Chamaedorea stolonifera

[mnorell]

Does anyone know the cold-hardiness and general cultural preferences of Chamaedorea stolonifera? I just bought one and am hoping that it is a decent candidate for a protected, shady location in my 9a zone given its propensity for suckering. I usually see low 20s each year (and with the Big Freeze this year it was upper teens). I've read it's basically leaf-hardy to 27F or so, and this may make it a somewhat doomed experiment here if it's a very slow grower. I'd love to know anyone's experience, particularly in the humid southeast, with its speed of growth, its level of leaf or stem-hardiness, and how quickly it can return from the roots after a bad freeze.

The specimen I received has many whip-like stolons generated above the soil level. Do some of the stolons stay underground, or does it only grow from above-ground (and thus unprotected) stolons? Because of that above-ground habit, I would assume that, without heavy mulching, it would not stand a chance at returning after a bad freeze...does anyone have experience with this?

We also have generally neutral to acid soil here (unless there's old brick and mortar underground, which there is a lot of in places), and I see that this generally grows atop limestone, so I wonder if it's particularly sensitive to this factor.

[Tyrone]

I don't know about your cold hardiness question, but I've got this one and brachypoda both growing in my slightly acid soil around my fishpond with a pH of 6.5. They seem to grow fine.

Best regards

Tyrone

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hello Michael

Chamaedorea stolonifera's grow in just about any soil, dry or moist, different PH, need semi shade. Not sure how much cold they can take. Do not seem to be susceptible to fungal attack or leaf minor, always have tidy leaves. One of the easy ones to grow, appears to be a tough Chamaedorea

regards

Colin

[Geoff]

also one of the best indoor and potted Chamaedoreas.. .cold hardy to about 27F... not much below that I'm afraid. Do well in low light so can grow under other plants that might protect it from frost.

[Tala]

I had mature plants show damage around 27f as Geoff mentioned. But they did survive this, were close to house, shaded. They do not sucker but spread on stolons - whenever I saw some with the ends above ground I would either direct them back into the soil or take a small pot w/ soil and direct the end into one of the drain holes. After a few months or so I would have some above ground growth in the pot, and a new plant!

[Eric in Orlando]

Same here, in the past they show damage at about 27F. Most of the stolons on our plants are right along ground level or just under. Not very deep like say with Rhapis. One thing about C. stolonifera , it has proven to be one of the most nematode resistant besides C. microspadix in our infested sandy soil.

[PalmGuyWC]

I agree with all the above comments about Cham. stolonifera. There are 3 Chams. that are great container plants for inside and they all take low light levels, but prefer bright shade. The 3 are Cham. metallica, C. acendens and C. stolonifera. Their small size makes them very manageable for inside plants.

It was thought for a long time that C. stolonifera had become extinct in its native habitat, but a small population was found growing in a remote area of Mexico. For many years it was quite rare and only female plants were to be found as they were all propigated from the one clone. Using C. stolonifera as a mother plant, it can be hybridized with C. Ernesti-Augusti and Sartorii, but not with C. metallica. They are all in the same group.

I wrote an article for Principes many years ago on how to hybridize them, and it's in one of the very old issues of Principes. I can't find the issue now.

Dick