Archontophoenix purpurea

[Breadfruit Bill]

Anyone else have photos of their beauties?  This is my first one to start showing coloration in the crownshaft!

[Pivi]

Hi Will!

How old is the smallest seedling in the picture?

Where would you put purpurea on hardiness scale?

Maybe like this (1 is the hardiest)

1. Cuninghamiana

2. Purpurea

3. Maxima

4. alexandrae

5. myolensis

6. tuckeri

[Breadfruit Bill]

I really don't have a clue on the hardiness...  Maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in on that one...  A. purpurea is the only Archontophoenix I am growing!  

Interestingly enough, all of these plants in the photo are the same age, 2 years old...  I put the 3 of the in different light conditions in seperate 4" pots and when the largest one got way too overgrown for the pot I combined all of them in this triple of different heights!!

:cool:

[osideterry]

My SoCal guide rates A. purpurea at 26F. Here's the cold-ranking going by it:

1. A. cunninghamiana - 25F

2. A. purpurea - 26F

3. A. tuckeri - 27F

4. A. maxima - 28F

4. A. myolensis - 28F

6. A. alexandrae - 30F

I know Florida is a bit different. I love this genus, and like Pokemon I intend to collect 'em all!

[sonoranfans]

(osideterry @ Nov. 04 2007,01:03)

QUOTE

My SoCal guide rates A. purpurea at 26F. Here's the cold-ranking going by it:

1. A. cunninghamiana - 25F

2. A. purpurea - 26F

3. A. tuckeri - 27F

4. A. maxima - 28F

4. A. myolensis - 28F

6. A. alexandrae - 30F

I know Florida is a bit different. I love this genus, and like Pokemon I intend to collect 'em all!

Interesting terry, everything I have read suggests that the purpurea, maxima and alexandrae are of the same cold tolerance, about 28F with cunninghamiana at maybe 26-27F.  Some of the historical logs by florida growers have even reported cunninghamiana dying in the same yard where alexandre survived, perhaps canopy differences or age were a factor.  

I can say that my purpurea are less sun tolerant than the alexandre or maxima.  I have mine in a shadehouse and have experimented with changing the number of screens overhead.  The purpurea were burned at the tips while the alexandre and maxima were not.  All of them are lovers of water and humidity as well as shade.

[Pivi]

it strange to me too.

I thought (and still do) that tuckeri and myolensis are the least cold tolerant...

[bgl]

I don't know much about Archontophoenix cold tolerance, except that way back in Jan 1990 I bought, and planted, an A. cunninghamiana with about 6 ft of trunk. This was in Poway, CA. Five weeks later, Feb. 14, we had that infamous coldfront and I woke up to 22F (-6C). The A. cunninghamiana not only went thru this low of 22F without any problems, it only had very minor damage. By the end of that summer it looked great (again!).

And here's our one and only A. purpurea!

[Breadfruit Bill]

Beautiful!  I can't wait to have somewhere to plant one or 10 of these.

[DoomsDave]

In the infamous Freeze of 2007, A. cunninnghamniana suffered no damage, nor did A. purpurea at four days of 27 F.

A. tuckeri croaked or suffered serious damage.

[Breadfruit Bill]

Hey Bo, I'm confused, you only have one specimen of A. purpurea?  Why?  :laugh:

(Looks like your about ready to start making a second generation! ??? )

[Don Little]

William,

Thanks, I'm glad you started this thread because I didn't realize that A purpureas would begin to show the coloration of their crownshaft at such a small size untill I noticed yours.  I decided to check mine and low and behold I noticed mine getting some color.

Bo

That is the nicest A purpurea I have ever seen, absolutely fantastice specimen.  Here is a pic of mine that I planted this spring from a 2 gallon.  It is in a pretty sheltered area and has put out 3 leaves and I noticed that it is now starting to show hints of lavender in the crownshaft.  I don't think mine will ever look nearly as nice as yours in Hawaii but hopefully it will eventualy have nice coloration.

here is a pic of the entire palm but was hard to do due to all the other plants that are crowed in.

[bgl]

Bill and Don,

thanks for your comments. And Bill, good question, and I don't have a good answer! The best I can come up with is that Archontophoenix hasn't exactly been anywhere near the top of priorities when it comes to what palms I want to plant. But I have germinated a bunch of these and now that I've started to populate the forest next to us with all sorts of palms, I think I'll start a little A. purpurea grove there as well. But right now I'm busy planting C. samoense and D. decipiens... Just give me time!

Bo-Göran

[Breadfruit Bill]

Nice pic Don!  Looks like that baby is about to take off!  I'm eager to see this thing get some trunk!  The photos of the crownshafts are so unbelieveably beautiful!

[JD in the OC]

We planted two of them, one at each side of our main greenhouse entrance.  Here's one (about 3 years from seed).  Leaves were slightly battered from moving/transplanting.

[TimHopper]

Got mine from Floribunda as a seedling a couple of years ago. Still trying to figure out where to plant it. It just started showing some purple this year. Tim

[Don Little]

JD and Tim: nice purpureas both showing nice color even at a relatively small size.  In my opinion they seem to be palms that are often overlooked, but when you see what they can look like, I think it is a must have.  I also think that they are underated as growers because some of the info I read has them as slow to moderate growers (maybe that's just in comparison to others of the genus) but based on the pics in this thread that doesn't seem to be the case.

William: Thanks, I'm hoping it takes off next spring but I'm sure yours will put on growth faster than mine being in So Florida.  I look forward to pics after next year.  I agree with you on the beauty of these palms with their crownshafts. When you see the potential like Bo's what's not to love about it.  

[Exotic Life]

Hi,

With tempeture's does this palm need to grow well? Like 3 months aroun the 30C or can it be also lower?

Robbin

[osideterry]

Tim - every time you post a palm photo, the thing is beautiful. I'd like to see an thread of just your palms some time.

I picked up a 5-gallon A. purpurea this week, and just went out and snapped this photo. I also took a flash photo and the color was a lot less purple.

That's snail bait on the left. This palm had some nibbles, and I found snail shells in the coco mulch. Snails love archos.

[osideterry]

Here's the overall palm. Black 1ft ruler for scale.

Note the snail munchies on the leaves. I hate 'em.

[deezpalms]

Here's a few shots of mine. They never seem to show such strong color outside of the tropics although I've seen some with decent color in California. When this crownshaft comes off it will display some decent color, much better than now.

[Pivi]

Interestingly enough, all of these plants in the photo are the same age, 2 years old... I put the 3 of the in different light conditions in seperate 4" pots and when the largest one got way too overgrown for the pot I combined all of them in this triple of different heights!!

:cool:

Willi, where were the ones that grew the most, and where was this one that stayed small...in what light conditions?

thanks

[madagascarbob]

Mine has no color has been in the ground for 15 years and struggles to stay alive .

[Pivi]

Bob, i think you've writen about that before and i commented on that... it's weird...hmmm

are there any other nearby in other people's gardens?

[Kathryn]

Here’s my Archontophoenix purpurea - not showing too much color yet, but growing well. I didn’t realize that they didn’t like full sun. Mine has been in full sun since I got it and looks good. It hasn’t been damage by low of 28ºF (-2ºC) and hasn’t been exposed to frost. I was tempted to put it in the ground, but I’ll keep this one in the pot.

[Creekside]

Here's one of my purpureas, showing a great purple hue. I love these palms - fast growing, fairly cold hardy, love the shade (which I have a lot of,) and colorful.

[Davidl]

I actually cant find any difference in cold hardiness in my area for any of them including Cunninghamiana var illawarra. I have an alexandrae that looked better than my cunninghamiana after the freeze 3 or 4 yrs ago. We had temperatures below freezing from midnight on untill 7 am and the bottom temperature was around 28F. They all are susceptible to frost damage at any temperature below freezing and so far none have ever died for me from cold. Someone told me that in 89 what killed his archontophoenix in west palm beach was the cold wind ripped them apart and his temperatures were only 28 degrees. Maybe if we see temps below 28 degrees (I hope never) again I might see more damage. Heres a pic of my alexandrae last yr

My pupurea is small and is just now getting a little purple to the crownshaft.

I have A alexandrae, A purpurea, A cunninghamiana, A cunninghamiana var illawarra, A myolensis.

Edited June 15, 2008 by Davidl

[rozpalm]

I have two small ones in the ground the size of creeksides. One is strugling and the other is thriving. The one that is thriving has a lot of purple and is building a nice thick trunk. Mine seem to be opening about one leaf every three months or so, so I would put it in the slow to moderate growth group.

[rozpalm]

Here is a picture of the very healthy one. Its been in the ground for about 10months now.

[Pivi]

great palms everyone!

beautiful palms you got there rozpalm!

Edited June 15, 2008 by Pivi

[Urban Rainforest]

They will get quite purple in So Cal but I believe that they are more colorfull in a little shade. The triple I have planted in full sun in my backyard is not nearly as colorfull as the ones in my front. Here is an old pic of one in my front yard to give you an idea of how colorfull they can get. This same palm has 2 infloresences now. Also interesting about this palm is it is the only Purpurea I have growing that has almost no petiole.

Steve

[Urban Rainforest]

Here is a pic showing how this palm has a Rhopalostylis Sapida type petiole.

[Urban Rainforest]

And last here is another somewhat colorfull Purpurea.

[Walter John]

For the avid Archontophoenix collector and apart from the true species of Cuninghamiana, Purpurea, Maxima, Alexandrae, Myolensis and Tuckeri, there appears occasionally on the market a few other variations of Archos. So see if you get these as well:

Archontophoenix cuninghamiana var 'Illawarra'

Archontophoenix alexandrae var 'beatricea'

Archontophoenix hybrid alexandrae x cuninghamiana, common name 'Alabang'.

A palm merchant saw me coming once and sold me a palm he claimed was grown from seed of an unusual coloured Archontophoenix in North Queensland, he sold the palm as Archontophoenix sp. 'Mauve Crownshaft'. twice the price of regular alex or bangalow, I bought it and it is still growing after two transplant shifts. There is no colour happening at this point, but stranger things have happened.

[DoomsDave]

Here they want some shade to be purple.

Here's one in the sun, Shoe for scale.

[DoomsDave]

Here's another one, which was in the shade, then the P. roebelinii were removed . . . .

[paulgila]

some nice looking "purps",there,"peeps"(as dave h.would say!)

mine took a hit from the '07 freeze & has not bounced back yet.i think it has pink rot now,too.

[madagascarbob]

Here is proof . Yuk !

[Cikas]

(osideterry @ Nov. 04 2007,01:03)

QUOTE

My SoCal guide rates A. purpurea at 26F. Here's the cold-ranking going by it:

1. A. cunninghamiana - 25F

2. A. purpurea - 26F

3. A. tuckeri - 27F

4. A. maxima - 28F

4. A. myolensis - 28F

6. A. alexandrae - 30F

I know Florida is a bit different. I love this genus, and like Pokemon I intend to collect 'em all!

Interesting terry, everything I have read suggests that the purpurea, maxima and alexandrae are of the same cold tolerance, about 28F with cunninghamiana at maybe 26-27F. Some of the historical logs by florida growers have even reported cunninghamiana dying in the same yard where alexandre survived, perhaps canopy differences or age were a factor.

I can say that my purpurea are less sun tolerant than the alexandre or maxima. I have mine in a shadehouse and have experimented with changing the number of screens overhead. The purpurea were burned at the tips while the alexandre and maxima were not. All of them are lovers of water and humidity as well as shade.

[Trópico]

Mine are very sensitive to full sun. Can they acclimatize?

[Stevetoad]

My father in law has a nice one in santee CA.