Chamaedorea plumosa

[metalfan]

This palm is still very young but has done very well for me so far. Now that some of my seeds sprouted, I will have a few others to add and make a clump.

Sorry its so busy, but this thing is so thin and filamentous its hard to get a good view!

[Jeff in St Pete]

Nice palm!  I ordered 100 seeds and they are just starting to sprout.  Do you know how old yours is?  I'm wondering how fast/slow they are?

[el-blanco]

I got a 9" liner from Phil at jungle Music this spring and it is now about 5 feet tall.  I planted in the shade and it is going off!  Very fast.  IN Costa Rica I can only imagine.

I see a Philodendron Gloriosum back there!  Very nice too.  I have 2 in the house and they are beautiful!

Looking good!

Jeff

[Jeff in St Pete]

Thanks Jeff.  I never tried growing this palm before.  I'm glad to hear they are fast growers!

[DoomsDave]

(Jeff in Costa Rica @ Sep. 06 2007,19:37)

QUOTE

Nice palm!  I ordered 100 seeds and they are just starting to sprout.  Do you know how old yours is?  I'm wondering how fast/slow they are?

FASTER THAN DEGENERATIVE DISEASE.

Sorry.

To give a better idea, I had a specimen, about 18" tall, put it in the ground in full sun, and two years later it';s about ten feet tall, slowed down a lot, flowering.

Fast, yowza

[Jeff in St Pete]

Wow, that is fast Dave!  I was hoping for some other fast growers besides Archontophoenix.

[osideterry]

Liner to 5ft in 5 months? Sounds like my kinda palm. Some say to plant in full sun, while the success in shade sounds pretty happening too. Any opinions on whether it's preferable to plant single versus a group? The rate of growth just made this palm very interesting to me.

[Darold Petty]

I have germinated four lots of C. plumosa.  All the seed does not germinate concurrently.  After the first germination, one should carefully sort out the remaining, sound seed and re-sow them in fresh medium.  The second group of germination will yield about 50 to 65% of the early group number.  I assume this is an adaptation to the seasonally dry habitat in Chiapas.

 

Terry, I would plant them in a group,  they are rather sparse as an individual plant.  Also, each plant is solely one gender, so you must have a group to ensure seed production.  With 5 plants, you have a 93% chance of both genders.

[Walter John]

I have two Chamaedorea plumosa palms and they are rockets in full sun. Unfortunately I planted them in between some others so they are hard to get a good photo.

[metalfan]

Wal, that's the story of my life! Everything is so intensely planted in my greenhouse, sometimes you can't back up enough to get proper angles for photos of individual plants.

The 5 seeds that I posted earlier in a thread that germinated for me last month are all already about 4-5 inches with 2 well defined leaves. (These are the first palm seeds that ever germinated for me) but I bought this plant as a plant. It wasn't more than about 8 inches tall, so its very fast. I think it will be great to have a clump.

el-blanco, yes that's one of my P. gloriosums. If you look close you can see an Anthurium crystallinum in there too. I have an absolutely HUGE clump of gloriosum a little further up in the growing area. That is one plant I really wish I could plant outdoors here, it would make a spectacular bed filler.

[palmmermaid]

Gina,

I am continually amazed at your collection of exotics!  You have some great stuff.  I will definitely look into getting some of those C. plumosas in the ground - especially if they will take a lot of sun.  Fast and sunny!  Just what I need.  I can plant a grove and put begonias or bromeliads or anthuriums underneath.

I read in one of your posts you are on the Garden Web site with plants to trade or sell.  Can you tell me where on the site?  Thanks

[Neofolis]

I noticed they have a few at Kew in different settings.  The ones in deep shade, don't look very nice, far too spindly and leggy.  Due to the thin leaflets, they just look lacking in any substance.  That said, they don't seem to require much light to look a whole lot better.

[Neofolis]

Here is a pic of a shady one at Kew.

It looks less shady than it really is, when you can see the greenhouse roof above.  You can see that the plant looks really, twiggy and almost gets lost in the surrounding foliage.  I found it really difficult to try to make the Chamaedorea plumosa look like the focal point of the picture.  I'm fairly sure I didn't succeed.

[Kathryn]

(metalfan @ Sep. 06 2007,15:51)

QUOTE

Sorry its so busy, but this thing is so thin and filamentous its hard to get a good view!

Isn’t it nice when you have to apologize for having so many plants that you can’t take a picture of just one!