I love that my desk faces the window - how else would I have gotten to watch this pair of Northern Cardinals playing in the water.

Another benefit to working at a tree farm - lots of wildlife . . . I mean, how much fun is this guy having?

Fishtail Palms

Clustering Fishtail Palms, Caryota mitis, are now ready for the market! They range from 6' to 8', have lots of clustering branches and a nice heavy main trunk. I've been eyeing the one at the left for my yard.

Lucky to live in a semi-tropical climate, I am able to grow this palm outdoors. It is hardy to zone 9b or about 25 degrees Farenheit. Clustering Fishtails also do well in large pots where they can be moved inside or otherwise protected during the winter. Since they grow well in part sun or full shade, Fishtails are also grown successfully indoors.

All fishtail palms have triangular shaped leaves (like a fish's tail) with a jagged edge. They can become tattered in high winds. Simmons Oak Farms grows them out in the open and these look pretty darn great! When they were smaller, they tended to look a little bit wind-whipped!

Fishtails like consistant moisture. Their seeds are irritating to the skin so be sure to wear gloves when handling them and when trimming this palm.

This is a myocarpic plant - that means that, like a century plant, it dies after it blooms. The good news it that Fishtail Palms don't bloom for about 15 years - and only the branch that actually bloomed dies. The other suckering branches keep on growing. The branches are fairly thin, so trimming them is easy for the homeowner.

A mature clump of Caryota mitis will be about 15' wide by 20-25' tall.

Uses: Houseplants, potted outdoors, planted in a group as screening, or singularly as a focal point. Plant it close enough to pathways that the unique leaves can be admired.

Remembering Dolly - One Year Later

This time last year we were amidst a "Hurricane Party". We'd prepared for a small, weak hurricane - it was a category 1 and the forecast was that she may build to a category 2. No one was too concerned. After all, spring winds around here can reach near-hurricane strength. Mainly, at the nursery, we'd secured things and prepared for the possibility of no electricity for a while. But Dolly had something else in mind for us. Although she didn't have much strength, Dolly stalled over Harlingen for three hours. Those three hours of constant relentless winds took their toll. With the exception of a few that broke, the small trees fared the best. It was easy to go into a young field, pull them upright and tie them to a new stake.

Big trees were another story - Since their in-ground bags were fully rooted , the big uns laid over just as if they'd been harvested. Some could be saved but most were a total lost or became "Dolly Specials".

Flooded fields, mosquitoes, and weed seed like we've never seen were some of the other fun effects of Hurricane Dolly. For a small storm, she sure caused alot of trouble!

Protection from the Heat

Do you feel like you are just melting in this heat? This morning, I got onto Weather.com to check out our forecast, just hoping that there might be a little relief in sight. No such luck.

2009 has seen more field irrigations at Simmons Oak Farms than ever before! Driving around the Valley, we notice lots of trees and palms under stress. Just like people and pets, our plants need more water to get them through these 100 degree temperatures - especially anything that is newly planted (with trees, newly planted means in the last couple of years)

Do your watering during the early morning or evening hours- and be sure to water deeply. I like to turn a hose on so the water is about finger-width. Leave it there for 30 minutes to an hour before you move on to the next tree. If you have an underground sprinkler system, increase the length of time for the stations that irrigate your trees.

I know what an investment large trees and palms are. It doesn't make sense not to spent the time and money to take protect that investment!

Containerized Live Oaks

We've only got about half a row planted so far - and I LOVE how great these Southern Live Oaks look! They all fork well above my head - yeh, yeh, yeh, I know it's because their rootballs are now above ground . . .

. . . . anyhow, Simmons Oak Farms is excited to be able to supply our customers with larger Southern Live Oaks, Quercus virginiana. I mean we are all about the oaks . . . .

More room for big trees

This is our new holding yard - tomorrow we begin harvesting Southern Live Oaks that are 5" to 6" caliper and containerizing them. The diameter of their rootball will go from 24" to 40". The original plan was to put 4" oaks in the 95 gallon pots - but by the time we were ready to plant, we just had bigger trees. Yep, you do the math as to how long it took us to get in gear . . .

. . . in reality, we like to sell our shade trees at no bigger than 4". They're somewhere between 14 and 18 feet tall then and a lot of plant to handle. A 5 or 6 inch tree will transplant better with a bigger rootball than the 24" RootMaker bags they're growing in.

At the left are some Southern Live Oaks that are being cured. We can keep them on the yard for months and months like this, if needed.

Here's a close-up of the in-ground container we use. The material it's made of prunes the trees roots. In a plastic pot, roots hit the side of the pot, turn and begin circling. We don't have that problem with this process. I mean, just look at the number of small fibrous roots - when this tree is transplanted, the root system should really take off - well, provided it is given lots of water - but that's altogether another subject.

Welcome to our little experiment

Welcome to our little experiment - a blog based on the wholesale nursery (or tree farm) business - there's a big difference between what we do and what a greenhouse operation does. We grow large landscape trees and palm trees - so that's what I'll be writing about - well, mainly. You can count on me getting on a rant every now and again. I have wondered who will want to read this (besides my sister, Betsy, that is). But whoever you are, I hope you will be free with your comments.

Simmons Oak Farms (that's us) grows Live Oaks (surprise?), Cedar Elm, Anacua, and Texas Mountain Laurel trees along with a large selection of palm trees. Palms are our newest venture; and it's been a bit of trial by error so far. We've killed them with herbicide, let them drown, and a few winters ago the deer decided they were a tasty addition to their diet! But now we have some that are actually large enough to sell!

I'm glad you stopped by and hope you drop in often!