Flowering Jubaea in Yorkshire!!!!!!

[Henry]

I woke up this morning and saw out the bedroom window one of the large Jubaea with a massive flower on it!!! I was amazed to say the least. The little red 'bead like' pods are flower buds. I checked all the others but theres none on them. The whole of the flower pod should be in flower in the next few days, I'll be taking some more pics when they do.

[themes]

39 years to go

[Adam D]

Are they in your garden Henry?

Got to love exotic plant flowers, they are just so...exotic

[Henry]

Yes they are in my garden, I just can't believe I didn't notice the flower spike earlier!
Theres 5 really big ones and 21 smaller ones from 5 to 20+ year olds.

[Dave Brown]

Wow, Henry, Ive not heard of them flowering here before. I'm not sure if they are self fertile, but if they are you'll be having Coquitos for desert . Apparently they taste like Coconut.

[kentgardener]

Gosh. I see you used a ladder to go for the close up - did you notice if the flower was scented at all?

[lee-ann]

FAB

[Si]

Yes they are in my garden, I just can't believe I didn't notice the flower spike earlier!
Theres 5 really big ones and 21 smaller ones from 5 to 20+ year olds.

Amazing sounds like palm canyon in cali

[pete G]

Where did you get the plant from Henry?

[Dave Brown]

Where did you get the plant from Henry?

I'd hazard a guess, from Chile

[pete G]

If thats the case, I'd guess the flower bud was already set before planting.

[Henry]

I've checked and the flower mass contains both male ad female flowers so they are self fertile apparently. Although they flower in the spring in Chilie and mine has flowered in the summer, I just hope it has enough time for the fruits to ripen!
Hopefully the other 4 will flower next year aswell. It would be a first, uk grown jubaea seed that is outside or have the ones in Torquay flowered?
The flower has definatly grown since the've been in the ground (planted 3 years ago) and I checked them close up in the crown at the end of last year and there wasnt any flower spikes then.

[redsquirrel]

are there 2 possibilities here henry? the first being your palm has settled in and on its jolly way now or the second,flowered due to transplant stress? they are quite slow over here.. either way its a remarkable sight,i have a recently transplanted uk seed grown plant,12 years old and 18inches high.not looking its best right now,the week after i planted it,we had that blistering sun for a week or so.

[themes]

we had that blistering sun for a week or so.

Thats already double the sun I recieved last year. So you will get double last years growth

[Henry]

Its definatly not stress, when they were planted some had emerging flowers but they died, they are starting to flourish!! Once jubaeas reach about 17+ years old they do grow fast ( well for a palm tree) They put on quite a few fronds a year and even with the exposure they don't look tatty after the winter (even this one) Its just the sheer mass of the trunk and how close the fronds are that make them look slow. Just think the trunks get a meter plus in diameter so thats a lot of growth before they start to move upwards!!