Exotic Chilean visitor settling in well

A GIANT, exotic tree which has just taken root in an unusual Kerry garden is set to thrive in the Gulf Stream temperatures of the south-west.

The Chilean Wine Palm (Jubea chilensis), over 10 metres in high and weighing 10 tonnes, has come all the way from a South American nursery and stands out from an elevated site in Kells Gardens.

Believed to be the country’s largest ever imported palm tree, it was shipped here in a climate-controlled container and replanted at its new home on the Ring of Kerry with the help of a crane and forklift.