Hardy Tropicals UK

I came across one of these today that had about 22/30cm of trunk on each one, this was not one planted as three but it was one plant growing in a proper V shape, how rare are these as ive never seen one in the flesh before?. karl.

karl66 wrote:I came across one of these today that had about 22/30cm of trunk on each one, this was not one planted as three but it was one plant growing in a proper V shape, how rare are these as ive never seen one in the flesh before?. karl.

I have planted 4 of these in a garden a few years ago (3 trunks per pot) .... they were sold as chamaerops excelsa ... they have grown considerably since planting, however, they look like shrubs and not palms as they are approx 5 1/2 feet tall now

my client has mentioned on several occasions that we should remove the smaller trunks so that it looks like a palm and not a shrub ... I have convinced him to leave it a while longer

Ha ha, this defeats the object though if trunks removed?, this one I saw is a fortunei all day long with no side shoot's, I just thought it may look querky when larger as I have plenty of single trunk specimen & a large hummilis with 5 trunk's. karl.

What do you mean by "was not planted as 3" ? Trachycarpus fortunei does not clump, so if there are 3 'trunks' growing in the same pot then it has been planted that way

I think a group of 3 palms planted together can look good, but only if they are all of different heights...

Nathan ignore my ignorance!!, I tried a few years ago to put 3 baby trachys together & could not get them to knit together so thought the one I saw earlier was a freak of nature!, obviously as they do not sucker/clump it would be immposible as you state!, the price of some multitrunks advertised on some sites is nothing short of robbery, I may start a sideline selling clumping Trachycarpus's . karl.

Nathan wrote:What do you mean by "was not planted as 3" ? Trachycarpus fortunei does not clump, so if there are 3 'trunks' growing in the same pot then it has been planted that way

I think a group of 3 palms planted together can look good, but only if they are all of different heights...

yup, there were 3 plants in each pot .... I planted them as such .... although labeled as chamaerops excelsior, they are Trachycarpus fortunei (Chamaerops excelsior is just another name but is cheaper)

Nathan wrote:
I think a group of 3 palms planted together can look good, but only if they are all of different heights...

I couldn't agree more, but buying them 3 in a pot doesn't work, they are too close together and if you ever saw 3 of those together after they have grown full width trunks then you wouldn't buy them 3 in a pot, much better to buy 3 different size ones like Nathan said and to plant them in a 3 properly spaced.