Virginia Beach palms September 2019

Friday of Last week, I went to Virginia beach to spend a night and enjoy the stuff around..  We had previously stayed in Richmond Virginia en route to Raleigh NC for the IBMA event but we had left a couple days early to hit Virginia beach and the OBX .  On our way we saw a couple windmill palms in newport news but after crossing the bridge from there to Norfolk we started seeing lots of different plants.  One house near the water had some nice taller Windmills and needle palms.

We also saw some Large Yucca Rostrata plants growing on the beachfront in front of an abandoned lot.  Their crowns were very small.

Continuing down into Virginia beach, we passed our first  Pindo outside a Hotel.  We also saw some Healthy Sabal palmetto a few streets back from the Waterfront.  Windmills were also everywhere.














We started seeing more planted palms past First landing Park.  This seeding full headed Palmetto was a good find behind a hotel away from the water.   We also saw this very healthy Yucca Rostrata.  this shows you what wind protection can do for a plant.

Once we got to Atlantic Ave, we saw the mass planted Palmettos and Pindos planted around the Neptune statue.  While they look nice for now, they tend to die every winter or two due to the high windchill and the fact they cannot get established before being exposed to high winds and salt spray in the winter.

However we did see one Oceanfront Sabal Palmetto that looked established and had a decent amount of fronds.  I asked a local who ran a Bike Rental nearby and he said its been there since he started working 5 years ago.

The streetside palms also don't look the greatest either, the wind still affects them and they often don't get good care before winters.   I did find a few that were nice looking and have been there 10+ years.  These few survived the last 2 bad winters (2015-16 and 2017-18).

 

This old Pindo seemed to have a trunk rot issue but has since recovered. it was one of the bigger ones on the main strip.

Windmills were slightly less common than the Palmettos and Pindos but very few looked as ragged.  most looked quite healthy but seldom were over 10 feet tall on the main drag.

Some of the Non palm plants I saw included some more tall Yucca Rostrata and Other various Yucca Species.  I also saw one sago on a sidewalk near a restaurant near Atlantic Ave.

Some of the Nicest Palms I saw on the beach area were on sideroads leading to Atlantic Ave.  This was the largest Pindo I saw that day. 

This Sabal Palmetto has been here for at least 12 years according to Google maps.  Looked quite nice and was seeding

This ragged old Palmetto is quite close to the Beach but still pulls through every winter with no maintenance or trimming, some large volunteer seedlings were near the base.

Speaking of volunteer palms, they were everywhere!  most looked like sabal palmetto but I saw a few small Pindo volunteers too.  Some of these volunteers are getting some size on them.  here are some various ones naturalizing everywhere.  They are all over town.

 
 
One of the Biggest Volunteers was at the Jungle Golf Mini-golf joint. Some of their planted palmettos have been there 20-30 years according to Locals and according to streetview this one was a volunteer seedling.  This palm took no damage during 2017-18 and has a very beefy trunk and huge canopy . Look at the size of this monster!  Im 6ft 1 for reference. 

Jungle Golf had some of their old palmettos still around and you can tell they have seen some bad winters from the trunk damage.


while most of the European fan palms i saw were small and unhealthy, I did see one nice trunking palm near a Hampton inn.  they also had some Bananas and Pindos mixed with Windmills.  Some of the Pindos had volunteer seedlings around their base. 

 
I did get a quick drive through a residential area, and the palms were much healthier looking there.  Most were windmills and some were of good old height.  I saw some very nice full crowned Sabal Palmetto there as well and one large grouping of sago.

  The next morning on our way out, I snapped this last picture about a mile inland of some nice healthy Pindo and Sabal Palmetto....  as for our next destination, Outer Banks or Bust!