PRA time at Phoenikakias garden

[Kostas]

Today, I went to Phoenikakias place and we spent the afternoon touring his garden and talking what we love,palms and cycads! It was great to see mature specimen from unusual palms and some awesome tropical palms like Arenga pinnata and A. micrantha. I was too busy examining the palms,the details and all those beauties surrounding me,to take pictures,so I only remembered to take a few before leaving. Here they are:

Guihea argyrata leaf underside

And upper side,really nice!

Arenga micrantha with Konstantinos(Phoenikakias). Leafs were 5m easy!

Arenga pinnata,leafs 5-6m easy and nicely drooping!

Leaf underside

Looking up a leaf...The window seen is of the first floor!

[Kostas]

From the balcony of the first floor,you can see part of A. pinnata leafs sticking up nearly to the end of the first floor and the lowest part of the roof...Phoenikakias keeps them company

A great garden with real gems in it Had a great time with Konstantinos and we exchanged palms as well,he gave me a big Reinhardtia paiewonskiana,a species I have been searching for a few more individuals to plant except the very young one I have in the ground! It's just prior to trunking for good and shooting up so,first few rings of young trunk visible with stilts tearing through it,so it should hopefully have a little time to acclimate to the ground and get much fatter before trunking for good. It's getting ground planted this weekend or the next,the sooner the better for it!

Here it is now at my "nursery":

The fence stands 2m tall for scale! It's a beastie! Thanks a lot Konstantinos,I will provide it with a great spot in the ground in Pyrgos,a wet,shady spot and hope it does well long term and grows fat and huge!

[gyuseppe]

Hello KOSTAS AND KOSTAS!

Arenga micrantha is a palm tree that I really like

[Kostas]

Hello Giuseppe!

It's was awesome from close,very nice colors and textures on the leafs and tropical looking!

Just a couple more pictures but the sun angle didn't help with the Brahea armata(it was really white in person) and the clearance wasn't enough for a decent picture of Thrinax radiata.

[Walter John]

Thanks for the posting and great commentary.

[LilikoiLee]

Thanks for the enjoyable post. It is very interesting to see what's growing in Greece as well as some palms (the Arenga species) that I had never seen before.

Lee

[NApalm]

Good work fellas

[Phoenikakias]

Truth is that even without any trade-off with other palms of Kostas I would have given to him this Reinhardtia anyway. As astonishingly cool and cold (not necessarily frost) tolerant it is, it is equally if not more demanding in air humidity (measured according to capacity of my climate in this respect). I really can not uderstand why it is placed as zone 11 plant!!!! Me keeping and outplanting it in my garden, would mean with great probability its slow decline, as it would not promote adequate growth during warm season to compesate losses from previous winter, because it is to hot and to dry here during my summer (Kostas's place is considerably more humid by definition, less windy, with cooler summer days and even cooler nights and with high protecting canopy, which could not be sustained here due to lack of underground water- we have practically to count mosquitos during summer in our gardens respectively-I have non- to realize the extent of difference!). No wonder that this plant grew rapidly in my cold frame (where windows remain open all year round and temps during winter are same as outside) during the constantly rainy days even in the heart of winter!!!! I am not that selfish to keep a plant that will perform poorly or even die, while it could thrive in another place in Greece...

Next bet in its new enviroment will be however its performance during the couple of light and short lasting radiational frost events that Kostas has to endure almost every year but I am optimistic since another little specimen of his seems to do well! In every case I cross fingers with Kostas for a quick and permanent establishment!

PS

I wish also to thank Joerg from THRINAX nursery, who gave me the opportunity, by having sold to me as seedling the real deal, to test this relatively rare in cultivation palm.

Edited March 12, 2014 by Phoenikakias

[Rafael]

Phoenikakias, from what i have seen here you have quite a collection, amazing the arenga micrantha. How old is it?

Many thanks to Kostas to have shared beautifull pics and (as always) inspired words

[Josh76]

Fantastic photos Kostas. Phoenikakias, your garden has some real gems!!! I hope you are recovering from your injury

[Phoenikakias]

Phoenikakias, from what i have seen here you have quite a collection, amazing the arenga micrantha. How old is it?

Many thanks to Kostas to have shared beautifull pics and (as always) inspired words

I estimate between 12 and 14 years old. It had been outplanted in summer 2004 and bought at a size ..., hmm you know, the size of an ouplantable plam that can be also delivered in package with mail. Arenga has a special feature in my climate, it does not produce many leaves yearly , but under favoring growing conditions every couple of new leaves next one is getting fairly bigger. It needs here however a lot of water and maybe it would have grown faster, had it not to face for many years the unfair competition, of an old multi-stemmed bay tree; it has proved that no matter how frequently and richly I was watering, almost all natural resources were getting exploited by the bay tree, which was getting bigger and bigger and thus it was making situation for micrantha even more difficult.

[Phoenikakias]

Fantastic photos Kostas. Phoenikakias, your garden has some real gems!!! I hope you are recovering from your injury

Hand has become functional again but light pain occasionally reoccures; I guess I need more rest but no time for it...

[Kostas]

Thank you very much Wal, Lee, Logan, Rafael and Josh, I am glad you enjoyed the story and the photos! There were really many more worth photographing! I will try to take more photos next time

Lee,the Arenga's are truly awesome,with the best being A. westerhoutii in my opinion! Its worth growing and shouldn't be a problem for you!

I certainly cross my fingers for the R. paiewonskiana, I always do and worry more than normal with palms grown by friends as they represent years of personal effort and something they have loved...So its tough taking over such plants!

Reinhardtia paiewonskiana should do well in Pyrgos since it has seen harsher temperatures at your place than it should ever see in Pyrgos. Frost is a concern but at this size,I don't think it can affect it much(only leaflets would be affected at most,rachis is too thick for any significant damage,as is the spear,there is just not enough time for them to reach the ambient temperature and get damage from it) and very soon,maybe even before its first winter, it will have evergreen canopy overhead,so no more frost, only short radiational temperature dips 2-3 nights a year. My biggest concern is the initial acclimation phase,where the palm is adapting to the local soil conditions and moisture levels,as well as its first winter and how it will behave with some winter wind. It doesn't seem too wimpy,and seems to love and be acclimated somewhat to high moisture levels at root level, having moss on its trunk,so it seems very promising and all should go well. I certainly hope so and will try my best!!! Hope it grow to maturity and becomes an awesome palm you can come see it and say,"that's my baby there!"

[paulgila]

wonderful palm collection & good work on the PRA photos!

[PalmatierMeg]

Beautiful garden! Love the Reinhardtia.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Nice palms

The Arenga micrantha is unbelievable . I have a small 15 cm one in my shadehouse that i must plant out in the future !

Troy

[sergiskan]

Woow!, stunning palms!, awesome arenga!

[Kostas]

Thank you Paul!

Phoenikakias palm collection was indeed great!!! Arenga micrantha leafs were sturdy and heavily textured everywhere,with a thck and stiff brown leaf rachis have a rough sandpaper feel and huge thick leaflets!,making it a show stopper! But the Arenga pinnata was unbeatable for that tropical look,with the huge leafs and softish yet holding their shape,leaflets and white leaf undersides with black leaf rachis,just awesome! There wasn't enough clearance for a photo as impressive as Arenga micrantha a but it certainly was equally or more impressive!

Love the Reinhardtia too Meg,can't wait to see it trunk well and flower! The stilts must be awesome as it grows!