Pritchardias for SoCal

[Stevetoad]

ok, sonoranfans post of that pritchardia makes me want to plant more pritchardias. i only have 2 p.hillebrandii growing right now. the one out in the open gets a bit beat up by frost but seems to be doing better every year. what other pritchardias will do good for me? i get some frost every year and will hit 30f a few times a year and get into the upper 20s rarely but it will happen. id love to plant P.vuylstekeana and Matty has a killer P.beccariana that stole a candy bar from me. any chance i can grow these? or are there any that i dont know of that perform well with winter frosts. i should add that during the winter it warms up fast once the sun pops up and my summer temps stay pretty hot.

[quaman58]

Steve,

I would guess that any Hawaiian Pritchardias will grow for you, at least with some canopy. Without canopy it's a bit harder, but becarriana seems to perform well with both sun & colder temps than some of the others. Regarding vuylstekeana, I'm not even sure that is a valid name any more, at least of exixting plants. I seem to remember that it was named from a cultivated plant in the 1800's, but that no one could ever find any wild specimens to match the description, or that it was likely another already named species. It's a bit odd that Dave's garden lists it as a viable species. Maybe some expert could chime in.

[realarch]

Steve, you might try getting a copy of The Palm Journal issue # 193, a keeper for sure. It was published in July 2009 by your PSSC and worth the cost of obtaining a back issue.

Lots of photos and articles from SoCal Pritchardia growers. Get that old Jeff from Trabuco Canyon to send you one.

[Stevetoad]

Steve, you might try getting a copy of The Palm Journal issue # 193, a keeper for sure. It was published in July 2009 by your PSSC and worth the cost of obtaining a back issue.

Lots of photos and articles from SoCal Pritchardia growers. Get that old Jeff from Trabuco Canyon to send you one.

ill do that for sure.

[chris78]

The only Pritchardias I got growing outside is Pritchardias hillebrandii and P. becarriana and they are under canopy… they do well esp when feed and watered well… For me they won’t do well in full sun… they would burn from the sun and frost…

I did have a Pritchardia remota once, it tolerate the cool weather but died from a freeze..

[DoomsDave]

Steve, you might try getting a copy of The Palm Journal issue # 193, a keeper for sure. It was published in July 2009 by your PSSC and worth the cost of obtaining a back issue.

Lots of photos and articles from SoCal Pritchardia growers. Get that old Jeff from Trabuco Canyon to send you one.

ill do that for sure.

Jeff doesn't do the back issues, but, come and visit my place (and the Hoopers') and you can see some P's in the ground and in pots. Shot you a PM . . .

[Stevetoad]

Steve, you might try getting a copy of The Palm Journal issue # 193, a keeper for sure. It was published in July 2009 by your PSSC and worth the cost of obtaining a back issue.

Lots of photos and articles from SoCal Pritchardia growers. Get that old Jeff from Trabuco Canyon to send you one.

ill do that for sure.

Jeff doesn't do the back issues, but, come and visit my place (and the Hoopers') and you can see some P's in the ground and in pots. Shot you a PM . . .

for sure dave. im going to try and come up one of these sundays.

[palmcurry]

Hi Steve,

My area is on the cool side like yours. My favorite CA-friendly Pritchardia is P.affinis. Joe told me they're now called P.mariana bit I still see them with the affinis tag.

Mine takes the cold well, will burn a little but never stops charging in growth. The fans are less radial and more narrow, the color is a more light green with light orange in petiole and frond. To me it stands out from the Pritchys.

Cheers.

[MattyB]

The new name for P. affinis is P. maideniana, and it basically looks like it was rode hard and put away wet...in habitat anyways, maybe in a garden it's nicer.

[CardiffPalmNut]

Steve -- I have had pretty good luck with P. hillebrandii, becarriana, affinis and remota. Go for it.

[MattyB]

Bill, your beccariana is the ideal leaf form in my opinion. I've been trying to get one like that but I think my lower humidity keeps making the leaves fold.

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

I've got P. hillebrandtii, lanaiensis (now called something else), schautteri, remota, and others.

The Hawaiian Pritchies are great in the coastal areas of So-Cal. They take the cool of winter, grow well, at least medium or fast, and vary a lot.

Some are really beautiful. That white fuzz on hillies just glows in the westering, festering setting sun . . . .

[JasonD]

Pritchardia minor is quite good up here in SF and I recall seeing healthy specimens in SD County. Gunther Schwartz's martii in Santa Barbara was a show-stopper, too.

[BobSDCA]

My favorites are P. glabrata, P. kaalea, and P. martii....I really like the short ones!

Here is a bad photo of P. kaalea at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. I really like this species because of the folded leaves and long inflorescences. The palm is only 10-12 feet tall. Here is a link to the National Tropical Botanical Gardens with better photos: http://ntbg.org/plants/plant_details.php?rid=1294&plantid=9484

I have what is suppose to be P. glabrata, but it is still small and has folded leaves like P. kaalea. I'll post a photo of that over the weekend.

[Phoenikakias]

What is the general experience from Pritchardia martii cultivation in S.C. ? I have the impression that it is very cold tolerant but dislikes low humidity and high temps.

[Stevetoad]

1328335228' post=510733]

My favorites are P. glabrata, P. kaalea, and P. martii....I really like the short ones!

Here is a bad photo of P. kaalea at the Huntington Botanical Gardens. I really like this species because of the folded leaves and long inflorescences. The palm is only 10-12 feet tall. Here is a link to the National Tropical Botanical Gardens with better photos: http://ntbg.org/plan...94&plantid=9484

I have what is suppose to be P. glabrata, but it is still small and has folded leaves like P. kaalea. I'll post a photo of that over the weekend.

Do you know how cold these ones can take?

[BobSDCA]

I don't have a lot of experience with cold extremes in my neighborhood, but I understand that most Hawaiian Pritchardia are at least hardy to 28-30F. Some species may even be hardy down to 25F. The P. kaalae at the Huntington has seen at least 25F in its lifetime, but it is growing under a dense canopy now, and has a framework around it so they can stretch shade and or frost fabric over some of these palms. When my Pritchardias were young they were very sensitive to cold and even frost in the mid 30's. Now that they are a bit more established and are growing under a canopy, they grow right through winter and the leaves are not affected by the cold. I would think most of the Hawaiian species would work well in your area if you could provide a canopy for them. Here are some photos of the species I have, sorry the photos are not better, I was using my camera/phone

What is suppose to be P. glabrata with folded leaves (conduplicate), and no tomentum on the underside (as of yet).

What is suppose to be P. martii with the leaves more flat, starting to form tan tomentum on leaves and white tomentum on petiole.

[MattyB]

I don't think that's P. martii Bob. The leaf undersides should be completely silver or bronze.

[quaman58]

I don't think that's P. martii Bob. The leaf undersides should be completely silver or bronze.

Is that something that developes early on, or as the palm matures?

[BobSDCA]

I don't think that's P. martii Bob. The leaf undersides should be completely silver or bronze.

I have been thinking the same thing Matty. As the palm has matured it is beginning to resemble the P. hillebrandii that I have. Though the scales are different colors between what I think is P. hillebrandii, it has white scales on the leaf undersides, and the buff colored scales of the "P. martii". Both grow in quite a bit of shade, so that and their immaturity may be the cause of less scales on the undersides. The "P. martii" is about 5 years old from a 5 gal. can. Neither one have very many scales on the underside, only along the veins.

[MattyB]

P. martii will have a completely silver or bronze leaf by the time they are a 5 gallon size. There's no mistaking them. And I'm not talking about the white furry stuff on the petioles or the ridges of the leaf undersides, I'm talking about the flat, usually green, part of the underside of the leaf.

[BobSDCA]

Thanks for the input Matty. I looked at your post of the closeup photos of P. martii and they do indeed have dense gray scales on the undersides of the leaves. Seems to be some variation regarding scale color as you mentioned in other posts. Those seeds from Ventura (http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=31480&st=0&p=507007&hl=martii&fromsearch=1&#entry507007) look huge and more rounded when compared to the ones in the photo from NTBG (https://ntbg.org/plants/plant_details.php?rid=1315&plantid=9490). Perhaps these are not mature enough yet. In any case it looks like I will have to get another 5 gal. P. martii, and P. maideniana, and P. aylmer-robinsonii..etc

[Gtlevine]

I have Beccariana and Viscosa in the ground and they look great, but I have seen pretty much all of them planted outside in so cal.

Gary

[MattyB]

Gary, I'd love to see a pic of your P. beccariana. I keep seeing so much variability in these.

[Stevetoad]

What did you guys think about planting these in full ( inland) sun,part sun or full shade?