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I've not shared anything with you folks before, simply because I haven't had anything to offer. I was not born with a passion for palms. We (my wife and I) fell into this peculiar and fascinating world quite by chance. Like anything, the more you learn, the more interesting things become. That said, all we have to offer you is our experience managing a legacy garden. Irene & I bought Casa de Las Palmas on Hawaii Island in 2017. The garden was the tropical fantasy world of the late San Diego nurseryman Jerry Hunter. Mr. Hunter was successful. He’d started his company in the 1950's, and was the 33rd licensed Landscape Architect in California. He'd been involved with the design of San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park, and Balboa Botanical Gardens, among many others. He had the first tissue culture lab in Southern California. His parents had been the go-to people on the west coast for begonias. He was essentially American plant royalty. He figured out that if he grew his tropicals in Hawaii and shipped them to California, he'd be ahead of the competition. He built a nursery in Hilo and bought the land for Casa de Las Palmas. It would serve as his home away from home, and as a showroom for his wealthy clients. Construction of the garden began in 1981 on almost seven acres of upland pasture. The volcanic clay soil was not suitable for planting juvenile plants, so untold tons of cinder and rock were brought in, and the landscape shaped and molded into what we see today. Most of the planting was done into cinder mounds. For the design of Casa de Las Palmas he worked with the local landscape architect Brian Lievens, whom he would task with sourcing some of the rare plants from east Hawaii's growers. Brian was gracious enough to provide us with the original planting plans of the garden which are now laminated and framed on the lanai. These exquisite plans (like a cross between a complex wiring diagram and an artwork) were how we learned about the palms in the garden. We spent endless evenings cross referencing the botanic names with The Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms. Being a nurseryman from San Diego, Mr. Hunter had a crew of extremely hard working and talented Mexican men build the garden for him. A swimming hole was hand-hewn under one of the waterfalls. A delicate stone foot bridge was created over the stream. We were told that the lava rock paths took three years to complete. And the scale of plantings were nothing short of colossal. The kind only a successful nurseryman like Mr. Hunter could even contemplate. We were lucky enough to apprentice under one of the original employees, Cristobal. Without his dedication and care we would never have got off the starting line, our ignorance would have been absolute, the garden would have fallen into chaos. I recall how early on we planted a dwarf papaya on a cinder mound next to a Metroxylon amicarum and Dypsis carlsmithii (now Chrysalidocarpus carlsmithii), much to Cristobal's unspoken, but obvious, distress. Shortly afterwards a large palm leaf fell and destroyed the papaya. We took this as a sign that the garden requires a certain amount of respect. Since then, staying true to the intentions of the garden has been something we work hard on. When we plant, we consider the design. Perhaps we plant a Alocasia zebrina underneath the Caryota zebrina to mimic its petioles. Perhaps the Pinanga distitcha should be planted near the Licuala mattanensis “Mapu” to mirror their mottled leaf forms. Constant working in the garden reveals new insights every day. Sometimes it's like garden archeology, discovering a long-overgrown path or a rare plant languishing under piles of fallen leaves. Sometimes it's a lesson in design - realizing that most of the plants in an area share undulating leaf forms or that the color scheme is quite deliberately rigid. Casa de Las Palmas has evolved from a carefully orchestrated young garden into a mature ecosystem. Plants have produced progeny and plants have died. The blueprint has gotten a little more fuzzy. Many of the palms are too big to groom now. Everything fights for light, air and nutrients. It has become naturalized. Pretty soon we realized that the nutrients the garden demands couldn't be met by chemical fertilizer. It was just too expensive. So, we looked into goats. We now have six gelded males rescued from the butcher's block and fenced on a neighboring paddock we own. They provide plenty of manure for the garden. Their poop doesn't smell much, is hard and breaks down slowly and can be flung from a shovel in showers through the dense plantings. The plants love it, but we do supplement weak or needy palms with a special palm fertilizer as needed. Legacy gardens are by their nature equal parts demanding and rewarding. They offer those of us new to gardening an incredible learning experience. We certainly don't have the kind of money, manpower or knowledge required to create something so remarkable from scratch. But like buying a beautiful, world-weary house, after a lot of work, you can enjoy something unique, grand and magical. Really for us it is the magical spell that Casa de las Palmas puts you under, one that removes us from the world and enchants us, that makes this legacy garden so very special. Lastly, I'll leave you with three things of note that we have learned: Map your garden. Don't make it too big. And don't go planting Clinostigma samoense down the driveway...or any heavy crownshaft palms for that matter! com.google.android.apps.docs.editors.kix.editors.clipboard?uuid=ecbeebc8-9124-4c8d-9ebd-e5cbdce7e26b

I noticed a spadix beginning to push out of my Pseudophoenix sargentii a couple of months back with anticipation. It is the first one this palm. Today I checked it's status and saw that it never fully opened. We'll, at least it has hit this milestone and may flower someday in the future.

I did follow through and now have three in one area and another seven closer together (no photo of those today as already dark) in another area getting the ground cover effect. Yesterday someone visited with questions about palms good to grow in pots so I directed him to see my C. elegans and then shared the link here.

Fresh water but ..Washies definitely don't have issues w/ consistently wet feet, .out here at least. ..or dipping their trunks into the drink, look closely.. Agua Caliente Park, Tanque Verde area of Tucson, 8 / 2021.

My father, Luciano E. Guerra, was the first to import C. Elegans seeds out of Mexico and sell them to nurseries in Florida and Europe. He started a seed business (Tropical Forest, Inc.) in the 1950s that is still going strong today. I was partners in this company with him and my brother Juan, who owns it now, for many years. Our seed came from the region around Tamazunchale, San Luis Potosí in central Mexico. We imported and sold 120,000 - 150,000 lbs of this seed alone a year. The bulk of it went to Holland in ocean containers of 40,000 lbs at a time. I don’t know how much C. elegans seed my brother imports and sells now, but it’s still a significant amount I’m sure. https://tropicalforest.us/

Great idea! Palm grow tip from me water as much as possible provided you have good drainage. Good luck and happy growing. 🌱

I believe we may have spoke on marketplace. Just gotta find a time when I can get out that way. Thanks

In another thread I made the point that Chamaedorea elegans is actually a solitary palm that is often sold as many tiny seedlings artificially clustered and jammed into small pots or cloying flower arrangements. If you know this, you can purchase a slew of them in a 4" pot for a few $$, separate them and pot them up individually. When you let them grow as nature intended you discover this slow-growing little palm is quite beautiful. I have them scattered around my property in pots and in the ground - they take up little space. I was asked to post photos of some of my planted little Chams, so today I did so and included a couple of potted ones I keep on the front porch between adirondack chairs. I think this overlooked and underrated palm deserves a topic of its own. As it requires mostly shade, it makes a good houseplant. This is my oldest and largest Cham. elegans. I think I planted it next to the screen of our front lanai 7-8 years ago. Even after all those years it is only about 30" tall. It flowers but sets infertile seeds because there is no male nearby. Does this species require a specific pollinator? The following groups of Cham. elegans were planted in the back yard.

After some night time low temperature dips to 6 degrees celcius 42.8 degrees Fahrenheit, heavy rain in the previous days, strong northern winds basically the worst combinations for coconut palm, they seem to be handling all the abiotic stress quite well

Yes they are "pricey"however good luck finding one in this size anywhere in the country for sale ! I'm located in San Diego area

Think this used to be called Wallichia densiflora, then Wallichia oblongifolia. It’s now been moved to Arenga so I assume that means it’s now Arenga oblongifolia although I haven’t actually seen whether the lumping has impacted the specific epithet.

Here's one growing in the water at Presa La Boca, Nuevo León, México. However, this is freshwater, not salt water.

Just a quick drive-by shot of a nice corner planting in Schertz:

I have a bunch of 3 gallons available if interested. Send me a message. I’m in Longwood 32779 north of orlando. -Alex

That is spectacular!!! Such an old and beautiful specimen ... so glad you didn't give up on it.

Here three pics taken in the 1972 and 1977 in two botanical gardens in Germany. The “normal” slender type: And a very compact individual:

"Negrita" appears to be just a marketing ploy to get more money for what is an ubiquitous potted palm in horticulture (surprise!). There are, however, two very well-defined ecotypes of Chamaedorea elegans; the commonly-cultivated lowland form from SE Mexico, Guatemala and Belize whose leaves are trafficked heavily in the ornamental cut foliage trade as Xate (pronounced Shah-tay), and a generally smaller-statured, somewhat wider-leaf form from cloud forests of Chiapas and Guatemala. The lowland form can dominate the understory for many square miles in undisturbed lower Yucatan Peninsula tropical wet and seasonally dry forests, while the upland form usually occurs as scattered individuals alongside other sympatric highland chamaedoreas. Because lowland seed sources include several Mexican states and Belize, there are logically some minor variation among them. I have not seen many (any?) of the highland form in cultivation outside of Guatemala and Mexico. Pal Meir, the reason that you don't see images of wild C. elegans as tall as yours in that the stems almost always lay down/are knocked down way before they reach 2 m/6.5' tall. In climax TRF and TWF sites where they occur in isolated pockets in the NE Peten in Guatemala and the Bladen Nature Reserve in southern Belize, you can find much larger individuals than yours but with their older stems snaking three or more meters under leaf litter and culminating in a 1.20 m/4' tall upright stem. This area, sadly, remains under extremely heavy poaching pressure for the floral trade. This is indeed a great and underappreciated small palm for mass planting in lieu of ferns or calatheas in sheltered, shady tropical/subtropical gardens. In nature I have seen acres of them with nearly interlocked canopies on many occasions in decades past. My younger brother has an AMAZING print photograph given to him many years ago by (now) Panthera.org boss and large felid-expert, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, of a wild jaguar squinting up into a thin shaft of sunlight amidst what appears to be a shady sea of young Xate foliage in Belize. I always think of C. elegans in the context of that very evocative photo of a slice of Mesoamerican wilderness.

Close-up of the intertwined crowns of the two aged Ch elegans:

An update from today of the two 45 years old palms; does anyone know a Ch elegans which is older than these two?

Thanks for posting this Meg. I have a bunch of these is pots under my potting table. Now I have an idea what to do with them.

I've looked for this one over the years. I also tried so-called negrita seeds but all turned out standard issue. Pal, your 45-yr-old plants are really neat.

I like the 'negrita' form.

And you can keep them indoors for a little eternity; these two Ch elegans are at present (2017) 45 years old:

Great little palm. I use them as "fillers" in my yard.

Here are two of three potted Chamaedorea elegans I keep on our front porch 1)--- 2)---

What about some of the South Pacific Islands. I know they don't have the benefit of Gulf Stream influence, but they are truely oceanic with no large land masses within 1000's of miles and most importantantly no land masses south of them until Antarctica. I dare say they don't get much summer heat, but I assume they have fairly mild winters. Campbell Island, for example, is about 52°30' South or The Falkland Islands between 51°15' - 52°15' South in the Atlantic. South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands are even further south at over 54°, with no land mass anywhere nearby.

Down here @ lat 42.5 " South , Hobart grows great Howea forsteriana. Mine grow all through winter . This one must be over 50 yrs old . we are the same lattitude as Hampton Beach New Hampshire and Toronto Canada !!

I think that C. renda is possible in the coast of Canary Islands. I planted it in october. This autum is been "very cold" (min. 13ºC), but she is growing fast: The day of plantation: The day 23-11-08, is growing. In the summer of 2009, more news Greetings