The Elusive White Serenoa Repens

[Xerarch]

Missed this thread first time around, fantastic!

[Hillizard]

I have two in my garden, one was supposed to be "silver" (the larger one pictured below) but is, at least at this stage, just an attractive light green. After years here it's finally starting to put out new shoots and becoming a nice clump. The other is a variety called "Cinera" (the smaller one pictured below) and looked very silver when I first planted it out. I think the strong sunlight, high temps and low humidity have now changed the color and made it more greenish. As others have written, this genus doesn't appear to grow as robustly in California (north or south) as it does it Florida.  

[kurt decker]

A couple of things. White saw palmettos do come true from seed. However they need to be from isolated populations, as they are bee pollinated, and the green is totally dominant. There are great white ones all up and down the East Coast. What makes Jupiter/Martin County special, is that you have dense populations of white, with no greens for miles. Also, one of the oddball things about this plant is that fertilizer turns it green, until the fertilizer wears off. The hungrier it is, the whiter it is.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

I searched through 35000 silver saws and cherry picked the best ones and planted in the ground here to breed. Here is a 3g that i just sold to a customer.

[kurt decker]

That's a great one for sure. Here are a bunch of 3's with the fertilizer used up. Hobe Sound stock.

[PalmatierMeg]

Resurrection of this topic reminded me to check on my silver Serenoa on the east side of the house. I grew it from seed I got I can't remember where around 2008-09. I planted a couple siblings on the berm at the end of our canal. Yesterday in full sun it looked decidedly silver/white. Today when I took these photos it was partly cloudy so its color is more muted. I would love to get one of the elusive "white" Serenoa but this one is still mightly nice. Next to it is a Chamerops humilis argentea (cerifera) that is the same color. I've found the silver variety is much more prone to rot and spear pull than the green.

Serenoa repens silver, Cape Coral, FL

[Phoenikakias]

It looks pretty silver to me. 

[sashaeffer]

On 8/18/2017, 9:17:58, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

I searched through 35000 silver saws and cherry picked the best ones and planted in the ground here to breed. Here is a 3g that i just sold to a customer.

Looking forward to getting mine. Will keep mine potted at least until next year and maybe only plant it if I find the perfect sunny spot.