Hardy Tropicals UK

Have only had this Cycad for a month or so and i`ve already run into problems with it. It`s my first cycad so i`m very inexperienced at growing these things. It was imported from Spain and when it arrived it was a lovely deep green colour but now the leaves are starting to yellow a bit and some of the leaflets have turned white and died. I had to re-pot it when it arrived as it was so crammed into it`s pot that the pot had actually split. I`ve potted it into a peat based compost with some perlite added.It`s been outside since i got it so it`s possible that it`s experienced a light frost. Is this frost damage??? Or something more sinister. It does seem to be getting worse by the day.

Doesn't look too bad to me for this time of year.

Spain to the UK may be a bit of a shock.

All mine look a fair bit worse than that but I'm hoping they'll all flush this year.

I lost mine by February, -9c saw it off.
A bit off topic but a large majority of these and other palms orchids and exotics now come from southern China, some nurseries producing more than 5,000,000 plants per year dirt cheap, no heat required and very cheap labour.

i've ordered one from spain too, may bring it in at night to acclimatise to our lovely english weather

That looks more like sun scorch to me rather than frost damage ! I know you've only just repotted it and cycads hate being repotted due to their fragile roots, but I would have used a slightly bigger clay pot with 75% JI no 3 and 25% gravel. The good news is that it looks like it may flush fairly soon looking at the centre of the plant

Its not green paint coming off is it?

I've know of people spray painting dead xmas trees and trying to sell them on.

Andy I've had a similar sized one for nearly three years I think. It was half price in a garden centre so they must have had it a good while, kept inside.

It started to do the same as yours within a few weeks which I put down to sunburn at the time. Gradually all the fronds turned completely white and I cut them off about a year ago when the last bit of green disappeared.

It's been frondless since then but the caudex is really solid so I'm hoping for a flush this year.

Thanks for the replies guys. I still don`t understand why the leaflets are turning white and dying though. It certainly isn`t `Sunburn` Except for the odd day here and there we`ve been pretty well blanketed in cloud for the past month and i`ve seen these things growing in Southern Turkey and Florida (in 37degree heat and scorching sun) quite happily. I can understand the leaves yellowing a bit, as i would imagine after being re-potted the plant will draw some energy down to the root base,but i wouldn`t have thought this would cause leaflets to turn white like they have.

Andy, i have a fair size one which had a deep green lush look, last year in a matter of wks it went white & yellow, i'm still seething over it as i cant put my finger on what went wrong , i've come to the conclusion there very finicky, mines got about 18inches of fat trunk but is frondless!,as soon as it re-grows i'm getting rid of it.

I'm still sticking to my sun scorch theory If the roots were damaged or the plant was unhappy the whole leaf would turn yellow then brown over a period of weeks. An external factor has killed the isolated leaflets and pretty rapidly for them to be white. Remember these plants are often grown in shaded greenhouse conditions in nurseries and spend time in complete darkness while in transit. If they are not used to full sun, damage like that can happen in an hour or two. At best your lush dark green leaves will turn paler if they're used to more shade. Once acclimatised they will take full sun of course, but they will need a few weeks to adapt.

It's definitely not sun scorch.

I had my largest in a shady corner of my plant room over winter and it came out with white bits.

I think it's more likely to be underwatering.

I wouldn't think its underwatering either...

My Cycas Panzhi has bits like that, and it's been outside in the Essex monsoon. But my newish Revoluta has been outside too, and that is completely unblemished...

It's not underwatering. One of mine has been inside all winter and has hardly seen water. It looks as lush as the day I brought it in.