Something from California

[Moose]

Oh Boy - something came in the mail from California

Wonder what it could be ???

[Moose]

Heavily taped, fetched the razor knife for careful extraction ...

[Moose]

A quick glance inside started my palmy senses to tingle ...

[Moose]

Looks like there is a whole lot of palmage packed in that box ...

[Moose]

Wow - look what was found ...

[Ben in Norcal]

What on earth are those?

[Moose]

Bare rooted and expertly wrapped in moistened fibrous palm leaf sheaths. Sorry about the shadow, caused by a Moose.

[Moose]

Really surprising the amount and thickness of the roots, especially relative to the size of the palms. Somebody was really taking care of these babies. My mind started racing as to a proper medium I needed to get them potted up.

[Moose]

Had some old Mahogany mulch laying around that had turned into compost. Threw about 5 gallons of it in my soil mixing tub. Then I added 2.5 gallons of perlite. The compost would hold moisture but these are Chamaerops, so excellent drainage is a must. The purple things you see in the compost are flowers from the Jacaranda tree - its got a crazy bloom going on.

[Moose]

Spent about 10 minutes breaking up compost clumps and mixing the potting media so it was uniform in consistency. This needs to be done so when the media is shaken up in the container, it fills up the areas of the bare roots. Can't have any large voids in the root zone.

[Moose]

The bottom of each container was lined with the net like fibrous leave sheaths of a Livistona decora. This allows for plenty of drainage but keeps the potting media from coming out the drain holes.

[Ben in Norcal]

Ah...are those "the mutant?"

[Moose]

Lined the containers with growing media, then centered the palms and added more media up to the root initiation zone. Gave each palm several minutes of shaking to get the media filled into the bare roots. More soil was needed as the shaking settling the soil. Then soil was firmly pushed down around the outer edges of the roots, then soil added up to the root initiation zone.

Here is the big one still in the potting tub. You can see the two others on the ground to the right in the photo.

[Moose]

Since active compost was used (definitely not sterile), I decided to inoculate the soil with a drench. For critters and most bacterias, a mild solution of Dimethoate 4EC was concocted. Fungus being the biggest fear, I broke out the real good stuff, Cleary 3336-WP. A broad spectrum fungicide that is far from cheap. Mostly used in the orchid trade to control costly outbreaks in the green houses. Technically its Dimethyl 4-4-0-Phenylongbis 3-Thionllophonate.

[Moose]

While the palms were drying, the tags were made. Went with stick tags for the container, metal tags that got wired around the base.

[Palmdude]

Nice!

[Moose]

Freshly potted up Chamaerops humilis 'mutant' form. These are the progeny of Dick Douglas' palm still found in his garden. They are positioned to get morning to midday sun, then shaded away from the hrash Florida afternoon sun. It reached 91 F here yesterday so I am anticipating that these palms will take off without skipping a beat. In a couple of days I'll give these palms a mild feeding of liquid 20-20-20 fertilizer.

[Moose]

Epilogue: I contacted Darold Petty awhile about this palm. Darold said there were but a couple of seedlings around but not many. The seedlings were being kept for eventual introduction into public gardens.

Sent an e-mail off to Phil Stager in St. Petersburg, FL, to inquire if Kopsick Garden would be interested. Phil is not a Palm Talker, but he was instrumental in getting the City of St. Petersburg to open their check book to acquire much of U. A. Young's collection and having it installed at Kopsick. Phil was more then enthusiastic to have this unusual form of Chamaerops humilis.

Messages went back and forth. Darold called Patrick Schaefer who volunteered to donate his palms to Kopsick, since his were bigger. What great guys. Patrick has several years into these palms. Darold bare rooted them, expertly packaged them up, and would not even allow me to pay for the postage. Its wonderful that we got together here on Palm Talk and now this unique palm is going to get established here on the East Coast.

The timing is perfect as well. Darold just gets back from his palm escapades in New Zealand and ships the palms. Phil Stager arriving here this coming Saturday for a garden tour of the Moose Land. Two attendees of the garden tour have seen the mother palm in Dick Douglas' garden. I'm sure they will be glad its getting established out this way.

Just happy to see the legacy of Dick Douglas carried on. He lived here many years prior to heading out to the bay area. Part of me feels that a part of Dick Douglas has come home.

Special thanks to Darold, Patrick and Phil to make this happen.

[waykoolplantz]

I was afraid someone sent you a box of "drought".

[Jim in Los Altos]

Ron, It's great to get those with some size since they tend to be pretty slow in during the seedling stage. Mine's half the size of yours and I've had it about three years. They're strange and cool at the same time.

[LJG]

On 4/19/2015 at 8:27 AM, Moose said:

Epilogue: I contacted Darold Petty awhile about this palm. Darold said there were but a couple of seedlings around but not many. The seedlings were being kept for eventual introduction into public gardens.

Sent an e-mail off to Phil Stager in St. Petersburg, FL, to inquire if Kopsick Garden would be interested. Phil is not a Palm Talker, but he was instrumental in getting the City of St. Petersburg to open their check book to acquire much of U. A. Young's collection and having it installed at Kopsick. Phil was more then enthusiastic to have this unusual form of Chamaerops humilis.

Messages went back and forth. Darold called Patrick Schaefer who volunteered to donate his palms to Kopsick, since his were bigger. What great guys. Patrick has several years into these palms. Darold bare rooted them, expertly packaged them up, and would not even allow me to pay for the postage. Its wonderful that we got together here on Palm Talk and now this unique palm is going to get established here on the East Coast.

The timing is perfect as well. Darold just gets back from his palm escapades in New Zealand and ships the palms. Phil Stager arriving here this coming Saturday for a garden tour of the Moose Land. Two attendees of the garden tour have seen the mother palm in Dick Douglas' garden. I'm sure they will be glad its getting established out this way.

Just happy to see the legacy of Dick Douglas carried on. He lived here many years prior to heading out to the bay area. Part of me feels that a part of Dick Douglas has come home.

Special thanks to Darold, Patrick and Phil to make this happen.

Fitting end to some of Dicks palms. Palms ending up where his addiction began.

[John Case]

Dick (RIP) gave me this one about 3 years ago, just his diagnosis. It keeps sprouting new stems but growing much taller although the trunk are getting thicker. Behind it is a strap seedling of some sort which I will have to deal with. The mother plant was fairly close to his Butia yatay.

I keep the site of this plant very hush hush.......it is a treasure to me...

[PalmatierMeg]

What great generosity by everyone. Hope they do well in their new home. I always thought this mutant was cool

[Gonzer]

I was afraid someone sent you a box of "drought".

Careful, the day's not over.

[John Case]

What great generosity by everyone. Hope they do well in their new home. I always thought this mutant was cool

I believe that Darold Petty told me that this palm was self fertile as well.....oh, for a seed to try!

[Moose]

What great generosity by everyone. Hope they do well in their new home. I always thought this mutant was cool

I believe that Darold Petty told me that this palm was self fertile as well.....oh, for a seed to try!

I've heard the same from Darold. The mutation appears to be imprinted in its DNA and is not recessive.

[Neil C]

Does anyone know where Dick got this plant from originally? Found in a nursery, grown by Dick from seed? I do love Chamaerops but I'm not quite sure about this one yet.

Regards Neil

[Darold Petty]

I 'think' that I recall that Dick said he found it in a nursery, and that the nursery did not recognize its unique appearance. This is a cultivar that seems to elicit either a strongly positive or negative response !

The plant is self- fertile and all the seedlings come true to the parent appearance. This is demonstrable, as all the small plants are seed-generated from Dick's original plant, and the seedlings have the identical appearance.

Here is an image of the original plant.

[Moose]

I know Dick's Chamaerops humilis 'mutant form" caught John Dransfield's eye. He referred to its unique leaf form in Genera Palmarum on page 186 back in 1987. Personally I'd rather have Dick's plant over a typical C. humilis.

[DoomsDave]

I have one, too. No blossoms yet, but awaiting seeds.

[Moose]

I have one, too. No blossoms yet, but awaiting seeds.

Seems Dick's mutant form has made it into several West Coast collections. Now we can to get it established east of the Mississippi, thanks to Patrick and Darold!

[Rafael]

Great work!

But i am wondering, if this palm is european, why there is no mutant around here yet

[Brad Mondel]

A nursery had one very similar to this one back in SC. I think they cut it down because I went back and there was a stump where it use to be.

[Gonzer]

After another glance I'm positive...the NB coconut IS better looking. This "palm" looks like a clump of Dietes!

[8B palms]

So the picture of the parent plant looks more var cerifera "like" than the green form, is that just a trick of the camera/time of day pic or can someone confirm the color on the mutant form, thanks.

[Bigfish]

On 4/21/2015 at 7:35 AM, Moose said:

 

Seems Dick's mutant form has made it into several West Coast collections. Now we can to get it established east of the Mississippi, thanks to Patrick and Darold!

Did this ever get planted at Kopsick?  I don't recall seeing it there, although I suppose I could have missed it...if it was really small.  Hard to miss that palm though!