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Washingtonia filifera in back. Jubea chilensis in foreground. The Washingtonia was a balled & burlapped transplant from the Valley about 8 years ago. It had approximately one foot of trunk at planting. It recovered from the dig well and has grown at 8-10" of trunk per year. The trunk girth has never developed as it should though and I am certain it is due to the young age at which it was transplanted. The current thinking amongst Florida nurserymen is that palms which are transplanted before their trunks reach maximum girth at the base are likely to never fully develop. It is probably wise to avoid transplanting palms unless the are very large! For sabals and some of the other notoriously slow to recover transplant shock- starting off with container grown plants makes a lot of sense. The Jubea has been in the garden for six years and although slow, seems to thrive. I believe that the key to sucess with Jubea in Houston is starting out with a larger plant. This specimen was planted from a 15 gallon pot straight out of a Southern California nursery. All the many others I had previously tried were planted as 1 or 2 gallon seedlings which succumbed to various bud rots. A Houstonian lost one larger plant to bud rot but his had been planted at ground level rather than in an elevated situation and also had turf grass at the trunk base further constricting air flow.

Horace giving "the tour grande" to guest and members of the Houston area chapter of the IPS.