Another palm tree just up the street

Another palm tree just up the street from my house

It may be February, but there are still plenty of palm trees to be enjoyed here in New Westminster.

The palm tree on the left is a prime example.

I don’t know the history behind this particular palm tree, but I do see it quite often because it’s located just a couple of blocks up the street from my house.

The photo was taken last June, so don’t think the weather out here on the west coast is as nice and mild as it looks in the photo. It’s been clear and dry for the last couple of days, and just below freezing, but last week was awfully wet.

One of my favourite palm trees

One of my favourite palm trees here in New Westminster located a few doors down from my house

The palm tree in the photo on the left is one of my favourites here in New Westminster.  It’s located a few doors down from my house on the opposite side of the street.

When I complimented the owner on this palm tree a while back he told me the story behind the tree.

His daughter gave him two small palm trees as a present a number of years ago, and he decided to plant one of them in his backyard in what he thought was a prime location.

He really didn’t know what to do with the other one so he decided he would just plant it in the front of his house somewhat randomly. 

As you can see from the photo, the one he planted somewhat randomly out front of his house has thrived despite not having been doted upon.

Unfortunately, the one he planted in his backyard (which he covered and nurtured) did not survive.  I can only imagine how big and beautiful this palm tree would have been today if it had survived.

From what I’ve been able to observe, palm trees here in New Westminster seem do best on the south-facing and/or west-facing sides of houses.

This isn’t really a brilliant insight on my part, but if you know the geographic quirkiness of New Westminster you’ll know that the city runs parallel to a bend in the Fraser River and that this in turn “bends” New Westminster’s street grid at a 45 degree angle to the street grids of nearby nearby municipalities like Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Surrey and the Tri-Cities.

In practical terms this means the usual Lower Mainland directional references to “west” and “south” are really “southwest” and “southeast” when you are standing in New Westminster.  This geographic quirk must have something to do with all the nice palm trees I’ve spotted around town?

One other factor that seems to have a bearing on the success of palm trees in New Westminster is having a hedge or other wind block nearby. 

And as you can probably guess, the palm tree in the photo above is located on the southwest corner of the lot sloping toward the river with big hedges nearby.  It doesn’t really get any better than that.

New Blog – first post

Just a first quick post to a new blog.  Nothing special.  But there are a lot of palm trees here in New Westminster and it’s time someone started cataloguing them.  I think I’m going to do that, and occasionally share other thoughts as well…  Why not?  Blogging is dead easy.