Jubaea chilensis vs. Butia Capitata

[willials]

I was recently informed by a local palm grower here in the Seattle area that Jubea Chilensis is actually significantly more hardy here than Butia Capitata. I find this hard to believe, always thinking it was the other way around and from many palm blogs and posts I have read on this site. From what I can tell, relatively little is known about Jubea's cold hardiness in Northern climates because of the slow growth to reach maturity (30-50+ years according to what I am reading). Does anyone have any first-hand experience growing mature Jubeas North of, let's say, San Francisco?

[gilles06]

We can see in Europe some mature jubaea(more than 50 years), for example there are some in Britany(France) and in England also...

[willials]

Thanks Giles! Looks like I need to learn how to spell "jubaea" huh. Anyway, I am always impressed with the UK and Europe in terms of palm culture. Lots of mature and developed palms exist there, even in northern climates, it seems. I am seriously considering attempting jubaea chilensis this Spring. According to palm growers here, there is a homeowner near me who has two 15 ft. tall jubaea sitting in his yard next to Puget Sound (our local inland sea). That must be at least 15 years of growth to reach that size. I am surprised then if all this is true why it is so much easier and cheaper to get mature butia here than jubaea? I wonder if that's true in places like California as well, where they have much better access to many varieties of palms?

[Richard Booth]

'Tis true. I live in UK and jubaea is reliably hardier here, there are some Jubaeas over 100 years old planted out in the uk and they look good. There are some mature butia too but they show a lot of evidence of damage over the years.

[willials]

Thanks Richard. Good info here. It's tough to find info on Jubaea in Northern climates (I am aware of only 4-5 plants being grown in my county although there are probably more that I'm not aware of). The challenge is finding mature plants, which as you pointed out, can take 50-100 years to reach maturity. I guess growing Jubaea requires extreme patience, although based upon what you are saying, it would be an excellent palm for me to grow as our climate is remarkably similar to many parts of the UK.

[Flow]

For me Jubaea is much tougher than Butia, too. And I guess my winters are a tad colder than Richard's. Here, it is well known that Jubaea is the most coldhardy pinnate palm. Should be interesting to test Jubaea x Butia or Butia x Jubaea but I'm somewhat reluctant to risk mine:-).

Flo

Edited March 17, 2014 by Flow

[palmnut-fry]

This is a spectabilis thread! God I love me some Jubaea palms! still shocked they brought in that monster to downtown from Calif. and haven't checked on it since all the cold! I dread what I will find amongst the concrete jungle! Poor thing, I know it, along with nearly all the Washys and even my Sabal bermudana have had a terrible time! Ok old man winter, you can go away now! Let Spring commence! Happy palm season everyone!