Hardy Tropicals UK

kata wrote:Oh right, thanks Multim!

That stripped (third) It looked a right mess.

Its always best to get the expert in and mine is a long way off needing stripping. It gets plenty new leaf growth but not so much trunk growth.

Maybe I should feed it.

Thanks for that Kata

What you probably fail to realise is that palms grown close to something don't grow vertically, so the scars are not horizontal, and also warm years produce a bigger interleaf node than cooler or drier years.

For me to get an expert gardener Dave, what anyone else does is their business..

Whats wrong with that? Maybe you mean about the third strip which I don't like one bit.

kata wrote:For me to get an expert gardener Dave, what anyone else does is their business..

Whats wrong with that? Maybe you mean about the third strip which I don't like one bit.

The way I read it, the wording suggests that I have made a right mess of it and should have got an expert in which as a pioneer and one of the first people to practice this in UK 21 years ago is a bit of a kick in the teeth.

Mine are all hairy,that is until the birds start stripping them again for nesting in the spring.

I think the third stripped pic looks very professional and reminds me of a coconut type palm


This one though, which has more even growth i'm guessing due to better light? making the trunk look "cleaner" ? IMHO looks ridiculous, reminds me of the trachys in California which look anorexic, the thin trunk doesnt do it for me. I like trachys cold grown and chunky in appearance

This is Trunky with a thicker trunk. Last stripped in 2008, from memory. Needs 3 feet of fibre taken off over the next few weeks, but not while an easterly is blowing, as windchill is terrible up a ladder.

I like the stripped one, it looks more tropical. Imho Dave's looks better as its a chunkier trunk so I would probably buy a nice fat specimen to strip as that skinny one doesnt look as nice.

Dave Brown wrote:This is Trunky with a thicker trunk. Last stripped in 2008, from memory. Needs 3 feet of fibre taken off over the next few weeks, but not while an easterly is blowing, as windchill is terrible up a ladder.

now that is 1000% more aesthetic than skinny one, lovely!

Surely a shaggy is just a hairy were the petioles have been cut short and close to the trunk allowing the hair on the trunk to break out from behind the petioles and flop all over the place?

A shaggy looking fortunei is a totally different looking palm to a standard hairy version & has a sheer mass of long hair, i'll try & get some pic's of mine the wkend, re/stripping, even the fat trunk's look thin when the hair is removed. karl.

I never meant anyone else.

jungle jas wrote:Surely a shaggy is just a hairy were the petioles have been cut short and close to the trunk allowing the hair on the trunk to break out from behind the petioles and flop all over the place?

No, the shaggy ones have fibre that blows about in the wind, much longer than standard hairy ones.

kata wrote:I never meant anyone else.

Ok Kata, thanks

Well, I'd love to have tall trunks of all three types instead of the single old hairy one I have. Would give the illusion of three different palms in a full garden....and I'm just plain greedy

Thanks Dave. I shall have to try and find a shaggy one.