Encephalartos whitelockii

[ghar41]

Is anyone growing E whitelockii?  If so, how did they do in the January freeze this year?

Has anyone seen the specimens at Lotusland?  Did they burn?  Or worse?

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

Mine burned but did not die....lows in the teens...small ones defoliated.

[ghar41]

Thanks Steve.  Sounds very encouraging, esp. considering its habitat.

What a monster.  The seedlings Ive seen look like instant landscape cycads.

My seed have just sprouted so no pictures yet.

Any pictures of E. Whitelockii out there?

[Palmdude]

Here’s mine,

i need to acclimate it to sun since it grew in mostly shade. 

[Meangreen94z]

I have one in a pot, only saw low 30’s in January with a blanket over it on my porch. As long as it’s in the pot I probably won’t let it see 20’s,which we usually get every year. Eventually it will make it into the ground

[aussiearoids]

My climate is a very good match to habitat so mine have thrived .

latest flush has 4m leaves easy and caudex is now maybe 60 cms 

I should be out there whacking away the weeds smothering it , but he is a big boy and can look after himself .

[SprGarden]

Here’s mine.  It pushed out the most recent leaves in December and they are stunted from the cold but it’s about to flush again.

[Tracy]

6 hours ago, SprGarden said:

It pushed out the most recent leaves in December and they are stunted from the cold but it’s about to flush again.

This was a wet and windy winter, so your next flush should look a lot nicer.  Welcome to Palmtalk too by the way!  I see this was your first post.  You may not see out that window in a couple of years, as I'm sure you are aware, Encephalartos whitlockii get big.  I personally am not growing this species in it's true form, just a hybrid of whitlockii and scalvoi which are currently similar in size to your E whitlockii.

[Merlyn]

Here's mine, planted this spring from PT member ChuckG.  It started flushing around 4/21/19 and is pretty much done now.  The leaves are just starting to turn darker green, so I think it's about done growing in height.  The fronds that it grew in the shade were about 80" long and the new ones are about 55" long.

[Gonzer]

On 5/26/2019 at 9:51 AM, SprGarden said:

Here’s mine.  It pushed out the most recent leaves in December and they are stunted from the cold but it’s about to flush again.

Boy, I'd move that guy pronto to some other location. Much too close to the wall.

[SprGarden]

1 hour ago, Gonzer said:

Boy, I'd move that guy pronto to some other location. Much too close to the wall.

Yeah I get that a lot.  I’ll probably move it in a year or two.  It’s small and not as close as it looks.  It also gets blasted with full sun there which it doesn’t really like, but I’m trying to figure out what to replace it with. 

[Tracy]

19 hours ago, SprGarden said:

Yeah I get that a lot.  I’ll probably move it in a year or two.

The bigger it gets, the more difficult it becomes to move.  I had to move an Encephalartos laurentianus at about that size and it was quite manageable.  I would likely have to remove all the leaves on mine now if I were to try to transplant it.   If it isn't about to flush, I would do it now.  If it is about to flush, wait a little and do it after the next flush hardens off.  You can expect significant jumps in leaf length on these Central African green Encephalartos at that age.