New Palms x3 for 2024

[PalmatierMeg]

I've been hit or miss here most of this past miserable fall and winter. While our ultimate low was a relatively mild 44.8F here in Cape Coral we've had a record 84+ sunless days, drizzle/downpours and highs that often barely rose past 60F. Not our typical sunny, dry, warm/cool winter days. We've had more rain this winter than all of last summer. I've been unable to work in the soggy yard for weeks at a time. Our gardens are a mess.

But in the last week or so the sun has made a miracle return and brought days in the 70s to 80F. This past Saturday I went to the biggest garden festival in the area at the Edison-Ford Estate in downtown Ft. Myers. I ended up with three small palms and they are dandies. Today I took my first photos in months and present them here. Happy belated New Year to all palm lovers. May your palm burst into growth.

1. Ptychosperma caryotoides - one of my favorite Ptychos and while supposedly common is hard to find around here.

2. Ravenea hillebrandii - I keep trying to grow this little gem. Hoping for success at last

3. Areca catechu Dwarf - I lost one of my small, planted specimens last fall. Hurricane Ian plus summer drought plus chilly, dreary fall/winter may have been too much. Its companion Dwarf is till on live support. I hope it survives. So on Saturday when I saw almost no petioles on this Dwarf I couldn't resist. 

[Harry’s Palms]

Those are beauties. I really hope for success for you. They look healthy so best of luck. Harry

[PalmatierMeg]

8 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Those are beauties. I really hope for success for you. They look healthy so best of luck. Harry

Thanks, Harry

[Looking Glass]

Hildebrandtii seems to be a winner around here.   Slow but keeps on keepin’ on.   I’ve got 4 babies that are doing ok grown from Floribuna 4 inchers.  Seems to like a bit of shade for part of the day.  

Edited February 13 by Looking Glass

[PalmatierMeg]

13 minutes ago, Looking Glass said:

Hildebrandtii seems to be a winner around here.   Slow but keeps on keepin’ on.   I’ve got 4 babies that are doing ok grown from Floribuna 4 inchers.  Seems to like a bit of shade for part of the day.  

I'll keep that in mind. I really want the little guy to make it. I probably won't plant until/unless I have to. Do you have alkaline, dreck soil like I do? Some palms just cannot survive that and I wonder if this Ravenea is one of them. And, of course, nematodes. I'm not sure if my yard has them and how badly. Our yard's a wreck - Ian aftereffects, dry hot rainless summer and sunless, dreary, rainy, chilly winter (did I miss an adjective?)

[RedRabbit]

I’d love to try a hildebrandtii too. Fantastic looking palms, it’s a shame there aren’t more in Florida.

[flplantguy]

They look great! It seems to be switching around weather wise I saw the sun this weekend too! Now it's gone again behind clouds but I'm sure it will be too hot soon enough lol.

[Gottagrowemall]

Would you say Areca catechu dwarf has similar cold hardiness to most bottle palms? Burns from frost, serious cold damage at 32 and below for over a couple hours? I will eventually have to replace the Christmas palms on each side of my garage with something more dwarfish and these would be perfect. The Christmas palms are already passing roof level and won't be protectable easily enough next year.

[mnorell]

Meg, it looks like you might want to invest in some lava rock for your Ravenea hildebrandtii...I did a quick look on the geology of the Comoros and it looks like a somewhat complex volcanic group of islands, so it may have problems with limestone. There's one of these that I have always admired at Fairchild, which is I believe the one that was sent in 1961 as seed. It is (unless it has been moved in the last few years) located where the jungle empties out to the plaza with the cafe/snack-shop...they've built a lot around this area in recent years and I don't remember the last time I noticed it...so I hope it's still there. They have amended the soil greatly in their jungle plots so I'm not sure what type of soil this one has been enjoying all these years. It was apparently a popular glasshouse palm in Europe around the turn of the last century. However, you will need two to tango if you want seed since it is dioecious (however, Bailey, in his Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, stated that occasionally perfect flowers are produced...not sure if this is really accurate). 

I recall trying to grow this in the Keys but I don't remember the reasons for its failure there (I think I lost it before Irma destroyed the landscape), although I had bad luck with this genus overall there because as I remember not only did the deer love the foliage, but the plants hated the limestone (or so I presumed due to persistent chlorosis). I've also tried R. hildebrandtii out here in the Palm Springs area, I lost it and I believe it collapsed in summer, though the same thing happened to me with R. glauca, and yet a subsequent specimen of that species is doing fine for me now and endured last summer to 123F with no issues...go figure. I am going to try R. hildebrandtii again as it is not only a supremely elegant thing, but also one of those "perfect for small gardens" palms that is very useful to many people in our ever-more-crowded world, and perfect for protected "nook" compositions under canopy.

Here's an interesting article from Palms in which R. hildebrandtii was re-described, along with the description of the beautiful large palm R. moorei, with which it was for a time confused. 

And here is a Wikipedia article and an abstract on the geology of the Comoros, which might help guide you in planning a substrate for the plant.

[PalmatierMeg]

Thanks, Michael. I believe I have a tub of lava rock I salvaged from previous Floribunda orders. I may also try to keep it potted because a few lbs of black lava rock can't compete with alkaline calcareous sand.

[Looking Glass]

On 2/13/2024 at 8:07 AM, PalmatierMeg said:

I'll keep that in mind. I really want the little guy to make it. I probably won't plant until/unless I have to. Do you have alkaline, dreck soil like I do? Some palms just cannot survive that and I wonder if this Ravenea is one of them. And, of course, nematodes. I'm not sure if my yard has them and how badly. Our yard's a wreck - Ian aftereffects, dry hot rainless summer and sunless, dreary, rainy, chilly winter (did I miss an adjective?)

My soil is crap sand as a base, but I heavily amended several planting beds.   Here’s the two weakest that are 3 years from 4-inch pots.  They get hammered by tea scale here that needs spraying sometimes.

[PalmatierMeg]

2 minutes ago, Looking Glass said:

My soil is crap sand as a base, but I heavily amended several planting beds.   Here’s the two weakest that are 3 years from 4-inch pots.  They get hammered by tea scale here that needs spraying sometimes.

Those look great

[realarch]

Fantastic Meg, keep the posts coming! Seems like you picked these guys up at the perfect time as you head into warmer weather.

Speaking of weather, we’ve had the opposite of yours, but no complaints as everything still looks pretty good.

Tim

[peachy]

You have one of my dream palms there Meg, please keep me posted on how your dwarf catechu is going. My new garden seems to have none of the 'rules' that usually apply to palms. 10 different species of Licuala/Lanonia sailed through winter but Hyophorbes, normally not bothered by anything went spotty and tattered. (came back quickly though) My dwarf coconut wasn't affected at all but my Veitchia (montgomery and johannes) shrivelled up and were near death. I decided to try the regular A catechu, bought 6 and 5 died in the first week. This was at the start of summer so it was quite warm and humid. None of the caladiums died back during winter and the tropical anthuriums kept growing.  90% of my rare and pricy succulents, that laughed at winter have all just fallen apart now in the humidity .....what is a girl to do ?

Puzzled Peachy

[Palmtreedude69]

Haha I was there asking a guy if they has any dwarf areca catechu palm and he said no some really exited guy came over and bought it now I know who that is I also picked up a couple palms myself wish you the best of luck with yours!