Livistona decora

[MattyB]

Hey ya'll. Anyone wanna post some pics and share some info on growth rate, cultural info on this beauty? I'd love to see it.

Here's a big one growing at Al's old place in Lemon Grove, CA.

[merrill]

Livistona decora [ formerly L. decipiens] is very fast growing. The very tall one in the prior post could be as young as 20 years under conditions here in No. central FL. It seems fairly coldhardy, but less so than Livistona mariae, which we've found more cold hardy than L. australis, L. alfredii, L. benthami, L. chinensis, L. merrillii, L. muelleri, L. robinsoniana, L. rotundifolia, and L. saribus.

Best Wishes,

merrill

[Walter John]

Hello Matty, I have one growing here, (photo later), I just wanted to say that mine grows amongst some shade and is stretching a little which is fine, still looks good, it grows quite strong and moderate to fast as it benefits from being near an overflow rain pipe, a common secret to strong growth I know, but there it is, plenty of water once again. It is a great palm, one of the best Livistonas, a grand canopyscape if ever there was one.

[osideterry]

I planted a 10-gallon one 2 years ago and it has grown much faster than similar-sized Caryota obtusa and Bismarckia nobilis planted at the same time. I'll post before and after pics tonight, but the overall height has gone from 3 ft to 6 ft. It's in full sun, all day long.

Edited May 4, 2009 by osideterry

[merrill]

Livistona decora [ formerly L. decipiens] is very fast growing. The very tall one in the prior post could be as young as 20 years under conditions here in No. central FL. It seems fairly coldhardy, but less so than Livistona mariae, which we've found more cold hardy than L. australis, L. alfredii, L. benthami, L. chinensis, L. merrillii, L. muelleri, L. robinsoniana, L. rotundifolia, and L. saribus.

Best Wishes,

merrill

[JasonD]

Livistona decora survived the 1990 freeze in a Northern California garden where it probably endured low twenties F every night for over a week, and some days not rising above freezing. Defoliated but regrew pretty fast. Very sensitive to water deficiency.

[gyuseppe]

yes! Livistona decora [ formerly L. decipiens] is very fast growing.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

L.decora grows well down here @ lat 42 . At my old it was 7 yrs old approx .

[PalmatierMeg]

Two years ago we planted 3 L. decora we bought at a local nursery to replace our large one that died after we had to move it. My husband loves this species and calls it "shark's tooth palm" for the curved black spines on the petioles. They stood about 24" high when planted, now have nearly 3' of trunk, throw out about a frond per week.

These things are practically bulletproof in Cape Coral (as long as you don't dig them up & move them like chess pieces). They laugh at winter, stay vibrant and green year round. Of course, we feed and irrigate them which keeps them happy. Last night I took photos of the one on the east side of the house and two on the west side.

[doubravsky]

I have two living on the hill of death in Riverside... both took at least down to 24 in Jan 07 with no problems. One is in part sun/ part shade and is growing well. The other is in full blazing inland sun all day, and it is slower and keeps fewer healthy fronds. Not bad enough to move, but seems like it would like a little bit of shade to be happier.

[Kris]

Dear Matty

Nice topic,and even we are growing few of these beauties here in south india.And i must say it loves wet high humidity coastal zones with warm winters..And they grow very fast.so i had to shifted it to shade areas of our house garden.

here is a still of one of that baby...

And Dear Meg

Thanks for those lovely visuals of the L.D palm and the soil top dressing of your garden looks like a red carpet very beautiful !

And i request other members to share their stills of the L.D palm here in this thread & keep this intreasting thread 'Active'.

Thanks & Love,

Kris

[glbower]

I dug this double up from a neighbor's yard 10 years ago when they were about 2 feet high. This photo is about 3 years old, so they now have about 3 feet more trunk, close to 15 feet I would guess. That will give you a good idea of how fast they grow here in Southwest Florida. They don't need much fertilizer or water, and the cold doesn't seem to bother them either, though they've never been below 34 degrees since planted in my yard. They also rode out the 175 mph wind gusts of Hurricane Charley with no permanent damage. That was in doubt for a while because both crowns, or what was left of them, were blown cockeyed from the trunks. I was afraid the buds had been killed, but they came out of it pretty quickly.

Interestingly, the leaf bases started falling off from the top down, in contrast to most palms, and now there's about 6 or 7 feet of shiny brown trunk beneath each crown. What keeps them from being the perfect fan palm? Aside from the vicious spikes, they're a bear to trim. They petioles are very limber and just want to wiggle around instead of staying in place while I'm sawing. All kinds of dust and fibers and everything else up there falls down in your face, so stand upwind.

[PalmatierMeg]

I dug this double up from a neighbor's yard 10 years ago when they were about 2 feet high. This photo is about 3 years old, so they now have about 3 feet more trunk, close to 15 feet I would guess. That will give you a good idea of how fast they grow here in Southwest Florida. They don't need much fertilizer or water, and the cold doesn't seem to bother them either, though they've never been below 34 degrees since planted in my yard. They also rode out the 175 mph wind gusts of Hurricane Charley with no permanent damage. That was in doubt for a while because both crowns, or what was left of them, were blown cockeyed from the trunks. I was afraid the buds had been killed, but they came out of it pretty quickly.

Interestingly, the leaf bases started falling off from the top down, in contrast to most palms, and now there's about 6 or 7 feet of shiny brown trunk beneath each crown. What keeps them from being the perfect fan palm? Aside from the vicious spikes, they're a bear to trim. They petioles are very limber and just want to wiggle around instead of staying in place while I'm sawing. All kinds of dust and fibers and everything else up there falls down in your face, so stand upwind.

Absolutely gorgeous!

[Scott]

I know you want something more scientific than this.... but since I love this palm here it goes....

The first pic is one that is similar to one I bought two years ago and planted. In size I'm speaking of.

The second pic is that L. decora two years later. I put the same size pot next to it to demonstrate the difference.

So it grew pretty good in the two years.

These are the two asked about size trunk earlier because I have to dig up the larger - or the bamboo will probably strangle it. Any advice on digging this guy up would be appreciated.... Should it go right into the ground or recoup in a pot? I'm thinking right into the ground....

[Scott]

Incidently..... I wanted to add that although this is a simple palm, I think they're magnificent.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

L. decora is one of my favorite palms. Here in Jacksonville, Florida, it grows like a rocket (faster than anything else in my palm collection). I have 5 of them and all have endured temperatures in the mid 20's f (-5c) every winter since I've been here. They've never been damaged by cold. Transplanting small plants from containers seems to be best. I moved 3 of them with approximately 7' (2 meters) of trunk and it took them a long time to recover (approx 18 months). The two from containers are incredibly robust compared to the large transplants even to this day. In fact, I planted one from a 25 gallon pot (approx 100 liters) and it stood about 6' or 2 meters tall to the top of the highest frond. It had no "trunk" per se' but the base was 6-8 inches wide (15-20 cm). Today the tree is about 20' or 6 meters to the highest frond and has approximately 8' of trunk (2.5 meters). I planted the tree in Nov or Dec of 2005. The other plant transplanted from an 8" diameter clay pot (apprx 20 cm), was about 1' tall (30 cm) and it had a base about 2" (5cm) wide. Today the overall height to the highest frond is approxmately 12' (4 meters) and the trunk is over 1' thick (30 cm) and 4' tall. I planted this tree in spring of 2005. Both trees are in nearly full sun and thrive on our natural rainfall plus a little extra that comes from watering nearby ornamentals like impatiens. When tropical storm Fay came through last fall, the vigorous tree from the 25 gallon pot lost a number of emerging spear fronds. Today there is little evidence of that event as the tree grew all winter long (even through the freezes). None of the other L. decora were damaged by Fay's winds (approximately 60 mph or 100 kph with gust to 75 or 120 kph)

[merrill]

Hi, Keith:

Many Tx for the info! How about photos?

Best Wishes,

merrill

[Tyrone]

This is a great palm and I have two in my Livistona corner amongst three other West Oz Livistona's. No one seems to buy them at the nursery though. They just sit there.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Walter John]

Hello Matty, I have one growing here, (photo later), I just wanted to say that mine grows amongst some shade and is stretching a little which is fine, still looks good, it grows quite strong and moderate to fast as it benefits from being near an overflow rain pipe, a common secret to strong growth I know, but there it is, plenty of water once again. It is a great palm, one of the best Livistonas, a grand canopyscape if ever there was one.

Here she blows, I stand about 5 feet 9 but only when I'm standing.

[AJQ]

Hmmm......... getting very frustrated with this palm. It looked great when I first got it.

However, over the last couple of winters I have had four petioles snap off at the base due to the weight of the snow we had. The next winter I put up a Garden Umberella to keep any snow off that had been forcast but actually didn't arrive, the storm did though and ripped out the Umbrella trashing a further 2 fronds and the storm that follwed a week later then trashed another 2 fronds. These are not as resistant to the wind as many may say, at least not here for sure.

I'm just wondering if there is anything I can do, feed it with to harden up the petioles?

I only get 3 to 4 new fronds a year and it does not grow through the winter. I am considering putting a Mini Green house over it to help it recover and keep the temps up a bit. I did this on my L. chinensis to protect it from the winter winds and it actually continued to grow though out the winter.

Before

Regards Andy.

[AJQ]

After

Regards Andy.

[Daryl]

Lotsa heat plus lotsa water equals fast growth. Mine has 20 feet of leaves on it, if you know what I mean.

Andy, the photos you posted look like it has grown in the trunk, and I would say it is just putting out its roots. Give it some more time and it will probably put on a decent crown (as long as you don't get too much snow). The fact that it is surviving there is a good enough reason to keep it.

3-4 leaves per year is a lack of heat thing.

Daryl

[Kathryn]

Here are three of mine. Can you find them in the first picture? I planted them in the fall of 2004 and the picture was taken in June 2005. The second picture was taken a few minutes ago.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/454165327BBcjjB

Here's a link with some updated Livistona decora shots.

[AJQ]

Any thoughts on how to toughen up the petioles? As the wind continues to trash them. They are being snapped at the point where the petiole enters the leaf blade(Rachis?)

Is they anything I can feed them with to toughen them up or is that it? Just let them get on with it?

I know my B edulis was quite tender for the first couple of years and the palm did acclimatise to the wind eventually after about 3 years.

This Livistona has been planted for 3 years but no sign of it getting acclimatised to the wind. It just gets ragged with Wind damage and very brown and folorn looking tips at best and snapped petioles at worst..........

Regards Andy.

[iamjv]

Like Andy mentioned the petioles seem to be the only weak part of this beautiful palm.... I planted mine in a protected micro climate and that has helped with the breakage issue. Although when we got that ice storm a couple years back all the petioles were bent down to the grown and never bounced back. As such, I had to cut them all off, leaving only the spear. The palm recovered fast though as it started to push out new fronds almost immediately. Jv

[iamjv]

Here are a couple of shots from the ice storm and what it did to the petioles.... the first picture is the first day of the ice storm, the second shot is the second day of the storm.

Jv

[Al in Kona]

Hi Matty. Yeah that palm in Post #1 is a familiar one and good to see it is still growing and looking good. They seem to like Southern California. While many of the Livistonas don't excite me too much, for some reason I do like L. decora a lot. BTW, note the dying Caryota in the same photo. Guess that's why I haven't planted one in our Hawaii garden yet. While I find most Caryota species very beautiful they are often quite short lived and then you have the problem of removing them. Anyone know about how long they remain standing after dying before they decay to the point of falling down? I ask because I had thought one could always plant a colorful vine around it and let it take over the dead trunk and branches until it falls on its own. Granted it would need to be placed in an out of the way area.

[AJQ]

This is the damage from Winter2007/2008,

I think it will be a long time before it recovers back to anything like it's former glory.

Rgds Andy.

Edited May 24, 2009 by AJQ

[Exotic Life]

Here are three of mine. Can you find them in the first picture? I planted them in the fall of 2004 and the picture was taken in June 2005. The second picture was taken a few minutes ago.

Wow, incredible fast. Nice palms!

[Moose]

Here is one that has never seen snow. It was planted in 1994 as a one gallon. It was called Livistona decepiens when it was planted.

Ron.

[palmazon]

only a rookie like Merrill would regard a 20 year-old as young...

Tough, fast, and beautiful - what more do you want?

[John Case]

Here are three of mine. Can you find them in the first picture? I planted them in the fall of 2004 and the picture was taken in June 2005. The second picture was taken a few minutes ago.

No mistaking them for Washies....

[Matthew92]

Disney World at Epcot

Edited March 24, 2016 by Opal92

[Josh-O]

[foxtail]

I find them beautiful.

A friend of mine ones. 

One of some he have for sale

Does they like swampy conditions? 

[Dave-Vero]

They are, kind of obviously, widely planted in Orlando and southward.  There's lots of them at Orlando's most upscale shopping mall, you see them in highway landscaping projects, all sorts of settings.  I haven't got one in my yard, so no photos.  

 

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Here's a mature tree planted last spring.  The first photo shows it on the truck, the second after planting, the third is the tree today from out of my office window.  Its full of blooms.  This is one of my favorite species.   I think we have 20 or so on this property (3 acres), but only two are mature.  The other mature tree was planted during the summer.  As others have mentioned, they love water, and tolerate short duration flooding.  The tree planted in the summer wasn't established going into our winter dry season and it got too dry on hot, windy afternoon so some of its older fronds have browned.  We're watering the snot out of it now, and its in full recovery.  My advice, buy them and plant them, especially where they get lots of water.  My experience is that they increase fresh weight pretty quickly until the trunk reaches about 1' thick. Then they begin vertical growth.  At its maximum rate, it'll grow 3' or 1 meter of trunk per year up to about 20' or 5-6 meters.  Once they reach that height, the reach maturity and the growth rate slows to a foot or so per year and they drop all of the old boots beginning at the top.  

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

On June 8, 2009 at 7:34:28 PM, Moose said:

Here is one that has never seen snow. It was planted in 1994 as a one gallon. It was called Livistona decepiens when it was planted.

 

Ron.

Moose, that was the perfect name for it back then.  The species epithet "decipiens" actually means "deceiving".  So back when you planted it, it was decora deceiving us as decipiens.   

[Monòver]

This is my decora. It is growing in my old garden and for me is a winner.

It survived one freeze at -9°C, frosted but recocered fast.

Every winter it is at -5°C and it is untouched and the best, it is drought tolerant. I was watering it the first two years, but now only see the rain water and this is a very dry place.