Veillonia (Cyphophoenix) alba in Florida

[Justin31703]

I am looking to try these out in South Florida and I am not seeing a whole lot of information on if they are suitable. Anyone have any success with these at all? Pictures would be great! I know that other Cyphophoenix sp. do well, but from what I read, this one seems to enjoy cooler temperatures since it comes from higher elevations. Turns out in 2024 it was placed back into the genus Veillonia, so no longer a Cyphophoenix. 

[richnorm]

Seed is fairly available and easy to sprout so you might just have to give it a go!  I can confirm that they don't mind prolonged cool weather but my seedlings have never seen much above mid 20's centigrade with high humidity.

[JD in the OC]

.

 

[JD in the OC]

I have tried two small plants. One in the ground and one in a container and then in the ground. Both have struggled and only one is alive now. I visited a grower on the East Coast last week and he had one in a container that looked just as scraggly as mine.So not sure if it will grow in south Florida. I have never seen a mature one. 
 So not sure if it will grow in south Florida. I have never seen a mature one.

 

JD

[D. Morrowii]

I’ve tried 2 so far here in Merritt Island. In pots they grew well for a couple of years so I put one in the ground and it died pretty quickly. The one left in the pot followed a couple of months later. It looked like some type of fungus would get at it. I plan to try again.

[Mandrew968]

Too hot for it and our soil is not even close to ok.  Yes, I have tried it and no it doesn't grow in Miami.

[donpachino1983]

Wowow good thing I came across this post I almost ordered one thanks for posting this

[Merlyn]

I have Alba, Nucele and Elegans in the ground in Orlando, all are doing well.  I should qualify that, though...I planted an Alba and then moved it 3 months later and it promptly died.  But the one Alba I planted and left alone is just fine.  I have two more on order from Floribunda, so we'll see what happens! 

I'll check later to see when I planted the Alba last year.  I think it went through the entire swampy summer ok, but I'm not totally sure on that.

[Fusca]

  On 3/24/2025 at 4:34 PM, Merlyn said:

I have Alba, Nucele and Elegans in the ground in Orlando, all are doing well.

Expand  

I've read that nucele is the fastest of the three - have you noticed that?  I just purchased a 15-gal Cyphophoenix elegans and am currently acclimating it to the sun before planting.  Is your elegans in part sun?

[Merlyn]

  On 3/24/2025 at 4:58 PM, Fusca said:

I've read that nucele is the fastest of the three - have you noticed that?  I just purchased a 15-gal Cyphophoenix elegans and am currently acclimating it to the sun before planting.  Is your elegans in part sun?

Expand  

I would agree with that.  Nucele sure seems to grow quicker in sun or shade.  I have Elegans in two spots:

• AM part shade, but full blazing sun after about 11 - no problems burning except the early acclimatizing.
• AM part shade, full blazing sun 11-4, then shade - no problems.

I haven't tried Nucele in full sun yet, but I probably will in a week or so.  I bought two 1G pots from Floribunda 2 years ago and then 4x 4" pots last spring.  The 4" pots I immediately stepped to 1g and are growing pretty quick.

I'm hoping that Nucele will become a replacement for the Bottle/Spindle palms, which get spanked to near oblivion each winter.  So far so good...the Elegans/Alba/Nucele trio I planted along my pathway did very well at ~32F and frost.  The Bottles and Spindles on the opposite side of the path...torched.

[Fusca]

  On 3/24/2025 at 5:11 PM, Merlyn said:

I would agree with that.  Nucele sure seems to grow quicker in sun or shade.  I have Elegans in two spots:

• AM part shade, but full blazing sun after about 11 - no problems burning except the early acclimatizing.
• AM part shade, full blazing sun 11-4, then shade - no problems.

I haven't tried Nucele in full sun yet, but I probably will in a week or so.  I bought two 1G pots from Floribunda 2 years ago and then 4x 4" pots last spring.  The 4" pots I immediately stepped to 1g and are growing pretty quick.

I'm hoping that Nucele will become a replacement for the Bottle/Spindle palms, which get spanked to near oblivion each winter.  So far so good...the Elegans/Alba/Nucele trio I planted along my pathway did very well at ~32F and frost.  The Bottles and Spindles on the opposite side of the path...torched.

Expand  

Good to hear - I'm running out of partial shade spots!  Still plenty of full sun spots though.

[Merlyn]

  On 3/24/2025 at 6:04 PM, Fusca said:

Good to hear - I'm running out of partial shade spots!  Still plenty of full sun spots though.

Expand  

Here's the three planted near each other.  It's hard to see them among the impressive crop of hardy native and imported annuals and perennials...aka "weeds."  The Nucele and Elegans were planted in late May 2024, and the Alba in August 2024.  The Elegans has a big spear that's not quite visible in the photo:

This is a couple of days after the Alba was planted.  You can see the Elegans was struggling to acclimatize in the summer, since it was in basically full sun:

And this was the day the Elegans and Nucele were planted.  The Nucele was in some shade, so it didn't get burned immediately:

[Fusca]

Here's my elegans acclimating to the sun.  Hopefully I can plant in a couple of weeks.

[realarch]

 

Justin,

Thanks for the info on name change back to Veillonia, I hadn’t heard about it.

Tim