Hardytropicals UK

NEW! Trachycarpus fibre stripping page A step by step guide to stripping the trunk

Trachycarpus fortunei was discovered in China, and brought back to England by Robert Fortune in 1845. They were considered quite tender and planted around the Southwest, extensively in the Torbay region. Over a period of time they migrated eastward, but were still reputed to be tender in Eastern England. Then they fell from favour and the myth that they were not hardy at all re-emerged. In the 1970s a few pioneers, including myself, started to experiment in the East and North. Where we found that surprisingly, they could withstand very low temperatures. Trunky and Trudy Trachy have withstood -12.6 degrees C, and we have heard reports that some palms have withstood -18C ! A tough cookie then. Some of the original palms brought back in 1845 are still standing, and are now over 45 feet tall.

Culture

These are easy to grow long lived palms that can withstand the coldest of UK weather without a problem. However do appreciate protection from stong winds. Max Height circa 50ft in maybe 100 years. Max spread 6 to 10 feet. but grows to max spread before starting its skyward journey. So plan for this when planting. They can be grown in sun or shade, but prefer to be kept moist to wet for best growth. Feed in spring with palm, or evergreen, fertilizer scattered around the base to about the same diameter as the leaf canopy. Remove dead leaf bases with secateurs or loppers, but also see HERE about trunk fibre stripping if interested in a smooth trunk rather than hairy.

These palms may seem quite expensive in comparison to other palms on offer, but are very slow growing for the first few years so may be a lot older than Canary Island Date Palms, or Washingtonias offered, which are not reliably hardy in most inland areas.

Let me introduce you to my Trachy Palms - Trunky Trachy

My first hardy palm was a 4 year old Trachycarpus fortunei, back in 1975. This is called Trunky Trachy, a male, and is now 35 years old and about 17 feet tall. I bought him from Ruxley manor Garden Centre at Ruxley Corner, Sidcup. He spent the first 9 years in a pot, and was only 18inches tall in 1984 when planted out.

He has turned out to be a smaller stiffer leafed palm than the average, with leaves 20 inches across, and has been flowering and producing pollen for 18 years. The fibre has been stripped from the trunk since 1993, and has not reduced is hardiness at all in the Kent climate.

Trudi Trachy

My second Trachy was a 5 year old palm in 1984, I bought her from Baylis Garden Centre in Chalk, which has since closed down and been turned into a private dwelling. She, is now 27 years old and is truely huge being around 10 feet in diameter and 18 feet tall. She first flowered and produced a few seed in 1990, She has produced seed every year since, producing a great number from 1994.

The ground is heavy clay, and I remember digging the hole in 1988 with a pick axe, as the clay was baked like a brick. I thought " this is never going to survive in this soil". However, she has done extremely well with the base of the trunk in shade throughout the colder months of the year. From 1992 onward she has grown around 1 foot per year, and is still doing so. The trunk is quite slim compared to the spread of the leaves, having had the fibre stripped from the trunk, and IMO gives it more of a tropical look.

In 1999 I hand pollenated the flowers and we sold the seed to a global seed company. We harvested a staggering 15,000 seed weighing 10.5Kg. At T&M prices they would have sold for over £7,300! I didn't get a tiny fraction of that, but the Kids who did the seed picking has good summer holiday spending money on it.

Again, in 2006 we harvested the seed, but this time there was around 34,000 seed.

picture of seed harvesting June 2006

Trachy Seedlings

The first few years after flowering little of the seed falling to the ground germinated, although many did in the consevatory. However, after 1997 we've had seedlings popping up everywhere.

Being a Palm Nutter I could not weed them out, but by 2000 we had a lawn of young palms under Trudi Trachy and the blackbirds had distributed seed that germinated all over the garden. I had to succumb and and dig them out. The larger ones my children sold to local people, and some 500, 1 and 2 year straplings were given away to anyone who brought something to carry them away in. Chalk must now be the most densely populated palm area in the UK apart from Torquay.

Some 200 hundred were taken to Northeast Scotland, about 70 miles northeast of inverness. Even though they were only 3 to 6 inches tall, they survived their first winter under fleece, and are now established, and doing well, but maybe growing slower up there.

Wilmer, Fred, Barney and Pebbles

I bought Wilmer, Fred, Barny, and Pebbles Trachies in 1992 on one of my many trips to see Martin Gibbons at The Palm Centre (when it was located at Richmond).. Wilmer is now 18 years old and 11 feet tall. Her leaves are 24 inches across and stiffer than average fortunei leaves. She has been flowering and producing seed for 5 years. She doesn't produce as many as Trudi Trachy, another fruiting female, as she is a further 30 feet away from the male Trunky, about 75 feet in all, but these seed are the biggest, plumpest Trachycarpus seed around.  I have  had to remove more of the lower leaves than I'd like as they are at eye level overhanging the public pavement.

I will have to update the pic as both Wilmer and the Eucalyptus behind left have gone mad in the cooler wetter summer we've just had. The Eucky has grown about 15 feet inb 19 months - lol.

Fred and Barney, both male, are inseperable, being planted only 5 feet apart. They are the same age as Wilmer, 18 years. Fred has been flowering and producing pollen for 6 years, but has an unusually narrow trunk, only 6 inches in diameter.Fred features in the fibre stripping page. Barney has been flowering for 5 years, They are both 9 feet tall.

Pebbles, was smaller than Wilmer, Fred and Barney, maybe a year younger, so now 18 years, is only 8 feet tall, and flowered for the first time 2006. She only produced a dozen or so seed, but this year has produced 4 branches with maybe 1000 seed per branch. Another odd thing about Pebbles is the leaf. The leaflets radiate from 360 degrees, making it a full circle fan. It is not unique, but not common either.

No, I haven't named all the seedlings! There are not enough names.