Hardy Tropicals UK

1]DSC02169.JPG[/attachment]Hello i bought these palms the one near the pond ive had about 4 years and the other i bought at the begining of this year. I bought these both to be trachycarpus fortunei, but one as short stem leaves and the other are much longer stems as you can see. do you think they are the same? thankyou.

i know very little about palms really, but I'd guess the second one to be a waggy, hopefully somebody with a little more knowledge than me will jump in

I would say the first one a Fortunei and the second a a fortunei x waggie

I would say both are fortunei. karl.

They are both fortuneis, much better and happier in the ground than in pots. they rarely look nice when in pots for prolonged periods and look discoloured ,the one you have in the ground is a much healthier shade of green. If they were both in the ground you wouldnt see much difference in them any more.

The stem (petiole) length is largly down to conditions the plant has been stored in.

The plant next to the pond which you have had for 3 years will have been growing in full sun with no competition for light, your newer plant will probably have been field grown next to other trachycarpus and has grown longer petioles to compete for light.

You will also see Trachys with longer petioles growing in shade for the same reason.

There is also massive variation in the species.

Hi nigel yes i think you are right i am going to plant it in the garden. would you think a butia would do ok in the pot instead. all comments welcome trhankyou. this is going to be my next purchase next spring.

bamboo bibb wrote:Hi nigel yes i think you are right i am going to plant it in the garden. would you think a butia would do ok in the pot instead. all comments welcome trhankyou. this is going to be my next purchase next spring.

A butia is much more suited to pot growth albeit slow growing.
However, in case of Butia , it wont like being outside in a pot in winter , the roots will freeze , if you are able to keep it frost free in winter it would look nice.
Probably the best palm for a pot would be Chamerops humilis.

I what should i feed my palms with? blood fish and bone in spring and what else would you recommend.

The one in the ground looks more yellow,

The one in the pot has brown tips.

bamboo bibb wrote:I what should i feed my palms with? blood fish and bone in spring and what else would you recommend.

A good balanced fert with npk something like 15-5-15 and mg and trace elements is best, but trachys themselves are not that fussy but are quite greedy feeders. Personally I avoid high N because it gives big soft leaves and trachys get thrashed even worse in wind when given high N feeds.

thanks for the advice nigel, we have bags of leaf mould would this be ok for them as well.

If they are a year old

Depending what tree they are off, some will be toxic.

Mulching with leaf mould would be excellent, as long as its not from something toxic as katasays, but most leaf mould from the UK wouldnt give a problem.

bamboo bibb wrote:1]DSC02169.JPG[/attachment]

DSC02169.JPG

Hello i bought these palms the one near the pond ive had about 4 years and the other i bought at the begining of this year. I bought these both to be trachycarpus fortunei, but one as short stem leaves and the other are much longer stems as you can see. do you think they are the same? thankyou.

The species is very variable.