Show off your Kentiopsis Oliviformis

[Cape Garrett]

I acquired two of these back in May of 2017 thanks to @Ken Johnson   Just wanted to show how great they look.  Flanking a Pritchardia Pacifica. Only planted 3 months before hurricane Irma but did quite well.  One was tilted a bit and slowed it's growth but is just fine.  The bottom 2 photos show this one.  It was the taller of the 2 at the time.  They were planted as trunking specimens.  I would say their growth rate is slow to moderate.  Look closely and you can see how close the rings on the trunk are compared to the older rings.  Planted in mostly full sun on the north side of my house.  Just some extra Winter shade as the sun is more southerly.  Not fast growing by any means but are a very attractive,  different palm than the usual.  Faster than the Chambeyronia palm.  I am enjoying their height right where they are, so glad they're not too fast growing.  I fertilize 2x a year and as you can see, haven't mulched them recently.  Regular 2x per week waterings and Summer rainy season.  Easy palm to grow.  Enjoy the pics and show yours if you got them.

 

 

[The Gerg]

Great looking KO @Cape Garrett. I love this species. Mine is much smaller than yours but I am loving it. Not putting on much height just yet but the new leafs are incredibly large when they open up. Mine always has a lot of blue in it and also some yellow when they open.

Below is a couple different angles and different lighting.

 

Edited March 27, 2020 by The Gerg

[Cape Garrett]

5 hours ago, The Gerg said:

Great looking KO @Cape Garrett. I love this species. Mine is much smaller than yours but I am loving it. Not putting on much height just yet but the new leafs are incredibly large when they open up. Mine always has a lot of blue in it and also some yellow when they open.

Below is a couple different angles and different lighting.

 

Very nice!  Such a solid looking palm.  I know what you mean by the blue.  Mine has it too.

[sonoranfans]

I love the wide long leaflets on these palms.  These should be more widespread in 9b+ florida.  I have 3 large overhead from Ken Johnson in 2011 early spring 2011 and one planted as 3 gallon seedling 6 months earlier.  The seedling was fried in dec 2010, but the spear as intact.  The KJ palms were slow at first and had 1-3' trunk.  They kind of sat there and developed roots for 2 years while putting out ~2 leaves/yr at first.  Here is the smallest one of kens delivery of (3), I'd say its ~25' overall, 11-12' trunk and its seeding for the second time.  The fruits are red when ripe but these are just starting to form.  This palms has about 11-12 clear trunk.  I have two other Ken Johnson KO's that are larger and in the upper jungle canopy making them tough to photobraph.   Id estimate they are a bit under 30' tall overall but it tough them being that high up and no clear distant view.  When i look over the house from the street they appear to be 3-4' taller than the one pictured here.  These have 13-15' clear trunk.  Last is the one I planted from a seedling, it was in a high drainage spot at first, after a few years the little one started to grow.  These past two years have been good years for the little one which only sees 3-4 hrs of direct sun.  the spears on these palms are huge compared to my 3 species of mature archies(max,alex,myola).  the wide long leaves catch peoples eye.  Its the palm the uninitiated visitors ask about most "what is that"?  First is the little one planted as a seedling. second the beginning of fruits, third is my 3rd largest that started with 1' clear trunk.  Sorry about the bending trunk, ha to use a wide angle to get it all in..

If you look just to the left of the KO in the forefront you can see the crownshafts and ringed trunks of the other 2 lrger ones.

[Cape Garrett]

@sonoranfans these are truly beautiful.  I can't wait to see when mine start to produce seed.  May be a few more years.  Mine are just 6 to near 7 feet to the top of the crownshafts.

[sonoranfans]

Thanks Garrett, mong the dozen or so palms that Ken has delivered.  If you dont have satakentia, you might consider one or two of those.  Ken has them avilable and you just never know when Ken decides to retire from delivering palms.  I got 2 with 1.5 and 3' trunk last august, I'll post when the put out a couple more leaves and drop the dead ones.

[Cape Garrett]

@sonoranfans I have a young one in the ground for about 3 years.  Just posted it a couple days ago.  Check it out.  Slow but very healthy for me.

[dmc]

[Cape Garrett]

Nice pair @dmc. I like how they look like twins.  Same height and size.

[Cape Garrett]

Here is the only picture I can find when they were planted for their first few months.  You can see they only had a few rings and green trunks.  Pritchardia pacifica is the small palm between them.

Edited March 28, 2020 by Cape Garrett
Forgot to post more

[akamu]

Planted as a 1-gallon good grower for California almost twice the speed of the chamberonia hookerii on the left

[Cape Garrett]

15 minutes ago, akamu said:

Planted as a 1-gallon good grower for California almost twice the speed of the chamberonia hookerii on the left

I agree.  I have the hookeri too and it gives me 4 maybe 5 leaves a year but when it opens...getting ready for one to open soon!!

[Cindy Adair]

Mine ready to plant. Gifts from Mike Harris of Caribbean Palms as seedlings. Thanks Mike!

Getting acclimated to more sun from my shade house. 

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, akamu said:

good grower for California

I agree.  They really take off once they have some trunk here but can take some time to get to that stage.  My oldest is the one in the back, with the trunk a little obscured (first photo).  One of the others (second photo) is getting close to forming trunk, either by the end of this summer or sometime early in 2021 is my guess.  Forgive the Veitchia spriralis burned leaflets in the foreground of the second photo, it didn't like one of our cold Santa Ana nights.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Mine are just youngsters but are growing almost as fast as A. cunninghamiana in my yard. Here’s one in the front yard. It was a one gallon plant four years ago. 

[Cape Garrett]

@Jim in Los Altos love the yard man!  Jungle

[Hilo Jason]

I only have one of these in my yard here in Hilo compared to the 9 or 10 I had in California. Hard to get it all in the photo.  Not trunking yet, but getting big.  It’s the palm on the right in the pic below.  On the left is Basselinia Humboldiana. 

[Cape Garrett]

Love your garden @Hilo Jason!!

[Firepalm]

First ring of trunk on this one.  Easy grower here in SoCal.  Started from a small 5 gallon in 2013 I think.  Full sun.

 

[akamu]

On 3/29/2020 at 7:41 PM, Hilo Jason said:

I only have one of these in my yard here in Hilo compared to the 9 or 10 I had in California. Hard to get it all in the photo.  Not trunking yet, but getting big.  It’s the palm on the right in the pic below.  On the left is Basselinia Humboldiana. 

I know this is about KO but dang Jason that B.humboldtiana is awesome what's the story on this beauty

[weldertom]

In the back left.............

[Cape Garrett]

Love the upright fronds on this palm.  And the deep green, almost blue green color.  This should be more widely planted and available.

[msporty]

My wife hates that the fronds hang over into our walkway, but she’s agreed to be nice to them. I love this palm. The leaves open blue but wash out to green over time. This one is from Kevin Weaver. Planted this out 4 1/2 years ago from a 5 gallon. 
In

[Cape Garrett]

@msporty looking good!  Before you know it those fronds will be out of the way.  A small price to pay for a beautiful palm.

[bstoller]

I planted 3 in the back yard in St. Pete.  
One of my favorites.    Easy grow.   

[Cape Garrett]

@bstoller they look fantastic!!

[zero]

Nice John!  They aren't much faster at that stage either.  It takes a couple of months to get the first bifid leaf.  Here's mine in January and it's presently pushing leaf #2 in April.

[Steve Mac]

I just went out and took a pic for you Cape but It looks so ratty now that I dug out a better one from a few years ago to show you instead.

 

[Cape Garrett]

@gtsteve why does it look so ratty now?  What happened?

[Steve Mac]

Mate,  Garrett, a couple of things. First I took out the Cypho nucele on its left because it looked so bad due to the wind there, so now it is less protected, and two, we cut it back a bit (2 leaves half off) so that those Cyprus will grow better and ultimately make a higher/better protective hedge against the Southerlies for the rest of the garden.  The Cyprus were being shaded by the Oli and are only half the size of others that have full sun.  I have restored it from the recycle bin so you can see, although the plant, the camera and the photography are not something that I am proud of.

I am googling 'best camera phones' now. This stupid thing always washes out the sky as well as making everything milky and blurry.  Also it is not apparent but I could not get back any further and get a better shot.

[Cape Garrett]

5 hours ago, gtsteve said:

Mate,  Garrett, a couple of things. First I took out the Cypho nucele on its left because it looked so bad due to the wind there, so now it is less protected, and two, we cut it back a bit (2 leaves half off) so that those Cyprus will grow better and ultimately make a higher/better protective hedge against the Southerlies for the rest of the garden.  The Cyprus were being shaded by the Oli and are only half the size of others that have full sun.  I have restored it from the recycle bin so you can see, although the plant, the camera and the photography are not something that I am proud of.

I am googling 'best camera phones' now. This stupid thing always washes out the sky as well as making everything milky and blurry.  Also it is not apparent but I could not get back any further and get a better shot.

 

5 hours ago, gtsteve said:

Mate,  Garrett, a couple of things. First I took out the Cypho nucele on its left because it looked so bad due to the wind there, so now it is less protected, and two, we cut it back a bit (2 leaves half off) so that those Cyprus will grow better and ultimately make a higher/better protective hedge against the Southerlies for the rest of the garden.  The Cyprus were being shaded by the Oli and are only half the size of others that have full sun.  I have restored it from the recycle bin so you can see, although the plant, the camera and the photography are not something that I am proud of.

I am googling 'best camera phones' now. This stupid thing always washes out the sky as well as making everything milky and blurry.  Also it is not apparent but I could not get back any further and get a better shot.

@gtsteve it looks good to me.  My cell phone pics are never great either.  Huge leaves!

[sonoranfans]

those bright hazy days can mess with any camera.  Circular polarizing filter helps some, but the best pics will always be with the sun at your back.  Too much sky leads the exposure to be excessive for the plants, especially if you cant control exposure manually.  You can post process the pic for exposure, though it might not look quite as good as a pic taken at proper exposure.  Im not sure any cell camera can do those things?  polarizing filter? manual exposure setting?  But if you take a pic on a clear day with the sun at your back the good cell cameras are not far from many SLR cameras.  There are other limitations of cell cameras, like lens quality and precision of manufacture.  tiny lenses are harder to make without imperfections.  Those same size imperfections on a big lens are not going to matter.  10x smaller means the imperfections must be 10x smaller.  there is a limit to these things.  A good digital SLR is pretty cheap these days.  You will really notice a difference if you want to blow up images to 18" or greater.  You will also notice the differences on a good 4k TV.

[Cocoa Beach Jason]

 

[Cape Garrett]

@Cocoa Beach Jason looking fantastic!!  Can't wait for mine to look as nice.

[msporty]

I am curious if other SoCal gardens have had their KO’s bloom and/or set viable seed? This is by far the biggest and best flower mine has set. 
 

[Tracy]

On 4/23/2026 at 1:52 PM, msporty said:

I am curious if other SoCal gardens have had their KO’s bloom and/or set viable seed? This is by far the biggest and best flower mine has set. 
 

Mine never seems to get to the point that it opens a viable spadix.  The flower spathes emerge but haven't opened in past years.  This year I have two that are trying to open but it doesn't look good to me.  They are a bit high up.  My two smaller ones that are similar in size to yours haven't opened viable spathes yet either.

[tim_brissy_13]

New frond on my smaller one. 

[bubba]

Not mine. Located at Ann Norton:

[bubba]

[Tracy]

5 hours ago, bubba said:

Not mine. Located at Ann Norton:

I was just noticing the way this specimen is holding more pendant leaflets and even the leaves.  Mine normally hold a very upright leaf until it self cleans, and the leaflets rarely go pendant.   Perhaps climate differences make for different appearance?