UK Chamaedorea radicalis forest

[Adam]

andrew smith i just planted my 3 radicaliss and 1 microspadix out today how exciting and will keep you'll posted on how they are i dont know how to put photos online so soz bout that yes they are small plants but hey ho alien

[weve]

Planted my radicalis out last weekend. Its in a shady spot but the leaves still got burnt after a winter indoors and a very sunny week, despite "acclimatising" it to the light over the last month or so (or so I thought ) . Leaves now have a whitish/silvery hue. but a new leaf (hopefully still) on its way.

Nice little palm and underated IMO

[JungleNuts]

Picked up one of these today on a visit to the palm centre (just a tiny thing at the mo) ..... will keep indoors for this winter, but hopefully next year I know just the spot under the bamboo's ..... Hopefully as hardy for me as you guys have reported in this thread ....

Now to hunt down the variegated form

R

[Mr List]

just bring this topic back up as i am curious as to how this fared the last two winters in your garden dave?

is it still with us?

[Dave Brown]

Oh, completely missed this back in Nov. Just searched it out to reply to another Chamaedorea radicalis topic.

Basically the main clump is still going but has taken quite a battering over the last 2 winters. It spends most of the summer recovering rather than actively growing, ans is smaller now than it was back in the original pic in 2007. One of the palms in the clump died this year so it is down to 4 palms now.

The largest seedling is still alive in the front garden but having taken -10C with just a single fleece it spear pulled and has not regrown so far this year. One of the smaller seedling clumps was also planted out in the front garden but in a more exposed place, so I covered it with a TRex leaf as the cold set in at the end of Nov 2010. This survived with minor leaf damage.

I think the problem with overwintering is getting snow and wet on the palm during winter. Paul Spraklin did a topic on EPS about these in their native habitat in Mexico. Basically they grow in dry leaf litter and from cracks in dry stone walls. They seem to prefer quire a dry existance, unlike many Chamaedorea. My feeling now is they would benefit from an overhead canopy that keeps them dry, but also planted in almost Epiphytic compost.

I have covered the main palm with a fleece bag this winter, but as I said I am thinking of replacing this with a sheet of polycarbonate to keep rain or snow off

[jungle jas]

Any one know were I can get some seeds from.

[call]

check out this site
http://www.thepalmhouse.co.uk/palms.html

[MikeC]

check out this site
http://www.thepalmhouse.co.uk/palms.html

Postage is a bit steep for few small palms.

[leunerj]

Hi Jungle Jas,

A guy in California was mailing out some freebies on the Palmtalk forum recently and I believe he still has some left:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=31849

Not sure whether they would get stopped by customs on the way into the country but it might be worth a shot?

[DiCasS]

Or if you have no luck JJ, there's also Dave Ison's site, Vic who sometimes posts on here has some plants for sale, or did have. Might be worth contacting him see if he still has them.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.ison2/page40aaa.html

Di

[jungle jas]

Thanks for the info.

[jungle jas]

Just an update, I did manage to obtain a couple of Radicalis from Vic about a month ago plus a Princeps. Since then I have been on my holidays and managed to find some Radicalis seeds which was a bit of a bonus. So Ill give them a try as well.