The Palm Garden

Ramat Hanadiv’s Memorial Gardens are, in fact, a collection of gardens, each distinguished by its own particular beauty. We invite you to step into the Palm Garden for a short while, where you’ll find lots of shade and ambiance. To fully appreciate it, though, you’ll have to raise your eyes high up into the massive green fronds above you.

The palm family comprises some 200 species and some 3,500 kinds of evergreen trees, reaching heights ranging from about 6-20 meters (20-65 ft.). They originated in the hot, humid climate of the tropics. They can also grow in desert areas near water sources or in places where the groundwater is relatively high; the presence of date palms in the desert are a sure sign of an oasis. Date trees, members of the palm family, accompanied our forefathers in their long wanderings through the sands of the Sinai. The tree provided them with food, shade, and raw materials for equipment and tents.When their sojourn in the desert was over and they entered the land of Israel, the date became one of the seven symbolic species ‘with which our land was blessed’. In 12th-century Egypt, the great Jewish scholar/physician known as the Rambam wrote about the plant’s medicinal, curative powers. In the annals of folk medicine, too, the fruit of the date tree is respected for its redemptive qualities.

The Palm Garden at Ramat Hanadiv presents an impressive collection of palms and palm-like species. The overwhelming majority of them are domesticated species, of which only the date grows in Israel.
Among the large palm trees in the Memorial Gardens one may find the towering Washingtonia palm. The Washingtonia palm was planted along many avenues in moshavim and other settlements established by Baron Rothschild, and became a symbol and identifying sign of the Baron’s moshavot throughout Israel.
Breeding birds find refuge and food among the branches and leaves of the palms.

In recent years the palms in the garden (and in many other locations around the country) have been attacked by a beetle known as the red palm weevil. It attacks a range of palm species and causes them to dry up within a few months.

At Ramat Hanadiv, designated traps were installed to trap the weevil. The traps contain volatile attractants; the beetles enter and are trapped. The traps have proven themselves and to date we have managed to save the palm trees in the garden.