Week of January 27

Another wonderful gardening opportunity at our home in Gainesville has been PALMS.  The property had four well established palm trees when we purchased it in 2013, along with many Sago Palms, which are not palms but rather cycads.  Our landscaping efforts led to planting dozens more, including the largest planting I have ever attempted, namely a 10 foot tall Cabbage Palm (Florida's State Tree), now much bigger.  A dying wax myrtle hedge was replaced with a 100 foot long Palm Row, consisting of Cabbage, Mule, Needle, Lady, Butia (Pindo), and Chinese Fan Palms, intermixed with ferns, Palmetto, elephant ears, azaleas, and banana bushes.  In other shady areas under the oak canopy, the Saw Palmetto and Lady Palms serve as ground cover.  The large Pindo Palms have fruit for the squirrels and birds.  In all, Palms provide that exotic, tropical theme that breaks up the azalea and oak mainstays of our Florida garden.