Copernicia rigida

[aztropic]

Copernicia rigida finally found it's stride after being planted in ground about 15 years ago. Now producing about 3 new fronds per year,each about 3 feet long. Not a commonly planted cope,partly due to rarity,and the fact that it will reach out and grab you with it's teeth lining the frond edges their entire length. 

 

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona

[mike in kurtistown]

Here's the one I'm growing here on east Hawaii Island. Seeds from RPS in Dec 2006, planted out from 2-gal pot in Sept 2014. Blocks, hat for scale. I haven't had much luck growing these as seedlings. Very low germination rates and low seedling survivor rates, and the one shown below was the only one I had to plant.

[Jeff Searle]

Gulp!!! 15 years, whoa!!?

[aztropic]

Yep. I can grow many species of Caribbean palms in Arizona,but at nowheres near the speed they grow in S Florida. Only 5% humidity here,and daytime high to night time low temps are often a 20-30 degree F swing. During our winter and summer seasons,many palms literally stop growing due to the extreme temps. Most growth occurs March-May,then again September-November. Definitely not a good place to grow most palms commercially.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[JeskiM]

Well, I can only relate to my experience, so here it goes:

In spring 2018 I germinated a bunch of Hospitas from seed. The seed source was RPS. I placed them in a communal pot and most of them germinated.  When they were one year old I pulled them all out of the communal pot and into individual pots. At this time they all had 1 or 2 strap leaves.  It was very clear that some of them were more robust than the others. The more robust ones, since they were larger went into 2-3 gal. pots. The smaller ones went into 1 gal. pots. I only had two fatalities from moving them into their own pots which left with about a dozen plants.

In that Second year of growth the new strap leaves were coming out very blue in color.

All of mine are still in pots. They seem to grow about as fast as my non-trunking Sabals that are in ground.  All the pots are located on the South facing side of my house where it can be brutally hot with some reflected heat off of the house.

I've attached some pics of the two largest specimens, which started the 1st palmate leaves last year (4th growth season).

Also are two pics of the less robust ones that are still in strap leave phase.

These pics don't do the blue coloring justice, it's quite intense. So I would say that you should hopefully see some blue color starting as early as the 2nd strap leaf.

-Matt

[JeskiM]

Whoops, I just realized I posted to the wrong thread.  I was aiming for the one on C. hospita.  

-Matt

[JubaeaMan138]

My tiny one haha 

[tiburcio]

On 5/20/2022 at 6:49 PM, JubaeaMan138 said:

My tiny one haha 

when will this one flower??

[JubaeaMan138]

In 100 years 😝

[tiburcio]

On 11/24/2022 at 1:00 PM, JubaeaMan138 said:

In 100 years 😝

You need to take extra care of yourself to see the first flower then !!! lol