Copernicia cowellii

[Al in Kona]

Copernicia cowellii for many of us is one of those coveted dwarf type palms we'd really like to have and grow in our gardens.  Click here to learn more about it  

http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/pix/CopCow.shtml

and here to see some photos of it in habitat in Cuba

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Copernicia/cowellii.html

I have two extremely small plants in ground growing ever so slowly for me.  The one in the pic below I placed the germinated seed directly in the ground (only a small white root slightly emerging from the seed).  It was an experiment and it has slowly grown to look like this.  I feel good about it despite its size.  Just to have two of them and to see that each new strap leaf is slightly larger than the previous one makes me feel they just may make it after all.  

Are any of you growing this palm in the ground?  If not in ground, are you growing it in containers?  What kind of luck are you having?  Any information you can share will be most appreciated.  Please post pics if possible too.

[Gbarce]

I also love that palm and would love to try it out someday.

Al - How old is the seedling in the picture?

[Really full garden]

Al ,I germinated a few of these and then lost them during our rainy season.I think you are wise to try seedlings directly in the ground.Copernicias have a very deep root system.Pot culture limits their slow growth rate even more.I plant out really small seedlings too.

                                                                                            Scott

[rthink]

I've germinated some seeds last year and put one of them in the ground since the 2nd leaf started to show. Sadly, a person i hired to do my garden misunderstood it as weeds and kill it.

[Jeff Searle]

Al,

   I have one in the ground now for about 3 years. And it is very slow, much not different from yours in the picture. I'll get a pic. soon.

Jeff

[Daryl]

Slowest palm I have. At least I'm not alone in that respect!

Daryl

[RainForestt Robert]

Al, I have been meaning to get around to posting this photo.  I posted a photo of this palm before and there were some doubts as to whether it is really C. cowellii.  However, a couple of years ago it looked exactly as yours did.  The tag says Feb 2001 which would make this palm just about 7 years old.  It will be going into the ground for our rainy season in June.  It is in a 3 gal pot.

[cfkingfish]

Bob-

Your plant looks to like it has C. rigida in it, although if it were true, it wouldnt have the segmentation you see on the newest leaves. If it were a hybrid (it may well be), it should grow faster, but that is not something to be assumed. The color of the terminal leaflet arming is off from what I have seen on C. cowellii, besides the fact that it does not have any silver coloring, usually a telltale sign.

[RainForestt Robert]

Thanks Christian, I will now refer to it as C. sp.  Now I've got to start over 7 yrs later!!