Copernicia hospita X Copernicia cowellii pictures

[Pedro 65]

Tom, Im pretty much "speechless" with the speed of growth, which "very much" shows your stunning Copernicia is very much a hybrid imo.

Great growing Tom     Pete  

 

[dmc]

Thanks for the update Tom, that baby is cranking now!! 

Dominic

[Mandrew968]

Some hospita can grow faster than others. This palm looks like so many other hospita I have seen. I just don't see any cowellii... Also, hybrid Copernicia have been known to be slow and hard to establish, in many cases--often referred to as hybrid decline. Yes there is hybrid vigor, but also hybrid decline--like that movie, Twins.

[Pedro 65]

Pretty amazing to see a Hospita in Florida outdo 1 in Thailand, plus the growth in 4  yrs is "phenomenal" esp for a slow growing Copernicia, pretty hard to comprehend that its "not" Xd with another Copernicia ( forget about cowleii)  You did  tell me Andrew that Hospitas where "Slow" when we chatted about seed eh.      Andrew, Jeff,  Ken and other keen Florida Copernicia growers ,  have you ever seen a Hospita grow at this speed before ??   Pete  

 

                                                                                        

[Tomw]

Well as always there is more to the story. I fertilizer A LOT, four time a year with a good fertilizer (UF Timothy Broschat formula 5 to 10 lbs) and I water A LOT. When I set up this planting bed I took advantage of the fact that my neighbor’s driveway is on the other side of the fence. Half of my neighbor’s house drains down there driveway along the property line. There was a small piece of grass around 12 to 18 inches wide, so with my neighbor’s permission I removed the grass and added small limestone (pea) gravel there at about 16 inches deep for all of that runoff to drain into. This tree gets all the water it need and after seeing the condition that they are in when I was in Cuba (standing in water), I believe that water has a lot to do the growth. Although Dale did indicate when I got this from him that the growth rate on this batch of seeds were faster than he expected. It would be interesting to hear from others that purchased this batch, I know he sold out shortly after my first post. So others here must have one.      

[Alicehunter2000]

That's a nice looking palm! ... both of them

[Monòver]

Amazing palm!!!

[Mandrew968]

On 7/5/2016, 8:33:41, Pedro 65 said:

Pretty amazing to see a Hospita in Florida outdo 1 in Thailand, plus the growth in 4  yrs is "phenomenal" esp for a slow growing Copernicia, pretty hard to comprehend that its "not" Xd with another Copernicia ( forget about cowleii)  You did  tell me Andrew that Hospitas where "Slow" when we chatted about seed eh.      Andrew, Jeff,  Ken and other keen Florida Copernicia growers ,  have you ever seen a Hospita grow at this speed before ??   Pete  

 

                                                                                        

You named some top growers there, Pete. I will tell you what another keen grower told me: make a 'slow' plant happy and watch it surprise you in how fast it can be...

This palm is no doubt happy but it shows no cowellii characteristics nor would cowellii speed it up. Considering the two options, I would go with this being a happy hospita--Charlie Beck(another grower from west palm) wrote about his curbeloi that was very fast--maybe this is that? 

[Tomw]

Surprise!!! Look what this baby is doing now.

 

 

I think that this is the C. Cowelii in it, if my memory serves they seed early in their life. Anyways it look like my palm family is getting bigger.   

[Tomw]

One with the shoe for scale.

[Mandrew968]

I see only hospita. Not uncommon for them to seed at that size.

[gerardv]

Fantastic Tom! I have one that is doing quite well and faster than what Dale called pure hospita ( I bought 2 of those). 

 

[Tomw]

15 hours ago, gerardv said:

Fantastic Tom! I have one that is doing quite well and faster than what Dale called pure hospita ( I bought 2 of those). 

 

I'm going to have Dale germinate these seed, hopefully they will have the same growth rate outside of my yard.

[Sabal Steve]

Bump

 

[kurt decker]

Why isn't that a baileyana?

[kurt decker]

And then I have to instantly retract that. I missed the picture where it's flowering. Baileyana would never flower at that size. Very interesting Palm.

[sonoranfans]

Sure looks like a great looking hospita!  When crossing dissimilar plants, there can be greatly differing phenotypes, but under that is complex genetics at work where growth habit might be altered outside the parents typical range.  It may not be likely but with a big seed batch, genetics can be highly variable.  I've seen mule palms that look like queens and ones that look a lot like butia.  I bought 3 crosses of BxJ from the same source and they don't look alike.  the one I kept looks most jubaea in the rigid upright leaves.   I have another that's been in the ground for 3+ years that appears to be faster than any butia or jubaea I have heard of, so where did it get the speed from?  I have heard hybrid growers say that BxJ is sometimes faster than either parent as well.  Can Hospitas be grown as fast as this?  I don't know, haven't heard of that kind of speed from a hospita, but my bailey grew that fast(1' to 12' overall in 6 years) using copious amounts osmotic release fertilizer.  I have a couple small hospitas in pots.  I hope they grow and look like that one!