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Need help with growth rate and max height of braheas in Arizona


AndrewPGalaxy

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Hello everyone.  I have put a lot of time and energy into researching palms over the last year and especially the last couple of months, so I would know exactly what kinds to look for once I had a certain area of my yard ready.  I knew I wanted a mix of pinnate and palmate, and I didn't want any growing to such a tall height that they overpower the house and become difficult or impossible to trim and keep clean.  But the more I looked, the more conflicting info I found, and I could not find anything specific to my area of Tucson, AZ.

I've used jungle music and daves garden as my primary sites for info, but even their info is conflicting with each other's sites, and sometimes within different pages of their own sites.  I've read through plenty of discussions on here and gathered some more info, but today is the first day my account is active so I wanted to post my questions here.  Basically I am looking for help with growth rate and max heights of a few types of palms.  Any info is much appreciated!

I recently found two queen palms labeled as "patio queens" with a max height of 8 feet and spread of 6 feet.  I planted two of these along the block wall in my back yard.  I am looking for a fan palm of some sort to go on the adjacent wall, but with the small height of the patio queens (assuming they are a real thing and not mislabled full-size queens- there is no info on these online that i could find), i think anything above 20 feet would look silly.  A fan palm in the 15 foot range would be ideal.  Since it is going along a wall on the side of my yard, I need a relatively small spread, definitely no bigger than 10 feet wide. So that rules out Mediterranean fans and similar suckering species.

Since I live in Arizona and relatively close to Mexico, I think the braheas would do better here than say, a livistona chinensis, although that is probably one of my favorite palms I have come across, and there are a handful scattered around town.  Of the braheas, I love the look of edulis and calcarea/nitida.  From the info I'm finding online, both of these range from 15 foot all the way up to 50 feet or so.  I know the max heights are in ideal conditions and would take a long time to reach, but I'm thinking long term and am afraid of a palm outgrowing its space.  I have found two brahea calcareas at a nursery in town, but every other place I have visited offer the same types of palm- california and mexican fan, windimill, canaray island date, etc.  I love the look of the Guadalupe palm, but knowing the story behind them, I assume they are very difficult to find, at least at a decent size.  So I'm leaning towards the calcarea at this point.

Can anyone offer info on how fast this palm would grow?  I've read both very slow and very fast, but could not find something like 6 to 12 inches a year?  The ones at the nursery have already have small trunks.  Also, what max height should I expect, assuming it receives regular water and fertilizer?  One nursery employee told me I could purchase a mexican fan, let it grow to about 10 feet or so, and then "control the height with water usage."  Can anyone offer info on that as well?  Stopping a tree that normally grows to 50 feet at 10 feet by limiting its water seems a little outrageous to me.

Wow this post turned out to be pretty long.  Hopefully I answered some questions before they could be asked. :)  Again, thanks to everyone that can chime in and help me out.

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Max height is a function of time and habitat.  Many plants max height in their habitat will never be realized in a different local.

But the biggest factor is time.  If you are 20 and planning on staying in you current home (who has done that?) then max ht.

is a concern.   If your in your 60's, then plant what you want and let your children/grandchildren worry about ultimate height.

I live east of Phx 40 mls, at nearly the same elevation as Tucson.  If I were limited to space, I would get a Sabal uresana,

Brahea clara and Nannarrhops as well as a couple Chamaerops humilis v. cerrifera.  All a beautifully blue(ish) and either short

or slow growing.  And don't forget a couple Dioons.

Nanarops_b.jpg

Dioon_garden.jpg

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