Howea

[wimmie 233]

My Howea forsteriana that I took home from my office about ten years ago, was with it's height of four meters literally growing out of my kitchen. I thought a lot of how to solve this problem, knowing that I really didn't want to say goodbye to a palm that is about to start growing a real trunk. Finally, I asked the owner of a shopbuilding if he wanted it in his shop for this winter. He agreed, so this week I wrapped the palm in plastic and an old curtain and managed it to get it into my Ford Mondeo, with about two meters hanging out of the car. The Howea is in a nice spot now and I am still the owner and caretaker. Still got to think of what to do next spring.  

[Darold Petty 2,409]

Very nice,  it is truly amazing how palms can tolerate such restricted root volume.   Your cycad looks great, also !  

[SHEP 76]

Wimmie, are you the guy that is part of the Crocus groups at SRGC (Scottish Rock Garden Club)?  His name is Wim, but, it is very likely there are 'tons' of you with that name in the Netherlands.  It would be neat to know, there is one person besides myself that does crocus seed germination, alpine and rock garden plants, as well as palms.  Beautiful Howea, and glad you can still keep it.  Cecile

[Jim in Los Altos 2,308]

You’ve obviously cared well for this palm! It looks fantastic. One thing I would do however, this spring, would be to re-pot in a slightly larger pot and good potting soil. I would bet that the pot it occupies now is mostly roots and very little soil.  Beautiful palm! I have many Howea in my California garden and they are some of my favorite palms. 

Edited December 20, 2020 by Jim in Los Altos

[Tyrone 1,903]

15 hours ago, wimmie said:

My Howea forsteriana that I took home from my office about ten years ago, was with it's height of four meters literally growing out of my kitchen. I thought a lot of how to solve this problem, knowing that I really didn't want to say goodbye to a palm that is about to start growing a real trunk. Finally, I asked the owner of a shopbuilding if he wanted it in his shop for this winter. He agreed, so this week I wrapped the palm in plastic and an old curtain and managed it to get it into my Ford Mondeo, with about two meters hanging out of the car. The Howea is in a nice spot now and I am still the owner and caretaker. Still got to think of what to do next spring.  

I can relate to this issue but instead with a coconut in the ground outside of the tropics. I would cover it in a plastic house every winter until it was too big to house anymore. The only way to make it work is to build a 10m tall atrium that is about 4m by 4m minimum. If you could do that in the Netherlands you would have not only an unbelievably stylish house but also a very happy Howea forsteriana.

[wimmie 233]

16 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

You’ve obviously cared well for this palm! It looks fantastic. One thing I would do however, this spring, would be to re-pot in a slightly larger pot and good potting soil. I would bet that the pot it occupies now is mostly roots and very little soil.  Beautiful palm! I have many Howea in my California garden and they are some of my favorite palms. 

Jim, there isn't any soil in this container on purpose; the palm grows on hydro-culture! Very easy.

[wimmie 233]

7 hours ago, Tyrone said:

I can relate to this issue but instead with a coconut in the ground outside of the tropics. I would cover it in a plastic house every winter until it was too big to house anymore. The only way to make it work is to build a 10m tall atrium that is about 4m by 4m minimum. If you could do that in the Netherlands you would have not only an unbelievably stylish house but also a very happy Howea forsteriana.

Tyrone, my kitchen already has a roof that is partially 4,5 meters high with a lot of glass in it. The first photo shows this in the right upper corner. I might decide to grow the Howea in the garden during summer, but it takes a bit of courage to get it in my car again next spring!

[wimmie 233]

17 hours ago, SHEP said:

Wimmie, are you the guy that is part of the Crocus groups at SRGC (Scottish Rock Garden Club)?  His name is Wim, but, it is very likely there are 'tons' of you with that name in the Netherlands.  It would be neat to know, there is one person besides myself that does crocus seed germination, alpine and rock garden plants, as well as palms.  Beautiful Howea, and glad you can still keep it.  Cecile

Cecile, indeed, my first name in Dutch is Wim or Willem and yes, there are lots of them overhere, even our king's name is Willem.  And no, I am not the Wim from SRGC!

[Lady Gaga 3]

Wow its so nice! I wish I have as big palm tree as yours 

[richnorm 468]

On 12/22/2020 at 4:16 AM, wimmie said:

Jim, there isn't any soil in this container on purpose; the palm grows on hydro-culture! Very easy.

That's a really well grown plant. Well done Wimmie. I'd be really interested to have a basic explanation of how to set up hydro-culture for palms.  Something I would be interested to try.  

[JohnAndSancho 138]

38 minutes ago, richnorm said:

I'd be really interested to have a basic explanation of how to set up hydro-culture for palms.  Something I would be interested to try.  

There's a couple threads on here that really piqued my interest. Basically the only media in the pot is LECA clay pebbles, and since there's no soil you can add diluted liquid fertilizer every other watering and water a lot more often.