Feeling the need to take full advantage of today’s Goldilocks weather, I took the old push bike out for a bit of a pootle this afternoon. I normally only use the bike to get from A to B in the shortest possible time, so it was quite nice to take it slowly, not get up too much of a sweat and admire the sights and sounds of the city. London in the summer really is something. I love it, and you can’t take that away from me.
Yesterday, a friend of mine was contending that it is warmer south of the river than north. Admittedly, he was only asserting his theory for one particular bit of the river, where the north side is fairly windswept but the south is more protected. Anyway, having had this conversation I was assaulted by the irony of the above sign, spotted as I free-wheeled over Lambeth Bridge.
Is London really hot enough to sustain palm trees? Will it survive the winter or will the council be hothousing it for months of the year? And Labour say there are not savings to be had…
Those things can survive a frost easily enough. Its not a palm tree…
What do you mean?!
The council dug out all the native trees in Southend High Street and installed planters with these last year instead – about the same size. They survived pretty well.
It’s a windmill palm, isn’t it?
I think it’s a type of Fan Palm , Chamaerops they are very hardy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaerops
We had one on the terrace in East Dulwich and it survived very well ( frost, snow etc.)
Actually looking at the picture again, I think it’s still a Fan Palm but more likely Trachycarpus , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachycarpus
One of which also survived on the terrace in E. Dulwich.
I know they benefit from the North Atlantic Drift in the Hebrides, but if palms can survive there I’m sure they can manage London.
Though it does look a little ridiculous.