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It's a perfect little palm, love the scale...the first pic in the original post was quite deceptive!

Hey Harry...what does the blackii allude to? Is this a different form of C decipiens??

They poop inside the house here, so I catch them and throw them outside if one gets inside. Never try to hurt them.

You must be in Australia? Queensland?

Not sure how many varieties I have but at least over 20 different varieties!

An easy palm to grow for that cool subtropical to warm subtropical climate. I have dozens of chamaedoreas throughout my garden, they are just that good for the understory.

Yes, Richard, it's a great idea, I've been doing that with R. multifida, cut up a pot full of them recently, and now have a couple of delicate little "lollipops" and a few groups of 3 stems each, and you're right, they may cause some head-scratching to visitors...I actually love this genus...and there are some really wonderful species (including R. excelsa and all of its wonderful cultivars. I think this species is unfairly poo-pooed by people due to its cold-hardiness, which is a major plus of course). Most importantly, they're beautiful, easy and always seem to have a place in the garden, even if you have to think about the best spot a little harder than with other palms...

An easy seller rhapis, indoors, patio and even the office, shopping centres. It has a well earned reputation for good reason. Just not in my garden anymore, especially in a landscape setting near a house. I much prefer the variegated varieties near the house garden, the green one can take a back of the garden situation. Where it can get out of control and do no harm in taking over small understory palms. But that said a few small individual canes work a treat when thinned out and even a single stem can fool many a palm nut as to what licuala variety is that in the understory!

It’s safe to say that Royals have visibly outperformed Foxtails by quite a wide margin. Having said that, the amount of devastation was worse than I expected. Animal Kingdom will take many years(if ever) to look like its former glorious, sprawling self. Many of my favorite tropicals and trees in the area have been reduced to rubble. I can’t even begin to fathom what would have happened if 1980’s type cold events would have hit…

And I forgot to say that I saved these from damping off using only cinnamon.

I germinated these from seed that I collected and brought from Yucatán. Now growing in Monterrey zone 10. Notice the little hairs.

I'm afraid the terrible appearance of your palm is likely wind-burn and cold damage. Areca catechu is a heat-loving palm from southeast Asia that will suffer and fade away if exposed to cold and wind such as you describe. It is most at home in full, hot tropical sun with low temperatures in the 80sF (say, 27-30C) and high temperatures around 90F (about 32C), year-round. While it certainly appears not to have died yet (which would happen quickly due to a sharp frost or freeze), it is being slowly killed because its metabolism just can't function properly in such a chilled atmosphere. From the point of view of a warmth-dependent tropical palm, this is a sentence to a near-frozen misery...very much like planting a coconut at the beach in California, which, despite being above 0C, is pelted by cold ocean winds and under chilly overcast for most of spring and often in summer, with cold nights year-round and cool days (very comfortable to many people!) except during heat-waves. Except that Areca catechu is probably more chill-sensitive than a coconut. To these very tropical palms, the temperatures we may not consider too bad are really a death sentence. By the way, USDA zone ratings indicate the average minimum annual temperature over a period of 30 years (but if you have the extended data, many prefer to calculate it over their maximum data-set). So you would not be a zone 9a or 9b...because this would indicate you have average annual minimum temperatures of -1 to -6C or so, which i believe is not the case in your location in the Azores.

The funny paradox with Rhapis being that, considering the number of complaints bandied about in re its multiplication...it probably fetches one of the highest prices in the palm-market. So maybe the thing is to look at it as a nice money machine! Bamboo certainly wouldn't qualify in that department...

Mature or large (tall) palm trees need a larger root ball to prevent them from weakening or their growth from slowing down, especially Jubaea palms. That's why they die when transplanted to a hot or desert location.

I was pretty happy to get my hands on Butia x Jubaea this last week: It was shipped from Oregon, so I was happy for a cool rainy week when it was in transit. Looks like it made it in good shape. My Butia (purchased locally) that spear pulled and started to die, is doing a bit better now, though it will be a long time before it looks normal: Trunk cutting sets them back badly, but it has sure helped me rescue the plant just about every time I have done it. Another example is my Sabal mexicana that performed so poorly last winter: Its twin spear pulled also, but had a new spear growing pretty quickly. So, it didn't need surgery:

I learned that from you . 100% agree.

I haven't been to Dallas yet. I'm here in San Antonio. I see @TonyDFW posts a lot of pictures of palms growing in Dallas , before and after 2021. They're still many survivors. The long , frequent ice storms are definitely not helping so I agree to you about planting more cold hardier palms. I think Sabal Minor should do really well for you.

Thank you , Richard. Harry

Yeah, a Royal Palm would have a long bright green crown shaft on its trunk beneath its canopy of fronds. $500 sounds reasonable for a Majesty that big but starting out with a vigorous younger one would probably make more sense.

I wish my brahea looked as good as your ones, and that Mediterranean palm a great picture. Richard

Such a joy when they sprout . Careful this could get addictive! Harry A couple of Dypsis/ Chrysalidiocarpus almost ready for pots. I m really excited about both these if they make it . The drywall screw is for when they are covered in plastic for humidity.

Nice one a few new varieties growing well for you I see. And a few good old tried and tested varieties, keep em coming. Richard

Rhapis are as tough as bamboo, when you want to get rid off them it one heck of a job, they just keep on coming up. You’re one is a testament to how tough they really are! Richard

Do you think I should fertilize? Its been in the ground now about two months.