Iriartea deltoidea Loves cool Cloudforest conditions

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Iriartea deltoidea is one of the first palms I tried out growing here and all the specimens I put in the ground turned into beautiful magnificent specimens and have really good speed of growth. At the time I didn’t know anything about this palm and sort of picked it randomly because I liked the pictures of it. It’s always fun to find things that just really like our particular microclimate. These thrive in our humid, cool rainy climate with a rather narrow temperature range. I don’t really have time to baby plants because I just don’t have enough bandwidth to look after each palm so it’s always nice to find Palms  can just throw in the ground and walk away and know they’ll just completely fend for themselves and still look really good. 

 

 

 

 

 

[happypalms]

Nice one I put in a hundred seeds a couple of months or so ago and I planted one I had in the ground. Yours look pretty spectacular.  I did read they take the cool weather, so that’s music to my ears with conformation from you thanks. 

[Brad52]

Mine in the coastal sunny drier no soil area struggled for two years before croaking, I think it made one leaf in two years and remained a one gallon size.

[Kim]

Once having seen these full, majestic crowns from the Arenal Hanging Bridges in Costa Rica in 2008, the impression never left me. So not long after beginning my Hawaii garden, I planted 3 in July 2011. One was unfortunately lost to a falling tree, but the remaining 2 are growing well and producing hunky flower spathes. They are so gorgeous I wanted more, and in May 2022 planted another trio toward the front of my garden for better viewing as they mature. So far, so good.

Photo by Scott Zona, Arenal Hanging Bridges, Costa Rica

 

[Cindy Adair]

Beautiful photos! Thanks!

I was not fortunate enough to get to Costa Rica in 2008, but what a great photo Kim!

Warmer than a cloud forest, I planted one in PR before the memorable 2017 hurricane and amazingly it survived.
 

I now have two more and should add more as you wisely did Kim. 
 

Even with the warming trend in PR they grow well for me and only one lost to rhino beetles so far with the others hopefully too large to interest the marauders. 

Everyone in the tropics should give this species a try!

 

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

6 hours ago, Kim said:

Once having seen these full, majestic crowns from the Arenal Hanging Bridges in Costa Rica in 2008, the impression never left me. So not long after beginning my Hawaii garden, I planted 3 in July 2011. One was unfortunately lost to a falling tree, but the remaining 2 are growing well and producing hunky flower spathes. They are so gorgeous I wanted more, and in May 2022 planted another trio toward the front of my garden for better viewing as they mature. So far, so good.

Photo by Scott Zona, Arenal Hanging Bridges, Costa Rica

 

Wow, just wow, we visited Arenal and loved it. Most of East Hawaii in the rainier parts is pretty much just like Arenal so no surprise that they thrive here. 

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

6 hours ago, Brad52 said:

Mine in the coastal sunny drier no soil area struggled for two years before croaking, I think it made one leaf in two years and remained a one gallon size.

 

If you're in lower HPP then I wouldn't be too surprised. These things are water hogs. We get 140-180" of rain a year and our Hamakua soils holds a lot of water. This is the exact attribute that makes it thrive here. But you can grow glorious copernicia down in lower HPP, my copernicia here just put on maybe 1-2 leaves a year.

[John hovancsek]

I love this palm. It had issues at first but took off fast after 

[Brad52]

On 1/31/2025 at 2:30 PM, Mauna Kea Cloudforest said:

 

If you're in lower HPP then I wouldn't be too surprised. These things are water hogs. We get 140-180" of rain a year and our Hamakua soils holds a lot of water. This is the exact attribute that makes it thrive here. But you can grow glorious copernicia down in lower HPP, my copernicia here just put on maybe 1-2 leaves a year.

Im working on one wee one

[happypalms]

3 hours ago, John hovancsek said:

I love this palm. It had issues at first but took off fast after 

You guys have got it sown up in Hawaii absolutely gorgeous. 

[happypalms]

On 2/1/2025 at 6:49 AM, Cindy Adair said:

Beautiful photos! Thanks!

I was not fortunate enough to get to Costa Rica in 2008, but what a great photo Kim!

Warmer than a cloud forest, I planted one in PR before the memorable 2017 hurricane and amazingly it survived.
 

I now have two more and should add more as you wisely did Kim. 
 

Even with the warming trend in PR they grow well for me and only one lost to rhino beetles so far with the others hopefully too large to interest the marauders. 

Everyone in the tropics should give this species a try!

 

They take the subtropical climate so far for me as well. So give it a go in the subtropics as well. The rhino beetle seems to be a major threat to palms Cindy it must be heartbreaking to see them die in such a manner.