A few Dioon spinolosum in the garden

[happypalms]

Another wonderful plant to have  in the garden the Dioon spinolosum. Easy to grow very predictable in growth. I have a couple in deep shade that don’t seem to worry about it to much. They seem to prefer bright shade in my climate. There’s about 30 growing in the garden of various sizes all around 20 years old. And I still plant them around the garden with a few lying around the greenhouse just waiting there turn to get planted. With a bit of size there quite a statement in the garden.

[ChrisA]

Looking good!  Such an underused genus of cycad. Love that dark green color and long fronds.

[happypalms]

15 minutes ago, ChrisA said:

Looking good!  Such an underused genus of cycad. Love that dark green color and long fronds.

They are underrated a true winner that should be given a good place in any garden. Deep shade gives the dark green colour. Do they go yellow in your climate in the sun?

[Merlyn]

@happypalms I read that they needed to be part shade in areas like Texas and California, but haven't seen any direct reports.  I have 12 Spinulosum in the ground at my place, in full shade to full sun.  They are a lighter green in full sun, but no problems with sunburn or yellowing here.  Of course, FL is a swamp... 

Spinulosum are also much hardier than some of the online descriptions.  Mine have seen repeated frosts in the upper 20s (-2C) with minimal leaf burn.  The one below saw 24.4F (-4C) and heavy frost and took maybe <25% leaf burn.

This is my largest, with about 3' of clear trunk. 

[Fusca]

Just got this one in part shade.  Very humid here as well.

Anyone succeed rooting an offset this small?  It's about the size of a plum.  I didn't have any perlite but I have it in pure vermiculite.

[Merlyn]

@Fusca one that size should be rootable.  I'd let it dry out a bit to heal over the surface.  The only downside is that the frond is pretty big compared to the caudex.  Maybe keep it in a full shade area until it produces some real roots?

[ChrisA]

I don't think the Spinulosum would do too well in San Antonio due to it getting a little on the cold side. I do have a Dioon edule that I planted last spring.  I covered it with a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot for the freeze in January and it did not suffer.  It handles the sun pretty well in is quite glaucous in color.  It's fairly young and did not produce any flush this year, but seems to be putting more growth into the base (which is still mostly underground).  

[happypalms]

7 hours ago, Merlyn said:

@happypalms I read that they needed to be part shade in areas like Texas and California, but haven't seen any direct reports.  I have 12 Spinulosum in the ground at my place, in full shade to full sun.  They are a lighter green in full sun, but no problems with sunburn or yellowing here.  Of course, FL is a swamp... 

Spinulosum are also much hardier than some of the online descriptions.  Mine have seen repeated frosts in the upper 20s (-2C) with minimal leaf burn.  The one below saw 24.4F (-4C) and heavy frost and took maybe <25% leaf burn.

This is my largest, with about 3' of clear trunk. 

The ones in shade seem to grow better and don’t yellow or go a pale lime green like the full sun ones. They do take a fair bit of cold weather and are dry tolerant but look much better with good water. That’s a prize one you have there along with the deboensis a nice selection of cycas species 👍

[happypalms]

5 hours ago, Fusca said:

Just got this one in part shade.  Very humid here as well.

Anyone succeed rooting an offset this small?  It's about the size of a plum.  I didn't have any perlite but I have it in pure vermiculite.

I was amazed when first saw offsets growing on my ones I just got the shovel behind them and levered them off and let them dry for a few weeks. But easy to propagate offshoots. 

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

@Fusca one that size should be rootable.  I'd let it dry out a bit to heal over the surface.  The only downside is that the frond is pretty big compared to the caudex.  Maybe keep it in a full shade area until it produces some real roots?

I let it dry a few days and sprayed it with Daconil before I put in the pot.  It's in full shade on my front porch and I give it a little water every 10 days or so.  Hopefully that's sufficient. 

[Brian]

Dioon spinolosum is one of my favorite cycads. It’s easy, fast growing and always look good. They are also very easy to propagate once they start producing offshoots.

Here’s one in a pot that recently flushed

This one in the ground is a bit over 20 years old. I’ve cut off more offshoots than I care to remember but they always come back in force. 

[Merlyn]

On 9/13/2024 at 7:29 PM, happypalms said:

The ones in shade seem to grow better and don’t yellow or go a pale lime green like the full sun ones. They do take a fair bit of cold weather and are dry tolerant but look much better with good water. That’s a prize one you have there along with the deboensis a nice selection of cycas species 👍

Here the ones in sun grow a lot faster.  I typically get 2-3 flushes per year in sun and maybe 1 per year in my shade plants.  I actually like the sea-foam-green look on the sun ones, it's a nice contrast to the medium green of all the palms nearby.  It pops out at you. 

I found that Spinulosum at a local nursery.  He'd had it in a pot since the 90s and had to behead it after the epic 2009-2010 freeze here.  So it has an odd "kink" in the trunk about a foot down from the top, which just makes it all more unique to me!  I bought it for the ridiculously low price of $300, probably because I was the first person to stop by in years and know what it was. 

[amh]

For years I had wanted to grow this species, but I live in Zone 8A.  A few years back I was able to buy some seeds, and now have a few small plants in containers. Someday when the plants get too big to bring inside, I will have to re-home them somewhere warm.

I have noticed that this species grows faster than Dioon edule.

[happypalms]

5 hours ago, amh said:

For years I had wanted to grow this species, but I live in Zone 8A.  A few years back I was able to buy some seeds, and now have a few small plants in containers. Someday when the plants get too big to bring inside, I will have to re-home them somewhere warm.

I have noticed that this species grows faster than Dioon edule.

They are a lovely Dioon.  Edule I find in garden are slow and like a bit of water in my climate.

[happypalms]

14 hours ago, Brian said:

Dioon spinolosum is one of my favorite cycads. It’s easy, fast growing and always look good. They are also very easy to propagate once they start producing offshoots.

Here’s one in a pot that recently flushed

This one in the ground is a bit over 20 years old. I’ve cut off more offshoots than I care to remember but they always come back in force. 

That’s one heck of a nice Dioon spinolosum top marks for that one 👍

[happypalms]

9 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Here the ones in sun grow a lot faster.  I typically get 2-3 flushes per year in sun and maybe 1 per year in my shade plants.  I actually like the sea-foam-green look on the sun ones, it's a nice contrast to the medium green of all the palms nearby.  It pops out at you. 

I found that Spinulosum at a local nursery.  He'd had it in a pot since the 90s and had to behead it after the epic 2009-2010 freeze here.  So it has an odd "kink" in the trunk about a foot down from the top, which just makes it all more unique to me!  I bought it for the ridiculously low price of $300, probably because I was the first person to stop by in years and know what it was. 

That’s good growth all those flushes in a year. There is a lot of colour variations depending on there location in the garden and amount of light plays a big role in colour. Sounds like you got a bargain from that nursery. I like those sort of bargains.

[Harry’s Palms]

Somehow I missed this thread. I only have one of them and it has grown very well over the last 22 years . I only get one “flush” every summer but it is very consistent. It gets mostly sun , more shade now that everything around it has grown up. I don’t feed it anymore as it seems to be happy on its own . Harry The receipt from when I bought it , Joe is my middle name ! This summer with a fresh set of fronds , quite the statement for my front yard! Harry

[Harry’s Palms]

On 9/14/2024 at 5:00 PM, Merlyn said:

Here the ones in sun grow a lot faster.  I typically get 2-3 flushes per year in sun and maybe 1 per year in my shade plants.  I actually like the sea-foam-green look on the sun ones, it's a nice contrast to the medium green of all the palms nearby.  It pops out at you. 

I found that Spinulosum at a local nursery.  He'd had it in a pot since the 90s and had to behead it after the epic 2009-2010 freeze here.  So it has an odd "kink" in the trunk about a foot down from the top, which just makes it all more unique to me!  I bought it for the ridiculously low price of $300, probably because I was the first person to stop by in years and know what it was. 

Very nice @Merlyn . I agree with the coloring . The contrast of the lighter shade when grouped with darker green palms helps this non palm stand out a bit . Surrounding mine are a few Phoenix Roebelini and a Chambroynia M.  I have been asked “ what type of fern is that ?” Hmmmm…! Harry🙄

[happypalms]

16 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Somehow I missed this thread. I only have one of them and it has grown very well over the last 22 years . I only get one “flush” every summer but it is very consistent. It gets mostly sun , more shade now that everything around it has grown up. I don’t feed it anymore as it seems to be happy on its own . Harry The receipt from when I bought it , Joe is my middle name ! This summer with a fresh set of fronds , quite the statement for my front yard! Harry

Now that’s a good price for that one Joe . They seem to grow better in your climate than mine. The ones I have don’t have a trunk and are around the same age. And I see you go to beach and collect shells like we all do for our garden. When I landscape and bed the rocks in with concrete I push shells into the concrete to add a little beach touch to the landscaping. And the question of what fern is that also is asked in Australia as well.

Richard 

Richard