chambeyronia hookeri

[nkbish]

I have a small chambeyronia hookeri I planted in the ground about a year ago. I has put out 2 new fronds and they came out green, not red. Will it ever throw a new red leaf or will it stay green forever? It is still small so if it will never get a new red leaf it will go to the pile. Here is the picture of the small palm.

Thanks

[Pedro 65]

I have a small chambeyronia hookeri I planted in the ground about a year ago. I has put out 2 new fronds and they came out green, not red. Will it ever throw a new red leaf or will it stay green forever? It is still small so if it will never get a new red leaf it will go to the pile. Here is the picture of the small palm.

Thanks

It will stay green forever,Never seen one suddenly turn red.

[bgl]

I hate to issue a death sentence for a palm, but I agree - once green, always green. I had a regular C. macrocarpa like that for many years - always opened up with a green frond. Still an attractive palm though!

[realarch]

Same here, have one that just throws green fronds. Otherwise it looks just like the rest of them. The nice thing about your hookeri though is the

light green crownshaft it will develop. You'll always enjoy that.

[MattyB]

They can turn, ask palm grover. Yours is not hookeri

[nkbish]

Matty

So what you are saying is I bought a chambeyronia hookeri that is a macro that does not have a new red leaf and might some day get one. For a five gal. Plant I might just start over. Thanks to all for the help.

[Pedro 65]

Matty

So what you are saying is I bought a chambeyronia hookeri that is a macro that does not have a new red leaf and might some day get one. For a five gal. Plant I might just start over. Thanks to all for the help.

Believe the three posts above Matt.

[MattyB]

I do believe that you have never seen one turn red.

[Walter John]

They can turn, ask palm grover. Yours is not hookeri

Looks like this one Matty

another green and yellow Chamby

[BS Man about Palms]

I have to side with Matty B on this one... I don't think hookeri (never seen a green hookeri) and Bob ALWAYS complained about his green macrocarpa and only recently did I remember he said it turned red...

[Tropicgardener]

Yep that young palm photographed definately looks like a macrocarpa to me.

Edited June 19, 2011 by Tropicgardener

[Ice Blue]

I'm glad you posted this nkbish. I have three chambeyronias (hookeri, regular, watermelon) I planted them about a year ago when I was getting into palms. I have yet to see a red new leaf on any of them. I have read at different places on this site that once a chambeyronia opens green it will always open green, but it's interesting to year about a variation to this. Nevertheless, I feel kind of cheated. None of the nurseries I purchased my chambeyronias from ever mentioned anything about new leaves not being red and I purchased all 5gs so they would have had time to have opened new red leaves. Maybe they realized that I was new and didn't know to ask the right questions. Caveat emptor I guess

If I do chuck these chambeyronias, next time I purchase one, I'm looking for one with a new red leaf. If there is no red leaf visible, then I'll just say, "Show me the carfax." Maybe all chambeyronias need to have carfaxes to help newbies like me.

[Walter John]

I'm glad you posted this nkbish. I have three chambeyronias (hookeri, regular, watermelon) I planted them about a year ago when I was getting into palms. I have yet to see a red new leaf on any of them. I have read at different places on this site that once a chambeyronia opens green it will always open green, but it's interesting to year about a variation to this. Nevertheless, I feel kind of cheated. None of the nurseries I purchased my chambeyronias from ever mentioned anything about new leaves not being red and I purchased all 5gs so they would have had time to have opened new red leaves. Maybe they realized that I was new and didn't know to ask the right questions. Caveat emptor I guess

If I do chuck these chambeyronias, next time I purchase one, I'm looking for one with a new red leaf. If there is no red leaf visible, then I'll just say, "Show me the carfax." Maybe all chambeyronias need to have carfaxes to help newbies like me.

Over here in Queensland, a Chamby with a new GREEN leaf is very rare.

If it's rare, it's valuable.

You got yourself some rare valuable palms, be grateful....

[BS Man about Palms]

Guana, as a help, Several of us have noticed the "darker" the petiole on the last leaf, etc. appears to be an indication that it is a red leaf chamby. (It seems to not "bleach" away its red as it turns green when in a greenhouse.

As an aside, I don't doubt that there are Chamby's that stay green, just Matt and I have seen one that DID start turning red. Hopefully Bob will pipe in here...

[nkbish]

These palms look awsome with their fat leafs. But without a new red leaf I will be in the market for a new one. After seeing the huge macro at Balboa Park it is one of favorite palms. At my inland location they seem to be growing good in a protected location. I tried one in 3/4 day sun and it looks terrible. Thanks for all the input. If I remember I will put a picture of the new one. For the ones from where these are rare pm me for a free macro with a new green frond.

[Pedro 65]

In the late 80s the Bulk of Chambeyronias we saw for sale opened with a new Green leaf and stayed Green, apparently Bill and Matt have seen or Heard of one turning Red, so the probability of a Chamby that has a New Green leaf then suddenly turns Red is Very, Very slim indeed. And one for those who are unaware there are hookeri x macro so the colouration of the trunk will have yellow and green. ps Bill we bought aheap of Chambeyronias off a Fantastic nurserylady that the colouration in the rachis was SO fantastic (Red, Orange Purple) she sold them as Chambeyronia sp"Roxanne"... A name she made up because of the great colour... guess What.. They ALL opened with aGreen New Leaf.

[Pez]

What size do they normally start throwing red new fronds? The smallest one I ever purchased was in a 3 gal container. It didn't start opening with any red for about another year. Was this normal or an exception? The palm pictured doesn't look much bigger.

[Palmgrover]

They can turn, ask palm grover. Yours is not hookeri

So true! Befor I planted my first Chambeyronia in a 5 gal. it had already opened a couple green leaves while acclimating to my environment. After planting, a few more green leaves came out and I was pissed. You don't buy these palms for a green leaf... Well after a few years in the ground things started to change I mean color wise. It slowly started to change more and more from green to red with each new leaf. 5 years in the ground now and it grows well for me. And it's very red now.

I'm so glad I didn't rip it out of the ground back then.

I say give it time it'll catch on "fire".

[Ice Blue]

Guana, as a help, Several of us have noticed the "darker" the petiole on the last leaf, etc. appears to be an indication that it is a red leaf chamby. (It seems to not "bleach" away its red as it turns green when in a greenhouse.

As an aside, I don't doubt that there are Chamby's that stay green, just Matt and I have seen one that DID start turning red. Hopefully Bob will pipe in here...

Thanks for the input. Just saw Palmgrover's post too. Perhaps I will wait a while, and see if my flame thrower isn't shooting blanks after all.

[realarch]

Pez, I got 3- 1 gal. hookeri's and they were already throwing red fronds, so some of them start at an early age.

[Peter Pacific]

Have patience my friend. My Hookeri took forever to turn her first red leaf and then, all of a sudden, (after three years) she shined! It could happen...

[Palmlover]

I have one that was throwing green fronds when young, but as it got older the new fronds are getting red each time. Yours looks like a mixed between a plain and hookerii. If you do some research you will find they come in a cross breed. I have one of those too, slight shades of yellow and green; in fact, it was sold as a Hookerii.

[Joe palma]

I have first hand experience w/ macrocarpas that were pushing green fronds that, most (I can't say all), eventually turned red. These were a purchase of 100 seedlings (reg. macro) in '06 from Floribunda. After a yr or so of them growing I became concered they weren't pushing red. As well they were looking a bit more yellow than I was expecting. I suspected they were hybrids but was in no way sure. After talking to Jeff he did make it sound like they probably might not be red ever. Others had made the same comments. I was very bummed, but I wasn't going to toss them. Now that all are in 5g and some in 15g the majority are pushing red and real nice looking. Don't give up. I'm gonna check on them to see how many are still doing green.

As well I have the opposite scenario.

I had a 15g macro that produced a really red new frond when in the container. Since I had planted it out (~3 maybe 4 yrs ago), it has not produced one red frond. In all fairness this palm was not doing well when I did plant it (it was starting to leaning over in the container) and is just now starting to look good (I know, why bother so long). I am hopefull the next push will be red.

I have had the same experience w/ my A. tuckerii. Almost no color since being planted out when it was awesome in the bucket!

But it as well was tramatized since planting, by being knocked over in a storm. It is now healthy as heck but really no color.

[Jastin]

My first leaf (after buying it) on my Macro was really bright red but now on the 2nd it is dark red, not sure what the next one will be

[avb]

I agree with MattyB that the plant in the original post is macrocarpa.

I have had many Chambeyronia, hookeri, macrocarpa, and houailou. Usually they have new green leaves when small, but not always. I would let it go for two or three years and see if there is a change. If you're in a hurry, watch for one to come on the market in the color you want and replace the one you have.

You can get a wide variety of color on the new leaf, ranging from green to brown, bronze, reddish brown, red, and even pink and orange. Just to screw with us, they seem to change a bit sometimes, depending on something I don't understand yet, maybe fertilizer. I do have some that are very consistent with each leaf. My hookeri just opened a new leaf last week, and it is usually deep blood red, but this leaf is different, having some green in it and the red is a bit pinkish.

I also purchased one some years ago, supposedly from a watermelon parent, and it turned out to be regular macrocarpa with a bronze new leaf, with a single variegated leaflet every third leaf. It gives me the impression that the genetics on this species, or group of sub-species, is all over the place with lots of wacky stuff to entertain us.