Cyphophoenix Elegans

[pogobob]

Great palm for California. I’m germinating seeds from this 

[hbernstein]

Those are beautiful palms!

[Billeb]

Love Elegans. I’ve got a triple planting made up of small 3G plants. I’ve never seen these as a multi so I thought it may look cool. Now the waiting of 5yrs + until they are worthy. @pogobob, yours looks awesome. 
 

-dale 

[Looking Glass]

These are such great looking palms (everyone’s but mine).   I got two as 1g from Floribunda 2.5 years ago.  I let one get too wet from roof runoff, right off the bat, and rotted it out, like an idiot.   The other is my slowest palm by far.  1+ fronds per year for me.  I forgot it was still out there in the forgotten zone, until I saw this.   After 2.5 years it’s gone from a 1 gallon to about an overgrown 1 gallon palm.   I envy those of you with the nice bigger ones.   Yours look great.  Good job!   Can anyone share what makes these happy?  
 

I’m tempted to stick it in the ground somewhere, in full sun, and leave it to its own devices.   

 

[-2 brian]

That is a really nice one. Mine if finally starting to thicken. up at the base and the fronds are coming bigger and faster. Hopefully mine starts trunking in the not too distant future. 

[D. Morrowii]

38 minutes ago, Looking Glass said:

These are such great looking palms (everyone’s but mine).   I got two as 1g from Floribunda 2.5 years ago.  I let one get too wet from roof runoff, right off the bat, and rotted it out, like an idiot.   The other is my slowest palm by far.  1+ fronds per year for me.  I forgot it was still out there in the forgotten zone, until I saw this.   After 2.5 years it’s gone from a 1 gallon to about an overgrown 1 gallon palm.   I envy those of you with the nice bigger ones.   Yours look great.  Good job!   Can anyone share what makes these happy?  
 

I’m tempted to stick it in the ground somewhere, in full sun, and leave it to its own devices.   

 

I keep hearing they are slow and they are but I think I’m getting about 3 leafs per year out of the two I have. I ordered mine from Floribunda in March of 22 and one of them has been in the ground since May of this year. So far so good although the one I planted out seem to stall out for a month or so. 

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Fabulous palm pogobob 

Great to see you back again 

[pogobob]

Slow until they trunk. Then they put out gnarly fat roots and take off. Like most New Cal palms, they seem to like cool nights 

[richnorm]

I recently got a few seedlings. This one looks quite different with the long droopy leaflets. Could it be sometihg else or just variation?  It's not growing conditions ot lack of water.

[tim_brissy_13]

1 hour ago, richnorm said:

I recently got a few seedlings. This one looks quite different with the long droopy leaflets. Could it be sometihg else or just variation?  It's not growing conditions ot lack of water.

They can be a bit droopy when young Rich. I already see the induplicate leaflets so I’m pretty confident it’s C elegans. 

[Brad52]

7 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

These are such great looking palms (everyone’s but mine).   I got two as 1g from Floribunda 2.5 years ago.  I let one get too wet from roof runoff, right off the bat, and rotted it out, like an idiot.   The other is my slowest palm by far.  1+ fronds per year for me.  I forgot it was still out there in the forgotten zone, until I saw this.   After 2.5 years it’s gone from a 1 gallon to about an overgrown 1 gallon palm.   I envy those of you with the nice bigger ones.   Yours look great.  Good job!   Can anyone share what makes these happy?  
 

I’m tempted to stick it in the ground somewhere, in full sun, and leave it to its own devices.   

 

Here’s a climate comparison-mine also from FB, also about 2+ years ago from a 1 gal 

[Looking Glass]

30 minutes ago, Brad52 said:

Here’s a climate comparison-mine also from FB, also about 2+ years ago from a 1 gal 

Wow!  There’s a difference!  After a little over a year, I lost faith at the progress, so I haven’t been pouring on the TLC.   Maybe I got a weakling, or maybe it’s the hot nights, or something else.   Looks like CA and HI are happy places for these.  

[ellidro]

These are so slow when young then find a new gear. Here's mine starting to flower.

[ASHCVS]

That’s a beauty Nick, one of the highlights of the PSSC meeting last weekend!

[tim_brissy_13]

Photos show 2 years 5 months growth progress of my faster one in my cool climate. Got some minor damage at -1.5C/29F in the winter of 2022. It’s my fastest New Cal palm, slightly outpacing my C macrocarpa var flavopicta in the background of the photos. Copes with occasional severe dry heat well too. 

[Looking Glass]

44 minutes ago, ellidro said:

These are so slow when young then find a new gear. Here's mine starting to flower.

I just looked up your climate data, and man, it’s cool, pleasant, and wet in winter there.  It looks like you have 5 months straight of lows in the 40Fs.   Here, we will not get 5 nights like that all year.  But there will be plenty of nighttime lows of 85F with pouring rain.  

Sometimes when I see an awesome looking California palm, I start to question wether it will grow well here.   Many do, but many don’t.   It’s like two polar opposite climates, depending on the specific area.  Still some people have success with these in South Florida.   Heck, there’s even a patch of Howea grown long term in complete shade by the water, nearby. But that’s not the norm.  Those growth rings on your elegans look crazy big!

[tim_brissy_13]

33 minutes ago, Looking Glass said:

I just looked up your climate data, and man, it’s cool, pleasant, and wet in winter there.  It looks like you have 5 months straight of lows in the 40Fs.   Here, we will not get 5 nights like that all year.  But there will be plenty of nighttime lows of 85F with pouring rain.  

Sometimes when I see an awesome looking California palm, I start to question wether it will grow well here.   Many do, but many don’t.   It’s like two polar opposite climates, depending on the specific area.  Still some people have success with these in South Florida.   Heck, there’s even a patch of Howea grown long term in complete shade by the water, nearby. But that’s not the norm.  Those growth rings on your elegans look crazy big!

Just for reference, my C elegans above grows strongly in my climate where the average year round low is 10C/50F. I usually have 5 months straight with monthly lows averaging 8-9C / 46-48F or lower. Year round average temp here is 15C/59F so they do ok even without consistent day time heat. 

[Billeb]

1 hour ago, ellidro said:

 

Nick, looks to be in a pretty shaded area. Is that merely the time of day or is it truly a shade grown palm for you? The aforementioned triple is in a bunch of sun and haven’t burned or anything so I assume they will take our CA Sun. 
 

-dale 

[ellidro]

Hi Dale,

It’s in non direct sun but a bright spot until about 1-2 pm then full sun the rest of the day. I think it can take more sun but other plantings took away that option:).

[D. Morrowii]

This is the only before picture (screen cap from a wider pic) I could find of the 2 Cyphophoenix elegans ordered in 4” size, March of 2022.

These pics are from this morning, 1.5 years later. The in ground guy looks a bit peaked compared to the potted one but this is a better growth rate than I expected from these things. 

[Billy]

Hands down one of my favorite species for this area.  Mine seem to be performing a little better than C. nucele so far. I have two C. elegans side by side in all day sun and both have grown really well over the last couple months. I like these palms so much I may even get another for a different spot in the yard.....

[Billeb]

Here’s the triple I stated earlier in this thread.  I misspoke in saying the size. They were 1G plants when grounded, not 3G. These have grown great for me and fast in blazing sun. Interesting people say they are found to be on the slow side. 
 

-dale 

[Fusca]

Hopefully mine will do well in deep South Texas!

[Looking Glass]

On 9/21/2023 at 2:57 PM, Looking Glass said:

These are such great looking palms (everyone’s but mine).   I got two as 1g from Floribunda 2.5 years ago.  I let one get too wet from roof runoff, right off the bat, and rotted it out, like an idiot.   The other is my slowest palm by far.  1+ fronds per year for me.  I forgot it was still out there in the forgotten zone, until I saw this.   After 2.5 years it’s gone from a 1 gallon to about an overgrown 1 gallon palm.   I envy those of you with the nice bigger ones.   Yours look great.  Good job!   Can anyone share what makes these happy?  
 

I’m tempted to stick it in the ground somewhere, in full sun, and leave it to its own devices.   

 

We had a relatively cool winter, and Slows McGee looks better than he ever has.  4 years here, and there’s some girth and height increase.   

[Brad52]

On 9/21/2023 at 4:32 PM, Brad52 said:

Here’s a climate comparison-mine also from FB, also about 2+ years ago from a 1 gal 

About 18 months later...

[coops 3214]

Here's mine i was gifted this from troy a few years ago and it's been a very easy grower for me its starting to fill out and pick up size now

[Foggy Paul]

Mine withered and died in full sun, very disappointing. Has anyone successfully grown this in SF?

[Xenon]

Just lost the new leaf on mine from wind and probably some cold related rot 😭. Looks so bare now. Looks like the next spear will open in a few weeks though 

[pogobob]

Today’s update