Flowering palm in the 'bleak' North

For at least the second year in succession, the palm in our garden has flowered. Lacking in botanical knowledge, I describe the white growths that appear at the top of the tree as flowers, and the bees seem to agree with me, spending a lot of their precious time buzzing in and around them.

Now, born and bred Southerner that I am, I had always associated palms with the balmy south, with the Mediterranean and North Africa, for example. And here, well north of Manchester, palms flourish and blossom. Can't be so 'bleak' up North, can it? Yet another prejudice tossed in the dustbin!