"Shuttlecock" Trachy?

[earthworm73]

I have this palm that was labeled Trachycarpus Takil when I bought it a few years ago (I believe the place where I bought it bought it from a whole sale nursery Golden Gate Palms in S.F.?). It is not a Takil and more than likely a Nainital. Anyway this palms has always shown a "shuttlecock" appearance from the first day I got it. I've never seen a TF show this kind of growth. Here is a pic soon after I bought it.

As you can see it was shuttlecock then. Here is a pic of it as of today. Keep in mind all of this growth is post "surgery" when I was forced to cut this tree down to within a couple of inches of the soil. It has not been trimmed like this and the plant insists on being shuttlecock.

I personally think this is odd growth habit for a T Fortunei and wondering if this is uncommon and also if this tree my not be a T. Fortunei but something else. Also this tree has a creeping trunk and spear pulls every spring but quickly recovers never missing a beat with growth. Even though my winters are usually 8b.

 

Edited May 19, 2016 by earthworm73

[Jimhardy]

I know some of the smaller palms for sale were

Fort x Takil because they had both growing there,I

think that would be the most likely bet if it was one

of the palms marked Takil.

[earthworm73]

3 hours ago, Jimhardy said:

I know some of the smaller palms for sale were

Fort x Takil because they had both growing there,I

think that would be the most likely bet if it was one

of the palms marked Takil.

Hey JH it's me Larrick.

[Josh-O]

8 hours ago, earthworm73 said:

I have this palm that was labeled Trachycarpus Takil when I bought it a few years ago (I believe the place where I bought it bought it from a whole sale nursery Golden Gate Palms in S.F.?). It is not a Takil and more than likely a Nainital. Anyway this palms has always shown a "shuttlecock" appearance from the first day I got it. I've never seen a TF show this kind of growth. Here is a pic soon after I bought it.

As you can see it was shuttlecock then. Here is a pic of it as of today. Keep in mind all of this growth is post "surgery" when I was forced to cut this tree down to within a couple of inches of the soil. It has not been trimmed like this and the plant insists on being shuttlecock.

I personally think this is odd growth habit for a T Fortunei and wondering if this is uncommon and also if this tree my not be a T. Fortunei but something else. Also this tree has a creeping trunk and spear pulls every spring but quickly recovers never missing a beat with growth. Even though my winters are usually 8b.

 

completely normal growth structure. I've seen thousands of these over the last 6 months here in california.

looks like a normal healthy Trachy you have in your garden.

[Jimhardy]

8 hours ago, earthworm73 said:

Hey JH it's me Larrick.

Hey how you doing...I noticed that was

you when I saw your Princeps on another thread...

[earthworm73]

8 hours ago, Josh-O said:

completely normal growth structure. I've seen thousands of these over the last 6 months here in california.

looks like a normal healthy Trachy you have in your garden.

Ok I'd never seen a trachy grow like that. My other ones grow "traditionally". Any clue as to why this one spear pulls every spring despite being in my best micro climate and having Z8b winters which my other trachys laugh at?

1 hour ago, Jimhardy said:

Hey how you doing...I noticed that was

you when I saw your Princeps on another thread...

Doing well. I pretty much took all of last year off from the palm game too many failures but I learned much in that time and so far so good with all of my new ones. How's your garden been?

[Pip]

That shuttlecock shape is caused by pruning the oldest leaves off to give the appearance of a trunk. Trachycarpus tend to have dense crowns of leaves that are produced in quick succession during the growing period. The shuttlecock shape is the neswest flush of growth pushing out.

[Jimhardy]

22 hours ago, earthworm73 said:

Ok I'd never seen a trachy grow like that. My other ones grow "traditionally". Any clue as to why this one spear pulls every spring despite being in my best micro climate and having Z8b winters which my other trachys laugh at?

Doing well. I pretty much took all of last year off from the palm game too many failures but I learned much in that time and so far so good with all of my new ones. How's your garden been?

Pretty good...I did let all the bigger palms go(3 Fortunei)but the Washy

is still going-they were just to big to cover with the materials I had

but mainly I did not need 3 Fortunei planted as I still have Tesan,Takil

& Bulgarian Trachys which could be considered variants of Fortunei.