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The Palm King On June 10, 1999, Gunter and
I went south, to the Rio Grande Valley. Our first stop was at
a Cacti Garden just outside the city limits of Corpus. Gunter
purchased a Phoenix (Date) palm and a small cactus. After spending
some time looking around the nursery we got back into the car
and headed south towards Port Isabel and South Padre Island.
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 Hyophorbe lagenicaulis (Bottle Palm) |
 Gunter with his New Friend |
It was a beautiful, warm,
sunny, morning, only a few tropical thunder heads were in view
off in the distance. And as Gunter and I cruised down highway
77, drinking our coffee, talking business, palms and enjoying
the sights, we both knew that it was going to be more then just
a good day it was going to be a Great Day! Our next stop was in Port Isabel where we gassed up the rig (as we were running on fumes). As we were driving towards the bridge to South Padre Island we both were amazed at all the beautiful Queen Palms planted along the main street of town. Once over the bridge we found ourselves in touristville as South Padre is lined with large hotels and condos. Lots of construction going on and lots of new palm plantings too! Even with all the commercialism, South Padre is still a beautiful place! |
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After leaving beautiful South Padre
Island we headed inland towards Elsa to visit another PSST member
and nursery owner Carol Farrald. On our way we noticed a man
and his truck parked along side the road with many palms on display.
This was a hard one to pass by. You guessed it, Gunter had to
stop! This time Gunter bought 4 Washingtonia robusta (5 gallon
pots) a Phoenix roebelenii also 5 gallon. Now I had to ask myself,
why did Gunter buy those Mexican fan palms when he has literally
hundreds and hundreds growing all over is property already! Oh
well, I thought, you don't question the Palm King! Finding Carol's nursery wasn't too hard and once there Gunter went into another buying frenzy! I won't even mention what he bought there for fear his wife might read this. It was at this point in our trip that I begun to worry about space inside the van, as you remember, we went down to dig and carry back a bottle palm. |
 Don Riley and Gunter with the dug up Bottle Palm |
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After a nice visit with Carol
and her son, We got back into the van overcrowded with palms
and plants and headed toward Harlingen to dig that Bottle palm!
On the way Gunter says, "Oh No, I left the instructions
to Don's house at home!" Well Don is a PSST member and I
had the roster and a cell phone so no problem right? Wrong! First
the number on the roster was not a good working number, I was
beginning to get bummed. "Call Gaby", Gunter says in
a desperate voice. So I did, but Gaby wasn't there! We need a
map I told Gunter as we drove blindly around the back streets
of Harlingen. Circle K to the rescue! First and Washington will forever be burnt into my South Texas fried brain as it was at that intersection, we found a Circle K store, and it was there that we bought their last map of Harlingen. It was getting on towards 6:00 in the evening, and we both knew that Don was waiting, and we still had to drive back to Corpus and did I mention we had to dig the palm?... |
| When we finally arrived at Don's home, we found him out front, most likely waiting and wondering if we were going get there at all! Don showed us the palm. It was bigger than what Gunter and I had thought it would be, but that was even better (anyway for Gunter). We began digging immediately and in about a hour we had it completely dug and rolled out of the hole. The pot we were going to put it in was way too small for the root ball so we had to wrap the roots and slice the pot and hold everything together with Duct Tape something Gunter learned form watching MacGyver on German TV! We had to empty out the van and slide the palm in (the hard part) and then repack the van with the other palms and plants (that was the easy part). Once packed, or should I say compressed, it was back home to Corpus and mission accomplished. All in all it was a Very Good day! |
 Gunters new Bottle palm at home |
 Hyophorbe lagenicaulis Trunk |
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