Kelowna’s palm trees survived the frigid winter

Half of the City of Kelowna’s palm trees survived their first winter outdoors and the rest seem likely to revive as temperatures climb.

There was some concern back in January about the four Winchester palm trees that were bundled up and had their roots buried for their first winter outdoors.

“The two big ones have green on the fronds that are left and are still green on the inside,” Blair Stewart, the City’s parks services manager, told iNFOnews.ca.

“The other two, there is still green inside. They don’t look very good from the outside but from what we can see there’s a chance they will come back. I’m not 100 per cent certain right now. It might take three or four weeks before they really produce.”

In past years, the palm trees, which grow at the south end of Tugboat Beach in downtown Kelowna, were moved indoors for the winter but are now too big for that.

City crews have experience with other tropical trees overwintering outside so took the chance this past winter on the palm trees

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