Hydriastele beguinii as a houseplant?

[piping plovers]

Hello, I’ve been growing these seedlings for 6 months now. Am not sure if they make good houseplants and am curious if anyone has any experience with them.

In September, I had them very close to plant lights and I think it burned/bronzed the foliage; I moved them shortly afterwards.  Do they prefer lower light? Are they best treated as shade loving understory-type palms as juveniles?

I read that high nitrogen fertilizer should be avoided with them.  Perhaps that caused the burning? I fertilize weakly, every other watering as I do with the nearby indoor palms: J. Magnificas, verschaffeltia splendida.  They are in well draining soil and am careful not to overwater. The other palms inside are looking okay and the only difference in care is that I didn’t place the others too close to the plant lights.

Any help is appreciated.  I’d hate to lose them. Saw them years ago at a Homestead,  FL nursery and have been intrigued by them ever since.  These came from Floribunda in Hawaii.

adjacent to my other indoor palms including the verschaffeltias they shipped with:

 

and also the Joey magnificas they shipped with 

Edited January 25, 2023 by piping plovers
Photos

[PalmatierMeg]

I don’t keep houseplants but my experience growing potted a Hydriastele beguinii Obi Isle in a pot on my back lanai is that they do not like sun/strong light. I think they are an under canopy palm. When mine grew too tall for the bird cage I planted it in my back yard jungle under deep canopy. It is on its 3rd winter outdoors. Ian wiped out most of my canopy and I worry how my beguinii will cope with increased sunlight come spring.

[piping plovers]

5 minutes ago, PalmatierMeg said:

 

I don’t keep houseplants but my experience growing potted a Hydriastele beguinii Obi Isle in a pot on my back lanai is that they do not like sun/strong light. I think they are an under canopy palm. When mine grew too tall for the bird cage I planted it in my back yard jungle under deep canopy. It is on its 3rd winter outdoors. Ian wiped out most of my canopy and I worry how my beguinii will cope with increased sunlight come spring.

 

Thank you Meg for sharing that information and your growing experience with these. Yes, the preference for shade is what I was expecting.  I hope your garden recovers soon in SWFL; thankfully plants grow quickly in your location. Been watching regular videos of the recovery efforts on Sanibel and can see the trees and shrubs greening up week to week. Sanibel has been my favorite destination for many years; I hope all SWFL recovers soon.

[D. Morrowii]

I have a few in pots, one is an over grown 7 gallon that will need an in ground home soon.
With its thick leathery leaves it seems like it would do well indoors but I have no experience to back that up. A large one would be neat looking in the right space thats for sure.  For me they have been very easy to grow, in pots at least, not picky at all. Pests don't seem to be very attractive to them either which is a plus. Good luck!

[piping plovers]

4 hours ago, D. Morrowii said:

With its thick leathery leaves it seems like it would do well indoors but I have no experience to back that up. A large one would be neat looking in the right space thats for sure.  For me they have been very easy to grow,

Thank you.  Yes, I noticed the thick leaves and figured they would be more resilient indoors than, say, a verschaffeltia or something.  Pushing new spears so hopefully i can get them back on track with lush new foliage.

[JohnAndSancho]

@piping plovers how are yours doing? I just bought this sold as a 2g 

[piping plovers]

4 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

how are yours doing? I just bought this sold as a 2g 

That’s a really nice one you bought! If yours does well I’ll be taking notes for advice 😁

Mine didn’t last beyond 6 months.  Healthy ones from Hawaii.  After bringing them indoors from summer they started declining.  Lost the verschaffeltias and 2 seedling blue Joeys all from that same shipment. But the last remaining Joey is doing great. 

I got a much better lighting system now and keep my temperature between 62-72 in winter now so I might try em again.

good luck with that one! Even At 4 feet tall they really become head-turners 

[PalmsandLiszt]

12 hours ago, piping plovers said:

Mine didn’t last beyond 6 months.  Healthy ones from Hawaii.  After bringing them indoors from summer they started declining.  Lost the verschaffeltias and 2 seedling blue Joeys all from that same shipment. But the last remaining Joey is doing great. 

What exactly happened to your V. splendidas? Did you have any problems with scale? Or leaves just shrivelled up one by one?
I lost mine late last year; I got it as a 2/3-leaf seedling and it survived the previous 3 dark seasons. It did develop a scale problem, which is a nightmare on a really spiny plant, although I am inclined to think this was more a symptom than a cause, as scale seems to disproportionately affect plants that are already under the weather. I'm still not sure exactly what went wrong with mine, so maybe we could triangulate our experiences.

Silver joeys are also difficult for some reason. I have altifrons and perakensis grown from seed doing fine in a normal indoor room environment, but magnifica don't seem to respond to the same treatment. I'm still trying with different mixes; my current germinating seeds are in mostly fine coir chips, along with various other things, which is a mix that fussy Licualas seem to respond well to.

[piping plovers]

On 3/17/2024 at 11:06 AM, PalmsandLiszt said:

It did develop a scale problem, which is a nightmare on a really spiny plant,

I know it’s not funny but that made me laugh.  I know there are much worse spines in the plant kingdom but Those spines just seem unnecessarily obnoxious  ☹️

My first splendida I grew from seed and it did so well that I got comfortable and thought they were easy.  Larger and larger leaves.  I made the mistake of leaving it In the cooler and dimmer part of sunroom while I was traveling and it rotted. Lesson learned is no cooler than 60 F.

My others from Hawaii came in volcanic rock.  It was difficult to adjust to the weight test for watering them.  I’m not familiar with growing in volcanic rock and my learning curve was too slow.  Next time I will repot to my own palm mix after the seedlings acclimate in a month. 

I have better interior lighting now (sufficient to overwinter basil and tomatoes ) and I can maintain temps from 60-72 F at the coolest months. I think these improved conditions are worth another try.

I had no pest issues. When things went wrong, the foliage bronzed and then dried one by one and then spear pulled.

Do you think they need higher indoor winter temperatures?  

Here in RI, I won’t be able to provide them South Pacific winter temperatures of 80-90 F. I figured that I have sufficient conditions since my Licualas and joey palms do well; I could be wrong.

 

 

 

[PalmsandLiszt]

8 hours ago, piping plovers said:

I know it’s not funny but that made me laugh.  I know there are much worse spines in the plant kingdom but Those spines just seem unnecessarily obnoxious

I think they are an adaption against being eaten by giant tortoises. Other endemic Seychelles palms—Deckenia, Roscheria, Phoenicophorium, Nephrosperma—all spiny too, at least when smaller. Lodoicea is not spiny; I think it instead evolved to have seedlings so enormous that even the tortoises couldn't do them very much harm. A gigantism arms-race, perhaps.
I don't think the Galapagos islands have any endemic palms, but they are covered in forests of cacti.

I don't generally attempt to grow spiny palms or spiny plants in general. Like snow, their beauty is best appreciated in some other country, I think. But I have to make an exception for the ones from the Seychelles.

8 hours ago, piping plovers said:

My first splendida I grew from seed and it did so well that I got comfortable and thought they were easy.  Larger and larger leaves.  I made the mistake of leaving it In the cooler and dimmer part of sunroom while I was traveling and it rotted. Lesson learned is no cooler than 60 F.

Yes, mine grew very well and pretty quickly too. As I said, it survived 3 winters, and it certainly experienced the occasional drop below 60, maybe to the low 50s, during some winter nights. I had a Veichia spiralis that threw in the towel the winter before last, probably temperature-related, but the V. splendida was fine.
Last winter I added extra heating to avoid these drops. Above 60 was also my aim. Above 70 would be ideal, but energy prices being what they are...
So I don't really think it was all down to temperature. The last winter was rather mild here compared to the previous one. In the same room, the most cool-sensitive plants are probably Platycerium ridleyi, and they were fine. Perhaps a more subtle interplay of relatively cool + too damp. I did re-pot it in spring and maybe up-sized too much.

10 hours ago, piping plovers said:

I have better interior lighting now (sufficient to overwinter basil and tomatoes ) and I can maintain temps from 60-72 F at the coolest months. I think these improved conditions are worth another try.

I had no pest issues. When things went wrong, the foliage bronzed and then dried one by one and then spear pulled.

That's pretty much what happened to mine. Oldest leaves first, and rapidly. This suggest to me either meristem death or major root problems. I don't think the pests were causal.

I'll absolutely try again if I can find seeds or seedlings. These haven't been on RPS for a while.

9 hours ago, piping plovers said:

Here in RI, I won’t be able to provide them South Pacific winter temperatures of 80-90 F. I figured that I have sufficient conditions since my Licualas and joey palms do well; I could be wrong.

Joeys seem to be quite cool-tolerant, provided they're well-drained. I can't comment on the one I can't seem to keep alive or the one I've never been able to get hold of.
Licualas I think are rather more variable (highland and/or lowland, I guess*). Still, my grandis, cabalionii, kunstleri and others I forget right now survived what the Verschaffeltia did not, and they should be more fussy ones. My other ones are in a glass box above 70. L. peltata, which I seem to remember you had a very nice one of, is supposed to be one of the more cool-tolerant ones. Mine is only in the glass box so it grows faster.

*O Ye highlands, ye lowlands, O whaur hae ye been? Cauld ha' spared my Licualas, and Lady Mondegreen as the old song doesn't go.

[piping plovers]

I was going to suggest you try Floribunda in HI for more seedlings. They were reasonably priced and robust seedlings. I was curious of your location and see that you are in Virgo Supercluster 😆 , so I don’t know their shipping policy or delivery ETA in light years.   I plan to check floribunda in June when weather warms up here.

On 3/17/2024 at 11:06 AM, PalmsandLiszt said:

I have altifrons and perakensis grown from seed

And Wow, you have a perakensis. A wish list plant for me.

48 minutes ago, PalmsandLiszt said:

I think they are an adaption against being eaten by giant tortoises. Other endemic Seychelles palms—Deckenia, Roscheria, Phoenicophorium, Nephrosperma—all spiny too, at least when smaller. Lodoicea is not spiny; I think it instead evolved to have seedlings so enormous that even the tortoises couldn't do them very much harm. A gigantism arms-race, perhaps.

Ah very interesting reading and learning about that.

The majority of my palm space is geared toward my Howea palms. Since they are subtropical, tolerant of cooler conditions, they do better here .  The other palms from strictly warmer climates do not appreciate being in their company so I need to juggle them into the prime warm spaces indoors.

Thank you for commenting on my peltata. Almost lost my L. peltata ‘Peltata’ to the same death spiral that my 1st prized Joey and Splendida went through during their bad placement in my sunroom that winter. The peltata had a reallY messed up spear, like a conveyer belt gone wrong.  It eventually recovered, took awhile, and is going as if nothing happened.  I have a new respect for its tolerance but won’t let it ever be in that cold position again.

[Hurricanepalms]

I have never grown them as houseplants. I have six of them planted in various spots in my yard and from moderate shade to full sun. The ones with more sun exposure are doing better and growing faster. They all look very healthy and one now has about a 1ft of trunk and flowered for the first time. I never fertilized them and only water them during dry periods. In the second picture it’s the palm to the right of the taller splendida. Excuse their ratty appearance, they have been through some really windy weather this winter.

Edited March 20, 2024 by Hurricanepalms

[piping plovers]

21 minutes ago, Hurricanepalms said:

Excuse their ratty appearance, they have been through some really windy weather this winter.

Even wind blown they are beautiful specimens!  Nicely grown.

[PalmsandLiszt]

On 3/19/2024 at 2:36 PM, piping plovers said:

And Wow, you have a perakensis. A wish list plant for me.

I only had 5 seeds, of which only 2 germinated and only one survived. It is still very small. Seems to have somewhat longer petioles than the altifrons, but maybe that's just mine. Otherwise pretty much identical; the seeds also looked identical (unlike magnifica seeds, which are more russetty rather than nut brown).
Altifrons on right for comparison:

 

 

On 3/19/2024 at 2:36 PM, piping plovers said:

I was going to suggest you try Floribunda in HI for more seedlings. They were reasonably priced and robust seedlings. I was curious of your location and see that you are in Virgo Supercluster 😆 , so I don’t know their shipping policy or delivery ETA in light years.   I plan to check floribunda in June when weather warms up here.

I thought I gave an incredibly precise pinpoint of my location within the observable universe, accurate down to the galactic supercluster (of which there are billions!) However, as there is clearly no pleasing some people, I reside most particularly in the place that the Earthlings call Southern England. The only things I can realistically buy from overseas are seeds.

On 3/19/2024 at 2:36 PM, piping plovers said:

The majority of my palm space is geared toward my Howea palms. Since they are subtropical, tolerant of cooler conditions, they do better here .  The other palms from strictly warmer climates do not appreciate being in their company so I need to juggle them into the prime warm spaces indoors.

Yes, I quite sympathise with these problems. I have a H. belmoreanea, and it is doing great; it is nice to have palms I don't have to constantly worry about.

On 3/19/2024 at 2:36 PM, piping plovers said:

Almost lost my L. peltata ‘Peltata’ to the same death spiral that my 1st prized Joey and Splendida went through during their bad placement in my sunroom that winter. The peltata had a reallY messed up spear, like a conveyer belt gone wrong.  It eventually recovered, took awhile, and is going as if nothing happened.  I have a new respect for its tolerance but won’t let it ever be in that cold position again.

Interesting; mine is pretty small, but I'll up-pot it and bring it out into the world come summer. Licualas are unfortunately rather slow to grow from seed/lings with my conditions.
There's also uniform cold and cold drafts. Some palms will tolerate the former but not the latter.

[piping plovers]

32 minutes ago, PalmsandLiszt said:

I thought I gave an incredibly precise pinpoint of my location within the observable universe, accurate down to the galactic supercluster (of which there are billions!) However, as there is clearly no pleasing some people,

lol 😂 

 

32 minutes ago, PalmsandLiszt said:

Otherwise pretty much identical; the seeds also looked identical (unlike magnifica seeds, which are more russetty rather than nut brown).
Altifrons on right for comparison:

Also, regarding magnifica: don’t know if it’s my imagination or wishful thinking but I’m already seeing the glaucous, powdery blue hue on the undersides of even the 3rd seedling leaf. I didn’t think it would occur so early in development but definitely I’m not seeing it on the altifrons.

 Have you had the same observation with your magnificas?

[PalmsandLiszt]

On 4/1/2024 at 9:47 PM, piping plovers said:

Have you had the same observation with your magnificas?

As I think I said, I haven't been able to keep these alive past one leaf. However, other palms I have with silvery underleaves like Keriodoxa, Crysophila, Sabinaria certainly showed them very soon, so I doubt your imagining it (I think all of these are quite close to joeys). I'd guess the silver is a latent trait that evolved long before any of these species and has simply been activated in some of them.

Latest magnifica seeds still haven't put up shoots yet. I am not overly hopeful.