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Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:26 pm
by SueW
This weekend I cleared back some geraniums that had finished flowering and in so doing, exposed the base of my Cordyline, which I haven't seen for a bit. Interestingly, there are at least 7 sprouts/offsets growing out of the trunk. Recently the palm has put on a sudden spurt of growth at the top too. Can anybody who knows about palms, tell me, are these sprouts going to become multi-trunks, or multi-heads? Pics enclosed:
Some of the base sprouts
Some of the base sprouts
IMG_1643.jpg
Cheers! Sue

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:37 pm
by Conifers
SueW wrote:anybody who knows about palms
Cordyline is not a palm :wink:

If you leave them, it'll eventually become multi-trunked, with a cluster of stems from the base. If you want to keep it on a single stem, rub them off now while they're still soft. But a multistem specimen can look nicer, with denser foliage, less like a lollipop on a stick.

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:45 pm
by SueW
LOL, shows what I know... Cordy not a palm? But it's called a Cornish Palm down yur! :lol:

Keeping them was what I had in mind. There are a lot of cordys here and I think the multi-stem ones look nicest.

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:00 pm
by GoggleboxUK
And down under it's known as the Australian Cabbage Palm Sue so just pretend you were calling it by name rather than species.

;)

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 2:29 pm
by Conifers
GoggleboxUK wrote:And down under it's known as the Australian Cabbage Palm Sue so just pretend you were calling it by name rather than species.

;)
They're called Cabbage Tree (or tī kōuka, if you're Maori) down under :wink:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/nat ... -ti-kouka/

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:06 pm
by GoggleboxUK
Conifers wrote:
GoggleboxUK wrote:And down under it's known as the Australian Cabbage Palm Sue so just pretend you were calling it by name rather than species.

;)
They're called Cabbage Tree (or tī kōuka, if you're Maori) down under :wink:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/conservation/nat ... -ti-kouka/
I'll alert Seagraves immediately and inform them of their error. I'm sure they'll give you a huge reward for services to pedantry:

http://www.seagravenurseries.co.uk/home ... -height-35

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:28 pm
by flounder
Dammit, I have to agree with him again :roll:
Definitely not a palm.......or a cabbage :D

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:53 pm
by Springy
Well that certainly confused me for a moment. I clicked on this thread and thought that Cordyman was going to tell us about his Brussel sprouts! :oops:

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:22 pm
by flounder
:lol:
Good one!

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 4:40 pm
by SueW
:lol: So if it's not a palm, and not a cabbage... what is it?

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 6:00 pm
by Conifers
May sound strange, but it's a sort of tree-sized asparagus. The young stem heads are edible (and were an important vegetable for the Maori, pre-European times)

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2013 9:13 pm
by SueW
Strewth.... That's weird! :-) thank you for that snippet of info though, I like my humble cordy even more now it got more interesting. :-P

Re: Cordy growing sprouts

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2013 5:57 pm
by Dave Brown
I expected to see this topic in the salad vegetables section :lol: In my mind I read it as "Cordyman growing Brussel sprouts"