It can sound like a foreign language or feel like you’ve just stepped into a foreign country…buying a palm tree isn’t supposed to be different than buying any other tree or plant, right?
Well…for first timers, it can be a bit daunting. A simple question like “how much does that palm tree cost?” will generally get a response filled with foreign words and acronyms the average ear will have never heard before and it can feel a bit like stepping into NASA and wishing there was some manual or chart to explain the abbreviations and acronyms being thrown around.
Whatever happened to normal tree talk – like gallon sizes or calipers? Well, unfortunately those don’t generally apply to palms, unless you’re buying a little house palm at your local home improvement store.
The GOOD NEWS is there is really only ONE acronym you need to understand – CT.
So, what the heck is a CT? CT stands for Clear Trunk Foot and it is the space measured on the trunk between the top of the root ball and the bottom of the first row of fronds of the palm. There ARE some other terms used but more rarely, such as clear wood but we won’t go into that as that is generally reserved for the pros. (thank goodness)
So WHY isn’t it more simple? Well, because for whatever reason, the palm biz likes to complicate things and so I have no real great answer for that, except that Palms grow slowly and the trunk foot represents the age and value of the palm and because heads can range in size or height from a couple feet up to 20+ feet so it has become the industry standard to price palms based on the CT – CLEAR TRUNK FOOT.
So, next time you go palm shopping, you can go in speaking and understanding the lingo and you don’t even have to be a rocket scientist!
Come into see us at our 20 acre farm in Houston. We’re always here – 7 days a week – and always available by phone. We have plenty of varieties of palms and most are very cold hardy and long living palms. We have palms ranging from 2′ CT to 30′ CT and we have a bunch of big guys and big machines to install them wherever you want!
We can also deliver anywhere in the country from zones 8b to 11 so don’t hesitate to call in and tell us what you need and we can deliver 1 or 100 from our massive farms in Arizona where we grow our famous Medjools & Sylvesters and can ship nearly every other palm as well – Mediterranean, Mule, Livistona, Windmill, Washingtonia, Filifera, Pygmy Dates, Canary Date Palms, Pindo Palms & so on and so on and so on!
And, of course….we sell EVERY BIG TREE – not just palms. And all you have to ask for is the gallon size you want. We carry all sizes from 15g to 700g. If you can dream it, we can grow it!
Thanks
Patrick Amery
Serving Houston, tx Katy, tx Texas city, tx Galveston, tx and all surrounding areas
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