Please Suggest Unusual Small Palms

[BeaumontTropics]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't know how warm you're able to keep your atrium indoors, but good houseplants for me thus far have been Chamadorea Hooperiana, Howea fosteriana, Dypsis sp. Orange Crush, (believe it or not,) Chamadorea cataractum, chamberyonia macrocarpa, and a few others. I don't know how well Nannorhops Ritchiana grows indoors, but it's pretty hardy also, but it won't withstand your winters for sure. you could possibly keep in a pot outdoors summer, fall, and spring, but winter too much. I've also heard that adondida merlii is a great houseplant, but mine doesn't arrive until wednesday, so I don't know for sure yet. Depending upon how warm you're able to keep your house in the winter, -30 outside is brutal, so I'm not sure what your temps are inside during winter. Also, how much light levels you'll be able to create is another element to consider as well.

Whatever you decide to plant, let us know, its awesome to see the hobby migrate to such unfriendly conditions. That takes all kinds of dedication, brother!

Fins up ,

-eric

[hydrophyte]

Thanks for the words of encouragement Eric!

We don't have an atrium. We live in a little bungalow with seven square feet of southern exposure window. Everything else is just dark walls and corners. I do have stuff going in indoor greenhouse space and there is outdoor growing space for the summer.

I might start a new blog sometime soon. I have become really enthused about this idea of keeping houseplants in a serious way. Thus far I am half-way serious about palms, aroids, bamboo and certain groups of orchids. I try to avert my attention when running into discussion of other kinds of plants.

[BeaumontTropics]

Thanks for the words of encouragement Eric!

We don't have an atrium. We live in a little bungalow with seven square feet of southern exposure window. Everything else is just dark walls and corners. I do have stuff going in indoor greenhouse space and there is outdoor growing space for the summer.

I might start a new blog sometime soon. I have become really enthused about this idea of keeping houseplants in a serious way. Thus far I am half-way serious about palms, aroids, bamboo and certain groups of orchids. I try to avert my attention when running into discussion of other kinds of plants.

Where it's dark you may be able to use indoor grow lights that will makeup for some of the loss of sunshine. Seriously, one of the nicest looking houseplants in my opinion is adondida merlii, it looks good even when really small, plus it grows really slow. I'm going to get mine today, and can't wait to start growing it inside. Supposedly, it is somewhat of a slam dunk indoors.

Also, as far as obtaining some of these species, I'll send you a pm with some information.

Good luck on the new hobby!

-eric

[hydrophyte]

Hey thanks again Eric. I got your PM. I do plan to place a plant order or two for shipping when our weather warms some more. I hope that I might be able to find other hobbyists who might like to combine an order to save on shipping and meet those order minimums that some of those nurseries have. I don't really have room here for two-hundred bucks worth of plants.

We are considering setting up a couple of walls in our house with nice-looking shelves and LED track lighting to expand the growing area.

I will check out that A. merlii.

Edited February 16, 2011 by hydrophyte

[hydrophyte]

It is getting to be warmer here and more favorable for shipping. I plan to start looking for material more seriously pretty soon.

My top priorities are the smaller/smallest selections suitable for growing as houseplants. Does anybody out there have any material for trade?

[hydrophyte]

Hey I am finalizing my order for floribundapalms.com

Does anybody have any other additional favorite/unusual/otherwise compelling suggestions for small palms that I can use as houseplants and/or wardian case subjects?

[hydrophyte]

OK I am narrowing down my selections for this order from the familiar place in Hawaii that sells a lot of seedling. I divide them here into selections for ripariums vs. houseplant/Wardian case subjects. The riparium choices are all plants thought to be associated with watery habitats in the wild. Some of the houseplants should or might grow well in the home, but some will probably need protection in a warmish and humid Wardian case setup during the wintertime. Most of these are just a couple-few bucks as seedlings. I'd love to hear opinions on these ideas and any other suggestions that might come to mind for good houseplants. Am I missing any especially good ones?

Riparium

• Acoelorrhaphe wrightii - maybe, interesting because FL native, grows big
  
• Hydriastele rheophytica - really attractive finely pinnate leaves
  
• Licuala paludosa - swamp associated, grows rather large eventually
  
• Licuala malajana var. malajana - swamp associated, shorter
  
• Pinanga limosa - nice and small
  

Houseplant/Wardian case

• Asterogyne martiana - this one especially attractive with bifid leaves, needs humidity
  
• Calyptrocalyx leptostachys (salmon leaf) - really attractive bifid leaves and short plant
  
• Chamaedorea adscendens - really attractive
  
• Chamaedorea anemophila - looks like a nice plant
  
• Chamaedorea geonomiformis - small with bifid leaves
  
• Chamberyonia macrocarpa - rather big for a houseplant
  
• Cryosophila albida
  
• Geonoma sp. (entire leaf) - bifid leaves
  
• Pandanus utilis - not a palm, but I want it
  
• Pinanga sp. Thai Mottled - really nice, grows a bit taller eventually
  
• Licuala triphylla - very small plant, will definitely get this one
  
• Reinhardtia gracilis - definitely get this one
  
• Rhapis excelsa
  
• Trachycarpus wagnerianus - I definitely want this one
  

Edited June 5, 2011 by hydrophyte

[Wanderanwills]

Hello Hydrophyte,

The Reinhardia is a great little plant, you often don't see that one for sale. It stays nice and small.

Good luck with your palm adventure.

Regards

Stephen

[hydrophyte]

Thanks Stephen! That store actually has two different Rheinhardtia but the gracilis looks like the nicer plant.

I hope that this order goes well. I want to hunt for more little micro palms and try them out.

[XYZ]

Hydro:

Coincidentally, I have been making a mental list of the palms that I cultivate that can actually be grown for several years (or to maturity) in a living room sized Wardian case, since I happen to have both the case in California (an ExoTerra 90 cm x 45 cm x 90 cm that I'm currently customizing) and the palmlets in Guatemala. You are, no doubt, aware that most of your list at maturity gets far too tall for any terrarium shorter than 1.20 m (4'). Some of the listed species grow rather rapidly, too. Having an open topped arrangement with a wide-spectrum, high intensity light array hanging over the tank to give them headroom will probably work for those spp.

True miniatures or very slow-growing palms from the Neotropics that will last for years when grown from seedlings in a large, well-ventilated case include Reinhardtia koschnyana (a species I no longer grow but am quite familiar with), R. gracilis var. gracilior, Aiphanes bicornis, Geonoma epetiolata, Chamaedorea sullivaniorum, C. pumila (I am familiar with both in habitat and they are not conspecific IMO), C. robertii, C. correae, C. simplex, C. palmeriana, C. verecunda, C. guntheriana, C. tuerkheimii, and C. amabilis. Most of these are now occasionally available as seed from Toby Spanner and I have have founder blocks of all of them in my own collection in Guat. True dwarfs that can flower and seed in a smallish case include koschnyana, bicornis, sullivaniorum, pumila, tuerckheimii and verecunda. Keep an eye on water quality and ventilation for all these plants.

Many of the reasonably slow-growing, short-statured Malesian palmlets such as Pinanga veitchii, P. disticha, P. aristata + the showy-leafed smaller licualas, calyptros, etc. can probably stand a few years under these conditions as well, but will ultimately have to move out to a greenhouse or wet solarium due to their spread...the colonial species could have the taller stems pruned out once the suckers have some size and vigor to them. I would also try mapu when small...obviously gets way too large once they take off and start suckering, but certainly a fair and nice-looking candidate when young.

Good luck,

J

Edited June 7, 2011 by stone jaguar

[hydrophyte]

stone jaguar, Wow! Thanks for this fantastic response! This is great information and just exactly what I was looking for.

I need to run right now but I'll have more questions for you later.

Yep I know most of those selections grow to a few feet tall or bigger but I hope that some of them will work here as houseplants too.

I can grow the water-associated ones in a large open-top riparium setup, where temperature and humidity are also moderated by all the water. The 120-gallon fish tank that I have has several feet of space for plants to grow up.

Edited June 7, 2011 by hydrophyte

[hydrophyte]

The box with my floribundapalms.com order arrived today. I couldn't beleive what excellent material they sent! And it was amazingly affordable. Wow!

I'll am going to be busy potting this stuff up and shooting pictures tomorrow morning.

[hydrophyte]

It took me a couple day s to make the time, but today I got all these plants potted up. I also took pictures of each.

Some of these are for houseplant culture, others I will grow in a Wardian case and there are a few that I potted for growing in the riparium fish tank setup.

[aussiearoids]

Jay , I did not know that mapu suckers

"I would also try mapu when small...obviously gets way too large once they take off and start suckering, but certainly a fair and nice-looking candidate when young."