Posted by Tom, St. Marys, GA on August 5, 2007, 7:34 pm There aren't any real surprises here, but it does illustrate what can be done in the area in a very rural climate. All of the photos are from long-established (and in most cases, long-neglected) palms. On the USDA map this area is on the 7b/8a "line." A sizable Butia for the area, this one has about seven or eight feet of clear trunk. This Sabal palmetto is at an abandoned house. I first spotted the palm in 1990, and at the time I spoke with the son of the lady who planted it. He told me she planted it as a seedling in the late 1940s. A friend told me it totally defoliated at -5F in 1985, but obviously recovered. It has probably received absolutely no care in at least 20 years, and is now in too much shade under the pecan grove. Still, a beautiful palm. The photo is a little deceptive because the palm has about 18 feet of trunk. An old, old Needle palm at a Victorian home in downtown Sparta. The owner told me years ago that she had some documents showing it in the original garden plan in the 1880s or 1890s.
69.130.69.208
Here are a few photos I took on Sunday, August 5. I took these of palms in and around Sparta, GA, which is about 20 miles south of I-20 between Macon and Augusta. The area sits right on the "fall line" that separates the Piedmont from the Coastal Plain, though most of the town probably is on the Piedmont itself. 
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