Ravenala madagascariensis

[Lucinda]

I want to plant several travelers palms against a fence that runs north/south. Will the travelers orient themselves this direction? Read somewhere that they turn east to west. Is this true?

Information appreciated.

Lucinda M.

[Walt]

I want to plant several travelers palms against a fence that runs north/south. Will the travelers orient themselves this direction? Read somewhere that they turn east to west. Is this true?

Information appreciated.

Lucinda M.

I have a trunked traveler's palm with a sucker growing next to it. The sucker doesn't have a trunk yet but the frond tips are probably close to 20 feet high. My point being that the sucker is growing at a right angle to the mother plant.

My mother plant is oriented north to south, the way I planted it five years ago. So I say that is hogwash (what I've also heard about reorienting to east to west).

[Lucinda]

Thank you, Walt. Your traveler's palm is gorgeous. Hope mine will look like that some day silhouetted against the fence north to south. they're planned as a privacy screen (above the fence) at my son's house to screen out a nosy neighbor.

Lucinda

[Walt]

Thank you, Walt. Your traveler's palm is gorgeous. Hope mine will look like that some day silhouetted against the fence north to south. they're planned as a privacy screen (above the fence) at my son's house to screen out a nosy neighbor.

Lucinda

Thanks, Lucinda, but my travler's palm isn't gorgeous anymore, for it was totally defoliated by a severe radiational freeze on January 22nd. It took about a week for the leaves to turn totally brown. A new frond opened up since the freeze but it was 3/4 damaged. I generally get about 11-12 new fronds per year, so it will take two years to regrow a full set of fronds.

I love these plants and plan to get another one this spring to plant in a different location.

[epicure3]

Wish I had the space. They get really big.......laterally.

[Jeff in St Pete]

One of my favorite plants. These are pointing east/west, but they were planted in that position. The owner keeps the leaves trimmed up because he likes that look.

I've always heard the leaves of R. madagascariensis will turn to point to the east/west position, but I think it depends on where it is planted and if anything is blocking the light around them.

When one of the owner's of the Bali House saw these beautiful plants around town he said "I love those palms, lets get a bunch of them and have them planted around the house". I am only too happy to oblige, but it will have to wait until the rainy season starts in April/May. We have to get the large ones trucked in from Pérez Zeledón.

[DoomsDave]

Where they germinate, Travelers' Palms orient themselves in a particular direction. However, dig one up and point it another way, and that's how it grows.

[Gan Eden]

Can they handle full sun when young?