Gotta love the little trunks

[DAVEinMB]

I cleaned up the dead foliage and removed a few of the new sprouts from my California elephant ears recently and thought I'd share how much trunk they've developed over the past 3 years. Share pics of yours 

[DAVEinMB]

Oh and for good measure, here it is this past August

[DAVEinMB]

What the hell, here's another clump from this past summer. Not sure what species it is. I'll get some pics of what it looks like currently sometime this week.

[KDubU]

Just curious as this is my first year with them. You cut them down like this every winter after a cold spell? Obviously no issues with growing back. Any recommendations you are willing to pass along?

[DAVEinMB]

5 hours ago, KDubU said:

Just curious as this is my first year with them. You cut them down like this every winter after a cold spell? Obviously no issues with growing back. Any recommendations you are willing to pass along?

This is the first year I cut anything off of them. I wanted to remove some of the newest sprouts because the clump was getting a little unruly and decided to clean up the dead foliage while I was at it. I took hedge trimmers and cut the last bit of green off on each of them. Wear gloves when messing around with them, the liquid in them seems to be a skin irritant

[Chris Chance]

Never thought of cutting them like that. Mine needs to be cleaned up. 

[ZPalms]

On 2/8/2022 at 12:11 AM, DAVEinMB said:

 

Is that a chamaerops? It looks so good if it is

[DAVEinMB]

5 hours ago, ZPalms said:

Is that a chamaerops? It looks so good if it is

It is, I've noticed these are very variable from an appearance standpoint. Mine seems to fall somewhere between floppy and stiff fronds. Also been trying to keep the suckers at bay...I really prefer the solitary look

[ZPalms]

9 hours ago, DAVEinMB said:

It is, I've noticed these are very variable from an appearance standpoint. Mine seems to fall somewhere between floppy and stiff fronds. Also been trying to keep the suckers at bay...I really prefer the solitary look

It looks awesome. Mine has the same fountain effect to it with floppy and stiff fronds. I do love the the solitary look, but I don't know how to handle suckers and I just look at them as more free palms which is awesome to me. but I hardly ever see these palms with the fronds not chopped off the ground 

[DAVEinMB]

@ZPalms  Thanks man! Yea I've been tempted to lop off some of the lower fronds to make the bit of trunk it has visible but it's so healthy and symmetrical that I can't bring myself to do it. The suckers are a bit of a pain and they're tough little buggers. I constantly pull the center spears out and they just push out another one behind it. Once it's a little taller I'll just take the Sawzall to them

Edited February 26, 2022 by DAVEinMB

[DAVEinMB]

Welp, that backfired lol

But I may have something special for this area, we shall see

[KDubU]

Note to self. Do not cut the fronds. Did the freezing rain you had do it in?

[DAVEinMB]

15 hours ago, KDubU said:

Note to self. Do not cut the fronds. Did the freezing rain you had do it in?

I trimmed it back following the freezing rain so I don't know what the outcome would have been hadn't I trimmed it. I would imagine what I did didn't help tho lol