Experimental planting of a Royal palm

[Phoenikakias]

I have been growing this palm literally from the life stage of a seed in my cold frame. It supposed to be the Floridian ecotype of regia aka Roystonea elata. It has spent its entire life in my cold frame, where I discovered that this sp is very difficult for pot culture if grower's objective is plant to achieve a respectable stem's girth prior to ground planting. Plant elongates and build up a root mass impressively compared to stem's diameter. So this year new leaf exceeded by far cold frame's max ceiling height of over 2.5 m and therefore I had to out plant the specimen.

I even dressed soil around base with compost and mulch on top.  The greatest challenge for me was to find a most wind protected spot in my overloaded garden for the planting. I fear I can not help much with winter chill and rain, as those events are inherent to Mediterranean winter.

[Zeeth]

Interesting! I've always heard that Roystonea borinquena is the best species for the Mediterranean, but the Florida ecotype of R. regia definitely sees more cold weather in it's native range.