Livistona endauensis

[Jeff Searle]

I'm hear posting with a twist. And if I'm out of place and the moderator needs to delete this post or move it somewhere else, I totally understand. I just don't know where to ask this.

I'm asking what some of our readers might think or can be of help. I have the above mentioned species in a 7gallon pot. It's 4' tall and looks nice. t was grown from a seed and it's many, many ears old.  But I have no idea what it's worth and honestly I have always had plans to plant it in my garden. Any ideas on what value this palm has?

Moderator.....please advise. Thank you,

Jeff

[Josh-O]

Jeff, 

i have a few in 5 gallon size.

I'm growing them up to 15's to plant in my garden and for retail.

let me know what you hear back

cheers

Josh 

[cfkingfish]

Jeff-

I'll tell you a similar experience I had when valuing a Livistona alfredii that was about 25 years old and maybe 6" OA in the ground. He wanted to sell all the plants on the property and asked me what I thought it was worth. It is so subjective because there are barely any sales to go off of, so you basically have to find the interested party and value the time he would be purchasing by buying a plant that size versus a seedling. Sometimes your perception of time is more valuable than theirs, and it is hard to strike a deal. You can also value your time with a palm less than a collector who wants only this species and will pay way more than its personal value to yourself. In this case, he did not value the palm as much as an interested party and the palm sold very fast, but at a loss. 

Let's say I were an interested party at $500. If you had the palm for 20 years, that is $25/year. If you add the cost of buying the seeds, growing them, repotting, fertilizer, water, and labor, I doubt you are profiting at this point, if so it is marginal. What you have into the plant as a collector is fairly unimportant - what is important is holding this palm as your own versus parting with it to another collector. 

I know you are familiar with most if not all of this, but I figured I would post this on the thread so that people who may not understand why it is so hard to value certain plants can get a perspective from a collector's standpoint. If I just said I wanted it for $500, people would ask "Why $500?", hence the explanation. 

-CF

 

 

 

 

[Jeff Searle]

Well said......

Jeff

[neoflora]

it is worth what someone is willing to pay for it! Rare or not! Customers are uninterested in how much time you have in! 

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

@neoflora True, but after personally explaining just how much time and effort goes into making cycad hybrids to customers they suddenly have a change of heart and are more willing to pay the asking price of the plant.  Sometimes a little explanation really puts things into perspective as @cfkingfish pointed out.