How old is this Chamaerops?

[MSX]

Hello palmtalkers! How do you think how old this potted Chamaerops could be? (Height from the ground to the upper leaves tips including the pot is about 1.6m (5 ft))

 

And how many years younger this smaller Chamaerops approximately could be (its height including the pot is about 1m (3.5 ft) ? Thanks

 

Edited May 27, 2021 by MSX

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

Hard to say but I would guess they are all the same age.  In Florida it might be 5 years from germination.  In Uzbekistan who knows?

[ruskinPalms]

I’m not sure I could gauge anything that has been pot grown. My pot grown palms have usually been slower overall compared to the same palms grown in the ground in similar conditions. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by ruskinPalms

[ruskinPalms]

By the way, this is one of my favorite species, especially the more blue cultivars, except I am averse to planting too many things with thorns!

[MSX]

Thank you guys for your answers. I'm new to growing Chamaerops palms, and one of these potted palms will be eventually my first Chamy palm that will be planted in the ground somewhere to my property. I've seen some established mature Chamaerops in several locations around my place growing without any winter protection (large multihead shrub forms), some of them are blooming now so I expect I won't have much trouble with this nice thorny palm. The reason why I started to wonder about the age difference between these two specimens because of their price tags difference delta. Today I actually measured trunk height of these two palms - the smaller one comes with 7.5" trunk, the larger one has 12" trunk (or 1.5 times larger) but the same time it's 6 times more expensive than the smaller one. Well, I have read this palm is a slow grower, I don't have a personal experience with Chamaerops palms to rely on. I have been growing Washingtonia palms which is a truly rewarding palm in the sense of the growth rate, but when talking of Chamaerops is this price difference fair vs the plant size to pay this extra cost?

Edited May 29, 2021 by MSX

[Brucer]

I think its at least 10 years old. got some decent suckers, good trunk, that comes with some age.

[aegean]

16 hours ago, MSX said:

Thank you guys for your answers. I'm new to growing Chamaerops palms, and one of these potted palms will be eventually my first Chamy palm that will be planted in the ground somewhere to my property. I've seen some established mature Chamaerops in several locations around my place growing without any winter protection (large multihead shrub forms), some of them are blooming now so I expect I won't have much trouble with this nice thorny palm. The reason why I started to wonder about the age difference between these two specimens because of their price tags difference delta. Today I actually measured trunk height of these two palms - the smaller one comes with 7.5" trunk, the larger one has 12" trunk (or 1.5 times larger) but the same time it's 6 times more expensive than the smaller one. Well, I have read this palm is a slow grower, I don't have a personal experience with Chamaerops palms to rely on. I have been growing Washingtonia palms which is a truly rewarding palm in the sense of the growth rate, but when talking of Chamaerops is this price difference fair vs the plant size to pay this extra cost?

I don't see a justification for a 500% price difference. Either the smaller one is too cheap or the taller one is too expensive.

They are indeed slow growers and it is hard to tell how old they are, because growth speed depends on so many things.

Your climate is probably quite similar to mine here. Here are two pictures of a Chamaerops humilis cerifera.  The first one is from 2015, the second one is from 2021.

 

[TheMadScientist]

This was my first germination species and we all love "our first one", but wish it was BLUE.  My guess matches "Brucer", more than 10 years with photos.

I put these seeds into a baggie on 12-4-2009, into my germination box with 40 watt light bulb, lid raised 2" and it stays 85 - 90 deg. F.

1-22-2010 or about 7 weeks

This is 2-10-2011

This is 1-27-2014

This is 3-7-2016

Sometime after this 2016 photo, I planted 3 into a palm planter on the side of my driveway and by 8-10-2020, you can see the first seed.  Don't know if it was viable.

 

 

 

 

[teddytn]

5 hours ago, aegean said:

I don't see a justification for a 500% price difference. Either the smaller one is too cheap or the taller one is too expensive.

They are indeed slow growers and it is hard to tell how old they are, because growth speed depends on so many things.

Your climate is probably quite similar to mine here. Here are two pictures of a Chamaerops humilis cerifera.  The first one is from 2015, the second one is from 2021.

 

What a wonderful color! Not gonna lie a little jealous here....haha

[aegean]

1 hour ago, teddytn said:

What a wonderful color! Not gonna lie a little jealous here....haha

The color is nice. The only problem for the Chamaerops is that Brahea Armata to the left that steals the show from it in terms of color.

[Pal Meir]

For comparison 4 different Chamaerops palms, all grown up from seed in Germany: (1) 1962, (2) 1980, (3) 1986, and (4) 2003.

(1) *1962 — 10 yr old in 1972

 

(1) *1962 – 27 yr old in 1989

 

(2) *1980 – almost 4 yr old in 1984

 

(2) *1980 – 28 yr old in 2008

 

(3) *1986 – 35 yr old in 2021

 

(4) *2003 – 12 yr old in 2015

 

[teddytn]

22 minutes ago, aegean said:

The color is nice. The only problem for the Chamaerops is that Brahea Armata to the left that steals the show from it in terms of color.

Quite right for sure, hard to match a brahea in the ability to catch even a non palm lovers eye! Wow that is a first class planting, now very jealous! Haha

[MSX]

Thank you guys for your comments! Eventually, I decided not to choose between these two Chamaerops specimens and I got them both! The smaller one for $15 (height without pot 85 cm, trunk 21 cm; pot 20 litres), the larger one for $75 (height without pot 130 cm, trunk 31 cm; pot 40 litres). I have only had Washingtonia palms, and I never paid more than $5-10 for a palm before, I have no idea if it's too cheap or too expensive for the palms of this size, unlike Washingtonia, Chamaerops is actually a rare and hard to find palm here which is quite strange because this species is technically fully hardy to zone 8 and more than half of the country with its largest cities falls within this zone.

I think my new two Chamaerops are both "regular" green humilis, like Scott's and Pal's beautiful green specimens. Although it has some kind of waxy coating on leaves, the leaves look as green as grass without any bluish tint I think. I also wish they sold some hardier blue Chamaerops cerifera-argentea like Michael's stunning twin trunked palm!