On Thursday afternoon I went to Rainbow Gardens on my way to work and exchanged the palm that was scheduled for planting on Saturday for another one. Rainbow gardens was very nice about making the exchange, even though I couldn't find my receipt, and the new plant was much cheaper, so much cheaper I got $160 credited back to my credit card.
I took the cute little palm with me and will have someone else plant it next week. For logistical reasons, I decided not to have rainbow gardens plant it (and it's a long trip for them anyway).
I decided to get a California Fan Palm for several reasons:
1) It grows much higher. While the Windmill Palm often maxes out near 20 ft (only reaching 40 feet very rarely), the California Fan Palm famously grows 40-60 feet. The Windmill Palm would top out just above Lyndhurst, which would not be good at all aesthetically or for maintenance. The California will grow right past Lyndhurst without pause, and become a neighborhood icon eventually ("who is that guy with the palm tree"). Yes! It's not certain that I will live long enough to see it get significantly above Lyndhurst, but the point is, I might, and it will be something to dream about and look forward to.
2) I was born in California and the California Fan Palm, not surprisingly, is native to California also. (Note that many boulevard palm trees in California are actually Mexican Fan Palm trees. The Mexican Fan Palms grow even faster, and even taller, and thinner, but only live to about 80 years. The California Fan Palm can live to 150 years or more.) The Windmill palm is native to China. If you see a wild group of Palms in the California outback, they are likely California Fan Palms. They were the ones at Palm Springs.
3) It is sufficiently cold tolerant for the San Antonio area (8b-9a 20-25 degrees), according to official ratings and other online sources, which say it is tolerant to 15 degrees. It is equal, perhaps even slightly better, in cold tolerance than the native Texas Sabal (16 degrees). It is not as cold tolerant as the Windmill (5 degrees!), but it is likely hardy enough for me. It is tolerant in other ways also (heat, partial sun, full sun, drought, soil) better than most large palms.
4) The top leaves grow somewhat wider than the Windmill Palm, which means it would give more shade. But it is still about half the width of the massive Canary Island Date Palm, which would probably get unwieldly wide before getting tall enough to clear Lyndhurst, becoming a big nuisance, or at least that was my worry and one reason I decided not to get the Canary despite how awesome the Canary is--after about 60 years!
5) It grows faster than the Windmill Palm. Not as fast as the very fast Mexican Fan Palm, but moderate, which is better than slow. I fear the extra thinness of the Mexican Fan Palm, the curvature it always has, and it is not as tolerant of cold or heat..
6) The one I got is in a much smaller container, only 5 gallon, which will make it easier to plant amid the buried wires in my telecom easement. Judging by the 811 markers, there is no good place to fit a 15 gallon tree. But since it grows faster, it will make up the difference in a few years.
7) I like the more tropical look, with yellow-orange-brown trunk instead of pale green. The unique threads are interesting and are part of the story about the tree I can tell to visitors.
8) It is becoming threatened in natural habitats (back in my birth state!) because many of its natural habitats are being destroyed by human encroachment. If all that's left are human plantings, much diversity will be lost, but the more diverse the plantings the better. (Of course, there is more to losing the Palm micro-ecosystems than just the Palms themselves.)
9) The California Fan Palm has many edible parts, and was used in many ways by native americans in the southwest. You can eat the pea-sized fruits raw, cooked, or made into to jelly or porridge. As with the Cabbage Palm of the American southeast, you can also harvest and eat the heart ("heart of palm") but it kills the tree when you do that; the 'heart' is active growing part of the tree. The Windmill Palm is inedible.
One downside is that the stems have very sharp deadly looking spikes on the stems. I've pruned a similar palm in the past, and learned you must wear something like welding gloves. I was surprised to see that the Windmill palm actually had smooth and unthreatening stems. But the spikes protect the California palm from predators, including dogs. Many large palms have spiked stems, it seems, the Windmill is exceptional in not having them.
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