My two favorite Copernicias

[Mandrew968]

The first palm is actually the first planting from when we bought our place back in 2010. Copernicia gigas.

[Mandrew968]

This second palm(not really second to any palm) I planted with the birth of my first son. Copernicia fallaensis. Much faster than gigas and already a strong blue coming through her leaves.

[Cindy Adair]

Really stunning palms! Our tiny Copernicia fallaensis was planted out in full shade as one of the first palms we planted in Puerto Rico. It had only one or two strap leaves and it was the dry season when planting isn't really recommended. So I thought it should be in an area that was more moist. In maybe 6 months we moved it to more sun and then weeds and vines covered it up including the 3 ft. tall PVC pipe. We rediscovered it eventually and finally the poor palm is having a real chance in the sun! The ones at Fairchild inspired me to try to grow this one and maybe my grandchildren will get to see it trunk! Thanks for sharing your photos.

[virtualpalm]

Cindy, that species needs full sun to do what it does best.

Jody

[MattyB]

Wow, those are really cool!

[Mandrew968]

Thanks Matty and Cindy.

[NApalm]

Love it! Copernicias are some of my favourates. Thanks for the pics

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Nice palms, Andrew..... Copernicia fallaensis is one of my favoirites, love the one that i have.

Rusty

[Mandrew968]

This is the fallaensis I planted at my in-law's.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Andrew, are theses palms you started from seed, or grew on from smaller plants?

[Mandrew968]

I got them both in 3 gallon pots and the color was already there. Sometimes that blue can manifest as a palm matures, but with as much cross-pollination as there is with Copernicia, I didn't wanna risk it. I recently planted a smaller 3 gallon palm at my Dad's. All 3 palms look fairly similar. I have 3 more fallaensis, but they are small and have not gone palmate of developed any blue yet. This is the King of all palms, as far as I am concerned.

[Stevetoad]

Looking good Andrew ! I love Copernicia. I'm trying out a small copernicia baileyana at my place. Other than that I only have alba...well 2 albas now

[Mandrew968]

Copernicia is an amazing genus. I have alba, baileyana, berteroana, gigas, ekmanii, macroglossa, hospita, and rigida. Tomorrow I am planting a glabrescens at the in-law's place along with a few coccothrinax--another great genus that I will have to post photos of my favorites. I hope your baileyana grows well, Steve. Teach your boy how nice they are too

[Gbarce]

Mandrew you should also get Copernicia cowelii just to complete your collection- hehe Doesn't take too much real estate amyway since it is the smallest of the species.

it's a good thing that Copernicia fallaensis is fater than the others in it's Genera. Most of the others are extremely slow!

[palmcurry]

Sweet palms. Like to see how they do down the line.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Andrew, i'm envious of all the Copernicias you have....i only have what i hope is fallaensis, and alba, xTextillis, and macroglossa....

...here is a pic of the fallaensis, beverage bottle for scale, taken earlier this morning.

[Jeff Searle]

Rusty, that's pretty sweet looking!

[Mandrew968]

Yes indeed! Haus, Rusty--good job.

This is the smallest of the 3 that I have planted.

[Mandrew968]

Rusty, that's pretty sweet looking!

And positively a fallaensis, Rusty.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Rusty, that's pretty sweet looking!

And positively a fallaensis, Rusty.

Thanks to you both...have to say it is my all time favorite, and not a slug in growth by any stretch.......

...one of the reason for hedging the bet on ID is the promiscuity of the genus…

............as an example, I purchased what looked to be a nice C. baileyana, only to have it turn blue as can be…..i know the grower obtained the seed from the mother who was a Bailey, but of course who can say the source of the pollen?????

But I am not disappointed at all…a blue C. baileyana?????? No complaints here!

Rusty

[DoomsDave]

Copernicia is an amazing genus. I have alba, baileyana, berteroana, gigas, ekmanii, macroglossa, hospita, and rigida. Tomorrow I am planting a glabrescens at the in-law's place along with a few coccothrinax--another great genus that I will have to post photos of my favorites. I hope your baileyana grows well, Steve. Teach your boy how nice they are too

Whoa!

Run screaming down the street!

You're loaded for bear

[Mandrew968]

Rusty, that's pretty sweet looking!

And positively a fallaensis, Rusty.

Thanks to you both...have to say it is my all time favorite, and not a slug in growth by any stretch.......

...one of the reason for hedging the bet on ID is the promiscuity of the genus…

............as an example, I purchased what looked to be a nice C. baileyana, only to have it turn blue as can be…..i know the grower obtained the seed from the mother who was a Bailey, but of course who can say the source of the pollen?????

But I am not disappointed at all…a blue C. baileyana?????? No complaints here!

Rusty

Rusty, a blue baileyana is better than a green one--and that doesn't mean it's not a pure baileyana either. Remember hospita can be green too...

[Gbarce]

Heres mine. I noticed that the petioles have been getting really long lately even if the leaf size is just about the same.

Can't wait for this to get like Rusty's plant.

I notice that Rusty's (like the ones I saw in Fairchild's) are more silver than blue.

[Gbarce]

Somewhere in the background on the left, there is a C. Baileyana it's leaf tips are yellowing a bit.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Nice looking place you have Gene...that is a beautiful blue Copernicia!

Rusty

[Gbarce]

THanks rusty. How old is your C. fallaensis? I notice that the base is really big already and the leaves are much fuller and rounder than the others shown on this post.

How tall is the palm and whats the diameter of the leaves?

[virtualpalm]

I can attest to the speed of growth of C. fallaensis. Below are two individuals planted in the ground at our field nursery seven years ago at 2-2.5' tall:

2010

2012

And this one was the size of yours, Gene, when I first started working at the UF Tropical Research & Education Center in Homestead back in 1997:

2012

Jody

[Jeff Searle]

Sweet Jody!!

[Gbarce]

Thank you for that Jody! Very encouraging!

This is the kind of information I crave.

Now do you have the same kind of comparative photos for Copernicia cowelii???

[virtualpalm]

Thank you for that Jody! Very encouraging!

This is the kind of information I crave.

Now do you have the same kind of comparative photos for Copernicia cowelii???

Not a chance, Gene!

Jody

[Walter John]

Gorgeous palms.

[virtualpalm]

While we are on the subject of copernicias at TREC, I thought I would also share some "before" and "after" photos of the Bailey palm grove. This first group of photos was taken a couple years ago:

And these two photos were taken a couple months ago after we successfully relocated all 11 palms to their new location (with no root pruning because there wasn't time) to make room for a new building:

These palms were smaller than the C. fallaensis when I first started working there in 1997. Needless to day, they are not as slow as you might think. But there is definitely a difference in growth rate between individuals based on light and other environmental conditions.

Jody

[MattyB]

[virtualpalm]

When the light is right, Copernicia ekmanii is hard to beat!

Jody

[Really full garden]

Jody, I was curious how tolerant are the Baileys of beach conditions. I have C.alba growing very well about 150m from the beach and it is doing very well and seems to be gaining speed.

[virtualpalm]

Scott, I don't know anyone who has a Bailey planted in beach conditions, but I do know that the large ones at Fairchild and Montgomery are in the lowlands where the water table is very high and the water there is brackish. So they should be able to tolerate some salt. They also can tolerate a lot of wind, but some of the leaves may get a bit tattered during storms. I would say it's worth a try. Can you find those in Guatemala?

Jody

[Really full garden]

Jody, sadly there are no Baileys or any other Copernicias for sale here in Guatemala,I will have to order seeds and begin from scratch, I hope I live long enough to see a trunking specimen at my beach place.I also have C.macrglossa and C.glabrescens that have been in the ground now for eleven years - not speedy to say the least.

[Mandrew968]

My father's neighbors have a place in the Keys. One time it flooded down there and all his palms got inundated with sea water. The baileyana survived, so I would say their salt tolerance is very high. Also of note was Pseudophoenix and Hyphaene--these did actually better than the Copernicia as far as salt tolerance goes.

Jody--my Coperncia ekmanii is really starting to turn silver! I looked at it today and it's also one of my fastest Copernicias--It's racing the Coccothrinax montana

[Mandrew968]

I know we all love photos so here is my Copernicia ekmanii. It took a good hit(50%) with our very mild winter(39F), this year, but is coming back nicely. This may be one of my favorites some day...

[virtualpalm]

Very nice, Andrew! I'm glad it came back after the winter. Oddly enough, mine didn't have any problems over the past few winters, including two years ago when it got down to 28F at my house two nights in a row.

Jody