To many people a garden is an oasis, a place where they can escape the stress of busy lives, and just relax. If there’s one plant in particular which evokes memories of holidays, tropical beaches, and gives that calm, peaceful, rainforest sort of feel to the garden, it would have to be the palm. You can instantly create that effect by buying a mature palm, digging a hole and just dropping it in, but as Don demonstrates, it’s really easy to grow your own palms from seed, and it’s also a lot of fun. First though, let’s consider another interesting aspect of palms.
As well as being used for housing construction, furniture making and weaving, palms feed millions of people in the world every day, in fact an amazing range of edible products are derived from palms. It’s easy to think of dozens of foodstuffs made from the humble coconut (Cocos nucifera), but perhaps the great crop that’s been neglected in Australia comes from the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera), and dates really are one of the world’s most beautiful fruits.
If you like to find all about the different types of palms refer to The Palm Identifier, by Martin Gibbons. ISBN 0-73180-083-4. Simon & Schuster, rrp $13.00.