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Happy Birthday Dave!!! Scream!

I have grown about 30 of these from seedling size and have not seen any of them sucker or clump like lutescens, which is quit dense. However I have seen pics of mature D.pembana that are in dense groups so go figure. As far as sun acclimation goes I have had mixed results: my 3 gals are taking sun on willingly but I have bought huge 5gals that fried down and even died easily with just 2 hours of sun a day. I think this because there are different Dypsis palms going around with the 'pembana' tag on it. Whatever the case, I think the more lutesecens/baronii like Dypsis take 2 years to fully acclimate to full sun here in SoCal...pembana falling into this group. Here are 2 pics I collected from this site. Hopefully I don't get sued. One is a 'clumping' of D.pembanas...I think?!?! What a cool palm.

Can this plant tolerate full sun better than D.lutescens in southern CA and does it grow as dense? Wayne

By Jack Noyes NBCLosAngeles.com NBCLosAngeles.com updated 2 hours 59 minutes ago 2010-10-19T12:46:22 A symbol of Southern California -- the palm tree -- was under attack Monday in Laguna Beach by "the world's worst pest of palm trees.” Monday California State Agricultural officials announced in a news release on their website they had confirmed the "detection of a red palm weevil in the Laguna Beach area of Orange County - the first-ever detection of the pest in the United States. The weevil is considered to be the world’s worst pest of palm trees. An infestation typically results in the death of the tree." The news release went on to note ""This invasive pest is a threat not only to our nursery growers and date palm farmers,”" said California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary A.G. Kawamura. "“It also endangers all of the decorative palms that are so common in our landscape and so much a part of the classic California backdrop. I would like to express my gratitude to the landscape contractor who originally reported this pest. He is a Good Samaritan who did the right thing when he took the time to notify local agricultural authorities, and he has given us a very valuable head-start in our efforts."" If you have any information about a suspected infestation please call CDFA Pest Hotline at at 1-800-491-1899

Lately here in CA there have been some tuff specimens of Dypsis with the 'pembana' tag for the species going around. Don't know how they will look down the line but the ones I have grow a bit faster than the usual Dypsis with tolorance for our conditions.

Laura, From what I've seen, they don't show suckers until the main stem is about 2-3 inches in diameter and has leaves several feet long. In other words, they need to get a bit larger before you know. Planting several together is perfectly fine and will look great whether they sucker or not. They are good growers so if you plant a one gallon out I think you'll start getting trunk in 2 years approximately. Here in SoCal they sunburn when young but can eventually take the full sun once established.