Grow your own Dragon or Palm Tree from seed
Three-year-old pot-grown Dragon Tree
Growing many of the exotic trees that are seen in all their splendour on Tenerife is actually very easily done from seed in many species. The palms, including the Canary Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis), will all germinate readily enough, and it is easy to find the seeds lying on the ground where they have fallen, often to be seen in large numbers and most of which sadly go to waste.
The same goes for the Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco). It is very easy to find a tree with orange-coloured berries on it and each one contains a hard round seed. They need to be soaked for at least 24 hours before planting, and they may take three weeks or more to germinate, but most will do so and will produce a little green spike to let you know that all is well.
Why pay over one euro for a couple of seeds in a packet when you can find thousands of seeds on the pavements or ground where they have fallen? Most trees produce enough seeds to grow a forest!
Many other trees like the beautiful lilac-flowered Jacaranada (Jacaranda mimosifolia) and the bright red-bloomed Poinciana or Flame of the Forest Tree (Delonix regia) grow easily too and quickly from the seeds that are contained in their pods.
If you find the seeds of any tree here,
if you gather some up and soak them for a day and then plant in compost
in pots, you should have a lot of success in growing your own baby trees.
So why not give Mother Nature a helping hand?
Canary palm grown from seed and just over a year-old