Interesting post on the other forum about it. Its pretty cool to see one that big in Cali especially after the one in Newport died. Hopefully we will see more there in the coming years. I wonder if it will fruit any time soon though, its more than warm enough most of the year there.

Its kind of funny reading out of state,out of country palm people say its too cold in the Coachella Valley because it was 19f in 1932. We all know that the cold fronts now never reach the deep cold, of fronts pre 1975 or so - all over the state.
And probably never will in our lifetimes.

Yeah they are just going off statistics rather than whats normal for the area. A cold like that is very very rare. Actually, I'm not surprised it is growing there with those average weather statistics. Have you seen the pics of the Salton Sea cocos? I had only heard about them for years and thought they were a palm myth until a few months ago or so they had posted some old pics of them. They didnt look that bad but too bad they died from lack of water. Looks like the warmer parts of the California deserts are the key areas of growing cocos in CA. If I lived out there I'd being growing them lol

Being that HD has been selling Coconuts the last 5 or 6 years,I think those planted out in the desert will soon be peeking out over fences.
It makes sense. Coconuts growing in salty desert soils,watered with salty tap water..they don't care. It can never be too hot for them day or nights. Made for the desert.
And- how many times did I write how much better the Newport Beach coco would have looked if well cared for? Many-lol. If you have sandy soucal soils- coastal to inland,I think you have a much better chance then the rest with clay.

My yard in Fresno is 70% to 90% sand since I'm on an ancient alluvial fan of the San Joaquin River. Now, if we can only make global warming happen faster... I might have a chance at growing coconuts :P

Certainly, this coconut will be famous!

There appears to be another a little taller there too. Looks like coco's do grow in cali lol

and its even got small coconuts on it

wow- the second one is just as nice as any. That pretty much sinks they dont grow in soucal. The deserts are the only place for the real hot needy palms. The branching palms of Africa also only grow there.
I wonder what Palmbob thinks of it all?

The branching palms of Africa include the Hyphaene, Jubaeopsis and some Phoenix, all which grow just about any warm climate in So Cal, including the coast. However, the Hyphaene and Phoenix dactylifera do exceptionally well inland in the deserts there. But sadly, so far, no Hyphaene that I know of are branching above ground in California, even in the deserts (yet). But it may be that there simply aren't any old enough yet.

As far that coconut in la Quinta, that is miraculous- a product of a perfect microclimate (completely surrounded by manmade structures), but indeed a sign that, if things are put together right, one can indeed grow a coconut palm in California… but not one that will produce edible fruit of course (Coconuts don't even produce fruit on Hawaii except at the lower elevations).

but the second one isn't so easily dismissed as just micro-climate. I dont know of any that would help with the canopy out in the open and above the roof-line, except some hill that drains all the cold somewhere else. And since it has produced small fruits its clearly has the potential to grow mature edible fruits. i guess we will know more on whats really going on if/when a 3rd one is found.

Somebody needs to pull out the sign on the late NBC and take a drive to the deserts and plant it right in front of the PDC. I guess that beauty in Palm Desert is now farthest north..by a couple of miles over the La Quinta?.

What also impresses me? Seeing them in a calscape shows how much larger a canopy of fronds they have then many look-a likes- that are well known. It must take three large King palms grouped together to have that much frondage.

I think too..that the tropical summer and falls of the desert create a starch and sugars reserve in the palms that helps them in the brief winters there. Its like comparing a in ground plant with the same in a pot.
I took a close look at the Palm Desert coconut and I can see a streak running down the side about 3/4 up the trunk. I would bet that's the stress result of the 2007 freeze. Past that- its perfect.

pretty sure the likelihood of making mature edible coconuts is non-existent... as mentioned already, for coconuts to make mature fruit, they have to be in a truly tropical climate, and the coconut palms happily growing in the tropics, but at a higher altitude, do no ever make mature fruits, even though they make little aborted knobs all the time.

And microclimate is certainly the reason for this one's success, as coconuts have been one of the most tried and failed palms in California over the last 30-40 years. And the few mild successes (and more and more seem to be working out lately) are all due to extremely ideal microclimates. A few coconuts were grown along the very edge of the Salton sea some 20 years ago, and did pretty well until they got old enough, then all croaked... but again, that is obviously due to a unique microclimate encountered almost no where else in California. It seems that the desert is the mostly likely climate for Coconut successes in California, but microclimate assistance will still be needed, as those palm nuts growing palms in the desert still have not been able to grow a coconut without some major manipulation of their environment.

Not just coco's. Attlea palms,and tender Copernicia palms do fine in the desert. If the deserts have winters like the last two,almost anything is possible.
As long as you have water.
I do know I still want to give my largest Howea a hug. I'm not into waiting 20 years anymore. Time never flies when you want it to.

Another palm was just found in Palm Desert that is even larger and healthier looking, this one with only partially aborted fruits… just have to find the right microclimate and you never know how well these will do.

Also- the Salton Sea story was that the person who planted the coconuts moved and the palms went unwatered...then died.
I always asked desert people- like in Phoenix why they didn't try coconuts? And each one said they wouldn't grow there..but none tried-lol. So,as always you never know until you try.

Who knows? There might be a Bakersfield coconut out there one day...

Thats the one I mentioned earlier about the fruits, and it still has at least one still on it.

A coconut in Yuma might seem possible.

I think so too. Yuma this year was all but tropical. 80's all winter. More humid too being close to the Gulf of California. I noticed on the news,the Gulf's northern waters are in the 80's while on the western side of Baja its only in the 70's.

The bigger Palm Desert coco was just cut down. New owners. And why I know my plants will live only as long as me. I've seen "newowner" disease kill so many old monarch or rare plants. Its predictable.

Yeah I'm not too happy about that but it is what it is. There is still the other one. And I'm sure there are more, if not I'm sure there will be in the future now that word is getting around.

I've been reading all the discussions on the cocos. There are a lot more cocos out there in various parts of Socal than people think. Only palm nuts won't grow them, and they're the ones that spend all their time talking about palms online. Quite a few common folks grow them, they're mostly hidden in people's yards in ethnic neighborhoods of Latin American and Southeast Asian descent. Check out what the Thai community has pulled off in North Hollywood, which is a pretty bad frost pit. For the most part, palm hardiness is vastly under-estimated. I recently purchased Riverside grown foxtails and cuban royals. Last I checked, they're USDA 9b out there and those things are sitting in 36" boxes. The nurserymen out there don't care to read what the Palm Society publishes, they're perfectly happy just trying things out. There are also nice triangle palms downtown Riverside, they've been there for years, never seen any damage on them. Good thing no one told those triangles that they're growing in USDA 9b.

Yes,it spun the most jaded soucal palmophile on their heads. The mantra was the Coconut needed the coasts higher winter lows..but left out that the Deserts are dry,sunny,and - sandy soils. No wet clay all winter.

There are some huge tropicals in the Deserts. Yuma has an enormous Ficus bengahlensis..much larger then the California plant in Whittier,largest in the state. Also- Plumeria obtusa become tree's there.

I'm just not sure I would like that blazing heat.90's here two days in a row wear me down. But,if I did live there? The sky's the limit if there is water.

Yuma's average annual low is 63.3F! I can see why tropicals can be sustained there long term.Now if we can try coconuts!

According to Wikipedia, which references NOAA data as recently as 2014, Yuma's average low in December is 46.6F, and the record low was 22F as recently as 2007. Not saying it can't be done, but it would require protection at some point.

For young palms. But once they are trunking..they might take a one night of 22f followed by warm 70f days. Especially since cold in the desert is always a dry cold.
As usual,plant up against a wall for long term..in the open with winter protection or just being brave.
And like Axel said...there might be plenty of young or larger coco's in backyards of ethnic people in mild winter soucal all over. Maybe since 2007 or maybe since 1992's big freeze.
Yuma is milder then the Coachella valley by a slight amount. Don't forget the Salton Sea coconuts..that's no banana belt elevation. Flat as a pancake.

Coffee is grown in Santa Barbara in a way like no other..all phases of growth on the plants at the same time..flowers,unripe berries and ripe and red berries. All because of the marginal climate.
You see the same with those California coconuts-- they held on to their boots long past the time their tropical relatives would have at the same size.
So,tropical's adapt in ways we cant anticipate. And why you have to try them.

I've never seen a mature coconut anywhere it gets down to 22F, and I don't think any of those locations where coconuts and mangoes grow usually see very much below 32F, if even the upper 20's. California is full of microclimates. On a cold Winter night I can walk for 2 miles and go from 50F at my house in Fallbrook to 30F in the canyons. At my old place in Santa Cruz, 2 miles would be the difference between 40F and 27F. In 2007, Fallbrook ranged from 34F in the hills to 14F in the canyons. The differential in temperature is only related to topology by how wind exposed a given location is. Hill tops are more exposed to wind. Desert location are often much windier during cold spells, but again, wind exposure varies greatly from spot to spot. David Carp writes in Sunset Magazine about the devastation of the 2007 freeze on the mango orchard in the desert, he says:

All these challenges paled before the meteorological nightmare that occurred this past January. In the worst freeze to strike the California desert since 1937, temperatures plunged to prolonged durations of 26°. The cold proved even more dangerous than heat for the mango trees. Groves were blackened, with many trees killed and the remaining ones badly damaged. Production this year may collapse to 250,000 pounds, just 6 percent of the 4,000,000 pounds anticipated before the freeze.

See http://www.sunset.com/travel/california/mango-madness. As you can see, 26°F in 2007 suggests they're above 32F on other years. With that being said, when it comes to coconuts, it's not freezes that kills coconuts in the coastal zones, it's wet Winters. A true tropical climate is dry in the Winter and wet in the Summer. Perhaps the deserts are more suitable to simulate that sort of environment with added irrigation since it's easier to keep the ground dry in the Winter out there.

One has to ask oneself, given that people have been trying for years to grow these things in California, why are there so few large specimens around? The answer lies in the fact that California experiences catastrophic freezes every 30 years or so, even in Southern California. The folks with the mango orchard made a big mistake to not have installed infrastructure that can mitigate damage from such a freeze.

The La Palma coconut survived 2007 and 2013 (so did the NBC). Maybe it was there in 1998. The smaller La Quintana was planted in 2000.
The deserts dry winter's,sandy mineral rich soils..and ferocious summer heat with GW..well,pix don't lie.

"A true tropical climate is dry in the Winter and wet in the Summer."

That statement's misleading. Just as there's not "one" temperate climate, there's not "one" tropical climate. Many tropical climates are wet year round, with part of the year not having as much rain as the rest. Some have a very distinct, very dry season. Coconuts grow in both extremes, provided they've got enough water. What kills coconuts is cold wet in winter, and cold nights that don't warm up enough during the day. Warm wet in winter isn't an issue.

Yes, point well made, at our home on Hanalei Bay, "Winters" are warm and wet, and Summers are warmer and slightly drier, and coconuts grow fine there. What I was trying to get across is that most tropical plants are adapted to cool dry and warm wet seasons, but not cool wet. Mediterranean plants, in comparison, are adaptable to warm dry and cool wet. So if you can provide a dry Winter environment to tropical plants growing in a marginal environment, they'll be more likely to succeed. That's because tropical plants go dormant during cooler periods, and if it's wet, they'll rot, but if it's dry, they will do just fine without much growth.