Gerardo Herrero's Palm Farm

[Jeff in St Pete]

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting Gerardo Herrero's property to check out his palms. Although I've visited his brother Marco's farm many times since the Biennial in 2008, this is my first time back to Gerardo's. Both of these farms were a highlight of the Costa Rican Bienniel. After spending a couple hours at Gerardo's, we crossed the highway and went over to Marco's farm. I'll post some of those photos in a separate thread.

The first thing we noticed is this big Corypha

Wallichia disticha

It looks like some of these could be Foxy Ladies. I saw many of these hybrids all over the farm.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Corypha utan

There is a gravel road on the property that is lined on both sides with C. utan and Roystonea oleracea.

R. oleracea with Ben for scale

The entire palm

[Jeff in St Pete]

Veitchia sp.

Kerriodoxa elegans

[Jeff in St Pete]

Another K. elegans

Pelagodoxa henryana

[Jeff in St Pete]

Pinanga caesia on the left and Pigafetta elata on the right

Pigafetta elata

Pinanga caesia

[Jeff in St Pete]

Licuala sp. (I believe he called them Licuala elegans)

Bentinckia nicobarica

[Jeff in St Pete]

More Pigafetta elata

We spent most of the morning dodging spider webs

Hetersopathe barfodii

[Jeff in St Pete]

A grove of Archontophoenix alexandrae

Caryota seeds

[Jeff in St Pete]

Gerardo offered us some Curcuma's. Here's Ben and Gerardo pulling some out of the ground.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Some tall Dypsis madagascariensis on the right

Variegated Foxy Ladies

[Jeff in St Pete]

Curving trunk on this Roystonea

A triple planting of Royals

[Jeff in St Pete]

Areca vestiaria

Phoenix roebelenii

[Jeff in St Pete]

More Areca vestiaria

[Jeff in St Pete]

Collecting seed from a huge multi-trunked Arenga sp.

Rhopaloblaste augusta

R. augusta seedlings were everywhere

[Jeff Searle]

Hello Jeff,

I always enjoy seeing palm collections or habitat settings from Costa Rica. Some of those species, Heterospathe barfodii, Corypha, Pinangas the Pigafettas, so many of them grow so large and so fast. I often wonder if they grow at a faster rate than on the Big Island of Hawaii. With so many species, is anything being done with the thousands of seed that drop?

Thanks for the pictures!

Jeff

[Jeff in St Pete]

Spineless Bactris gasipaes

Bottom of same palm

A big Satakentia liukiuensis

Pritchardia's

[Jeff in St Pete]

Licualas under shade cloth

Calyptrocalyx sp.

Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana

[Jeff in St Pete]

A bamboo tunnel

Ben in front of Kerriodoxa elegans growing in a bag

Gerardo in front of a Joey palm under shade cloth

[Jeff in St Pete]

Iguanura sp.

Pritchardia

[Cindy Adair]

I will earmark this thread so I can view each photo enlarged as they deserve as I have time. Thanks so much! I love all these species!

[Jeff in St Pete]

Chryosophila sp.

The tallest Dypsis leptocheilos that I have ever seen

Another photo of the D. leptocheilos with Ben for scale

Pritchardia - Gerardo was pointing something out to me when I snapped the photo

[SanDimas]

What a beautifull place.

Stunning collection.

[Patricia-CR]

Delightful, and terribly envious.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Hyophorbe indica

Copernicia sp. with a Ravenala behind it

[Jeff in St Pete]

Another shot of the big Corypha

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis

[Jeff in St Pete]

Large fruiting Foxtail by the pond

[Jeff in St Pete]

Rhopaloblaste augusta

After a couple hours of walking and sweating, we headed over to Gerardo's casita for a glass of fresh lemonade

with view of the pond

Large fruiting Caryota

[Jeff in St Pete]

A few last photos of some of the interesting companion plants found in his garden

Many thanks to Gerardo for the palm and garden tour!

[paulgila]

wow,that off the hook!

[Pedro 65]

Hello Jeff,

I always enjoy seeing palm collections or habitat settings from Costa Rica. Some of those species, Heterospathe barfodii, Corypha, Pinangas the Pigafettas, so many of them grow so large and so fast. I often wonder if they grow at a faster rate than on the Big Island of Hawaii. With so many species, is anything being done with the thousands of seed that drop?

Thanks for the pictures!

Jeff

My thoughts exactly too on 1st comment to Jeff and re all the seed, especially the P caesia

Interesting to see how Gerardo calls Lic Peltata var Sumawongii "Elegans" just as they "still do" in Australia

Thanks for the great thread Jeff. Pete

[Mandrew968]

I love the casita and the Bamboo cave! The Archontophoenix forest was killer as well--thanks!

[Jeff in St Pete]

Hello Jeff,

I always enjoy seeing palm collections or habitat settings from Costa Rica. Some of those species, Heterospathe barfodii, Corypha, Pinangas the Pigafettas, so many of them grow so large and so fast. I often wonder if they grow at a faster rate than on the Big Island of Hawaii. With so many species, is anything being done with the thousands of seed that drop?

Thanks for the pictures!

Jeff

Hi Jeff, I imagine that some palms do grow faster here because we get more heat than they do on the Big Island. I guess it depends on the species and what altitude they are grown here. As for the seeds, some of them are collected and grown for new plants to sell but many of the seeds just lay on the ground and germinate. There are seedlings popping up all over the place at both farms. Maybe Marco or Gerardo can jump in here and answer you, but I think a lot of it has to do with the cost of labor here (the highest in Central America) and because it's just not profitable to collect them, clean them, and ship them.