Young cycads and palms need protection from frost. The most effective protection is a natural canopy. Here are some helpful tips for making the right decisions.
In addition to protecting your young cycads, canopy plants are also very attractive to any garden. However, it is important to determine which plants that already exist in your garden may be destined to become canopy plants.
If you have cyads as understory plants, the plants you select as your protective canopy can be a blessing or a curse. I have experience in both. My primary understory plants are cycads, so I prefer to use larger, cold-hardy palms, such as Jubea Chiliensis, Phoenix Dactylifera, Brahea, Trachycarpus, and others, as my main canopy plantings. Palms are preferred for a couple of reasons;
– I have control over when the dry leaves should be removed
– This prevents damage to the smaller plants, due to the large leaves falling from above.
– The palms do not drop the fine matter of the leaves, which tends to clog the tops of the cycads.
I have sycamore, pepper and oak trees as canopies in my garden. They tend to clutter cycad crowns with leaves, but I tolerate them because they are attractive in their own way.
It is important to choose the correct location for understory plants, relative to canopy plants. This is just as important as selecting the right canopy plants to use. Many large palms have a substantial root system that begins just below ground level. If you choose to include palms as a canopy, it is important not to plant your cycads or other plants too close to the base of large palms. Otherwise, the palm roots will compete with the smaller, less aggressive understory plants and potentially kill them.
Certain understory plants can benefit from closer proximity to canopy plants, due to seasonal sensitivity to extreme temperatures. I have a significant amount of cycads that benefit from superior protection against cold, in fall, winter and spring. They also benefit from sun protection from July to September. My understory plants receive optimal benefit year-round by locating these understory plants under a canopy plant that extends from the southeast to the southwest. The midday sun in the winter is lower in the sky and tends to shine from the south below the canopy, while in the summer, the sun passes directly above and shines longer. In this way, they benefit from more sun exposure on the coldest days of the year, less sun on the hottest days, but benefit from protection against the cold from December to February.
You can optimize garden success, depending on your canopy use and understory plant location.