Silver Copernicia faellensis

[virtualpalm]

Here is a nice silver Copernicia faellensis ready to go into the landscape at the office.

[Bill Austin]

Very nice I wish they would grow here like that.

[virtualpalm]

Why wouldn't they, Bill. They love the heat, humidity, and rainfall of south Florida.

[mike in kurtistown]

Bill,

I have several in the ground and several extras doing great in 5-gal pots. But they are slow.

[trioderob]

are you interested in selling it ?

[virtualpalm]

If you are talking to me, this one is not for sale. We also cannot ship to California.

[Bill Austin]

Mike would love to see a pic.

[MattyB]

Better dig a bigger hole.

[avanza]

OMG! Never seen this before. OH Thank you.

Can i reserving the seeds sir? Maybe 100.

[mike in kurtistown]

Here are the pictures that Bill requested. The first three are of small plants in the ground (three different ones):

I use the 8 x 8 x 16 cinder blocks to help manage small palms that I plant in open grassy landscape. (I also use a red flag.) Cop. fallaensis reportedly grows in alkaline red clay (Riffle, Craft, and Zona) that usually remains moist. The main thing different here is that the soil is acid, and, in my case, brown. I also have baileyana, hospita, and macroglossa in the ground, and am ready to put a rigida in the ground. All look really good after a year or two, but have not shown much growth yet.

In Florida, we put Copernicias in the ground at a small size, because we couldn't get much growth without using pots of tremendous size, so why not use the largest possible pot? Growth started very slow, then gradually accelerated. After a few years, one could have a decent-size plant with beautiful leaves. Here, I am looking forward to seeing these 40 feet tall with a huge trunk. I will only be about 95 years old, so I am hopeful.

Hopefully Copernicia-expert Ken Johnson will chime in here.

I also include a photo of some of my extras in 5-gal pots in the shadehouse (under 30% shadecloth):

I sometimes keep Copernicias for years in pots. They seem to be nearly bulletproof. The secret is to keep them in wide pots. Some people try to use tall narrow pots and they perish.

[Mandrew968]

Mike, those look like the real deal. They don't need any shade, from any size. Full sun makes for marginally faster growth.

[avanza]

King of Kings

[Mandrew968]

Why wouldn't they, Bill. They love the heat, humidity, and rainfall of south Florida.

Acidity...

[Palmdude]

What a gorgeous Fallaence! Sooooo silver! You selling any of your "extras"?

[Josh-O]

very silver indeed.

I wish I had a palm like that at my office...

[mike in kurtistown]

This is to answer some questions about growing juvenile Copernicias on the rainy eastern side of Hawaii's Big Island. First, let's set the scene with a couple of pics from my upper deck a week ago. Mauna Kea ("white mountain") and Mauna Loa ("long mountain"):

All of my in-ground juvenile Copernicias are growing between a pair of 8 x 8 x 16 in cinder blocks. This is because they are slow-growing palms in open grassy areas created by clearing fast growing invasive weed trees, monster grasses, and sugar cane. My property is in a rocky, clayey, volcanic soils area where 25 to 75 percent of the upper soil zone is loose rock. Here are a couple of wide-angle shots of my landscape That make things look farther away than they actually are:

The blocks offer some protection from the errant lawn tractor, as well as making slightly easier to clean grass and weeds around the base of the juvenile palms. I also use bright red ribbons on bamboo sticks, but the color fades quickly and the sticks decompose.

[mike in kurtistown]

Post 10 shows three of my in-ground Copernicia fallaensis almost a year ago. Here they are as of today:

All appear healthy and are showing growth. The center one was impacted when the block was hit by a lawn tractor. Then, it put up "little leaves" and "accordion leaves" for a while, apparently the result of boron deficiency. I have had numerous occurrences of this problem, probably a result of the heavy rainfall (150 in/yr) at this elevation (750 ft) dep0leting the nutrients in the upper soil. I sprinkle a few boron crystals around the affected plants, and I have always had normal growth after several months. The juvenile palms are bluish, have only very short petioles with only the barest hint of armament. The seeds were from habitat accession by a friend in 2006.

I am also growing a Copernicia baileyana, seed from a well-known seed grower:

This has shown significant growth since it was planted three years ago. It features long, well-armed petioles, is a medium green color, and the leaf blades are roundish compared to the fallaensis.

[mike in kurtistown]

Here are a couple of what I am calling Copernicia hospita. Seeds were from a palm labeled Copernicia cowellii in a garden open to the public on Kauai. Obviously not as labeled, a knowledgeable colleague called it Copernicia hospita from my photograph. It could be C. yarey or C. curtissii, both so similar to C. hospita, that Henderson considered them synonymous, but Cuban palm experts still consider them separate.

These silver-bluish Copernicias have grown very well and were buried between the blocks when first planted. C. hospita is not to be disregarded as a landscape accent, Nong Nooch garden had a whole avenue in the public display section planted with hospitas.

I also have had two Copernicia macroglossas in ground for a year and a half. These are from the central Florida seedbank.

These have grown little since I planted them, but look healthy, as do the ones still in pots. Outer leaflets are very well-armed, and the plant has annolive green coloration.

I have also planted a palm from seed that came in as Copernicia rigida.

The juvenile has a lot of similarities to the C. macroglossa, but the leaves are much more deeply divided into narrower, curling leaflets.

I also should note my Copernicia berteroana, from seed habitat collected in the Dominican Republic. These have grown well since planting.

My Copernicia ekmanii seedlings are still much too small to plant out, but I haven't lost any. In fact, I find Copernicias in general to be almost bullet proof and it's very rare for one of mine to perish. The trick is to get them to grow, which they won't do if confined to a small pot. Hence, planting out small juveniles as I show above becomes the strategy.

Any more questions?