugs off London winters, at any rate.

 

I've got a small purple one myself, but its in a pot atm, I do intend planting it out.

I think for the more showy varieties we could say around minus 5c although there was one in my street that had been there for more than 10 yrs until it was cut down to make more car parking space.
As with a lot of these things age and acclimatisation play a part.