This species has the reputation for being tricky to grow but I've accumulated 6 of them and kept them alive and healthy. Five of them came from Dale Holton, the sixth and smallest from Jeff Marcus. They are in pots and will stay potted. My alkaline sandy soil would kill them. What's my secret? They struggled until a couple years ago when I moved them to a plastic shelf unit kept in deep shade under my variegated Adonidia. For some reason that combination of shade, irrigation and rain suited them well and they thrived. The downside for me is that I have to seek them out rather than have them on display.

Anyway, I brought them onto my back lanai for preparation for winter. I fertilized them with Nutricote, drenched their pots with Merit (Cham tuercks are spider mite magnets), sprayed them with Southern Ag Palm Nutritional spray. Today we bought Southern Ag granular Essential Minor Elements to apply. Finally, I sprayed them with a fungicide containing mancozeb to combat cold weather fungus. After all this I will return them to their shady spot for much of the winter - only bringing them indoors if temps fall below 40F. BTW, these are the lowland Mexican variety of Cham tuerck, not the Guatemalan cloud forest variety.

I've also discovered that Chamaedorea tenella also responds favorably to the same shady treatment. I'd lost 4 of my 8 original palms but the survivors have come back after I moved them to the same shady spot in the back yard. I'm encouraged enough that I bought 2 more seedlings from Jeff Marcus.

I took these photos today. My largest Cham tuerck is about 2' tall and is flowering. Unfortunately, the pollinator for this species doesn't exist in FL.

Chamaedorea tuerckheimii x 6

Hi Meg! Those are as beautiful as any I've seen even in the tropics!

Keep doing what you are doing!

Flowering too! I am jealous.

Sweet!

Those are beautiful Meg. I also got 3 of mine from Dale & they look like they are probably from the same batch. Mine are in the ground & fortunately doing quite well, but haven't flowered yet. Check on the Merit though. I don't think it's a mitacide.

-Randy

Nice rare palms and looking good. Since you do not have the pollinator to pollinate the flowers could you possibly try do some hand pollinating? Might be worth a try as these are very rare or next to impossible to find anymore.

Cindy & Ken, thanks for the kind words.

Thanks Randy. I'll keep that tip in mind.

Al, I don't know if hand pollination works for this species. Maybe someone can tell us. I've never hand-pollinated anything (I'm visually impaired). And only one plant flowered.

Wow, they do look great! I wasn't expecting such a nice looking group. I need to try some.

Say hello to Tim for me.

The 'other' Tim

Wow! Lays ain't got nothin' on you! As you know, I have a boy and girl and both are doing well--the male is currently flowering. I maintain you plant them--they are not that hard to grow IMO.

Meg....I'm impressed!

Nice specimens, Meg!