Planting Distance of Palms for best display

[sydneypalms]

As 1 of many experts, when i 1st planted my palms, i had a detailed strategic reason for planting it where i did, every palm having its strengths weaknesses and preferences needs etc  Plans change and evolve over time and when growth rates differ from plant to plant, and decades later we are still kicking ourselves for unexpected mistakes done long ago. i planted this chambeyronia hookeri 2m away from the house wall. 2 decades later, even though i gave it heaps of space, not knowing how wide its reach will be, as you can see by the fotos , there is no distance or angle to take a good proper clear balanced foto of this palm. Sure standing under it i can still enjoy it closeup but not for display fotos.  This new leaf will be scraping against the roof gutters, so im gona have to tie it back with strings to either left or the right when it fully droops, so it doesnt ruin.  After about 12 years this palm id say grows just as fast as macrocarpa and watermelon, whereas before 12 it is slower and smaller, but thats a good thing as its more time for you to enjoy it...

The thing is, unless youre 1 of the fewer people who have heaps of land and the right climate to plant these anywhere, you cant really plan for the palms future haha.  i end up being one of those guys that say "oh i have an amazing palm outside of its nurturing clinate, but i dont have a great foto of it to show you haha only parts of it in wierd angles 😞 "  The plus is i have it right infront of my bed window and its in the entry walkway to our home, so really ive been admiring n spying on this guy since he was tall enough to peer through my window view, day n night.

My original plan was that (knowing it was slower than the others) the few palms around it would outgrow to shadow it from the hot sun, but you cant always predict where palms will choose to lean.  Also the dypsis decipens i thought would beat it by far, but hes proven to be 3x slower than a hookeri - wow, i would not have thought that...  as the dyppy seems to geow faster but he likes to get fatter and fatter before he goes upwards it seems.  Theres also fast growing kentia and a silver phoenix near it, im just hoping that it would beat the hookeri, but as fast as the silver date is, i think i planted it too late, as i said, the hookeri just shooted for the sky once it got to an age. Whereas the kentia was too fast for it and its canooy is way too high to be of any help to the hookeri haha

[sydneypalms]

some of the other colour variations he gets, hes never the same colour 

[happypalms]

Couple of nice Chambeyronia there. When planting palms give them as much room as possible then you can go to town after they have grown a bit and plant more in the gaps. Then work on your understory which is what iam currently working on now that I have a canopy after about 25 years of gardening in my five acres. And in the meantime iam now working on a whole new garden starting from scratch again so iam in for the next 25 years of gardening. 

[Harry’s Palms]

I must admit , when I started planting palms at my new house after 7 years of collecting at my old house , I didn’t give as much thought as I could’ve. I had so many palms to transplant that I just dug holes like a mad gardener and stuck the wee ones in . They grew into their space pretty well and created quite the “jungle” look but a bit of planning ( and time) could’ve yielded a more attractive garden I guess. Too late now , 28 years goes by and no turning back. Harry

[sydneypalms]

i planned to take shot from the roof, but its been raining nonstop for 2 days, not the best time to walk on a slippery roof haha.  ive changed clothes like 3 times since ystday. so heres a few more angles today. by the way, this oasis is in western sydney, where the harsh weather is, the land is a normal 80s suburban size is only 8m x12m

[sydneypalms]

On 4/29/2025 at 2:58 PM, happypalms said:

Couple of nice Chambeyronia there. When planting palms give them as much room as possible then you can go to town after they have grown a bit and plant more in the gaps. Then work on your understory which is what iam currently working on now that I have a canopy after about 25 years of gardening in my five acres. And in the meantime iam now working on a whole new garden starting from scratch again so iam in for the next 25 years of gardening. 

 

[sydneypalms]

to Happypalms -what is that fan palm ? brahea??    ye growing rare palms "(out of climate)" you learn about understory and canooy really quick haha.   my yards only 8m x 12, and the palm area in the backyard is  smaller. .  so those fotos are of the same hookeri at a couple of difrent ages.

the next fotos are of my 2 other tall watermelon chambs. both are seeding stock.  the 1st one on the driveway is 8 years younger than my older watermelon in the other fotos, yet is almost the same height... wow.   the rest of the fotos (foto 2 plus) are of my main chamb taken from difrent angles around the block and the neighbours, and my roof view. but i have to step back that far to fit it in the camera, you end up loozing the shape and angle of the face of the leaf, n just end up capturing the leaves flat on the side. 

i also have a houiy planted in the ground, man that beast took longer to start its geoeth spurt, but when they pickup, they get big real quick. ile ad fotos of those on another day

[sydneypalms]

19 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I must admit , when I started planting palms at my new house after 7 years of collecting at my old house , I didn’t give as much thought as I could’ve. I had so many palms to transplant that I just dug holes like a mad gardener and stuck the wee ones in . They grew into their space pretty well and created quite the “jungle” look but a bit of planning ( and time) could’ve yielded a more attractive garden I guess. Too late now , 28 years goes by and no turning back. Harry

hahaha.  thats sounds like a mad f7n adventure, share fotos of it, would love to see what surpizes lurk amongst the foliage 

[happypalms]

54 minutes ago, sydneypalms said:

to Happypalms -what is that fan palm ? brahea??    ye growing rare palms "(out of climate)" you learn about understory and canooy really quick haha.   my yards only 8m x 12, and the palm area in the backyard is  smaller. .  so those fotos are of the same hookeri at a couple of difrent ages.

the next fotos are of my 2 other tall watermelon chambs. both are seeding stock.  the 1st one on the driveway is 8 years younger than my older watermelon in the other fotos, yet is almost the same height... wow.   the rest of the fotos (foto 2 plus) are of my main chamb taken from difrent angles around the block and the neighbours, and my roof view. but i have to step back that far to fit it in the camera, you end up loozing the shape and angle of the face of the leaf, n just end up capturing the leaves flat on the side. 

i also have a houiy planted in the ground, man that beast took longer to start its geoeth spurt, but when they pickup, they get big real quick. ile ad fotos of those on another day

Nice one I think it’s time for some small understory palms like chamaedorea adscedans and huniophoenix nana both take the cool weather. The fan  palm is a Bismarck.

[Harry’s Palms]

Going through my pics , most have been posted on various threads . I kept planting close to the house because it was the only shade to be had . I planted about half a dozen Syagrus R. because they grow like rockets and give a bit of canopy that I needed for the others.

The West side of my house , it is nice and shady there now but used to get quite warm in the afternoon during summer. The Pritchardia on the left is growing outward from the house .

The East side of the house with a lot of the Chamaedorea that I had in a greenhouse at our old place

Chamaedorea Tepejelote that I planted as a 4” band! This one turned out to be a clumper, hmm

By dumb luck , the Arenga Engleri turned out to be a privacy wall on the East side . There is also a Syagrus R. and a couple of Howea F. jammed in there as well! They all seem to get along.

A better shot of the Pritchardia H.  A happy camper sharing some real estate with a C. Radicalis TF volunteer and Caryota Mitis . Reckless abandon was my method!

This one , Caryota Obtusa ( C. Gigas when it was planted ) almost dwarfs everything when a new frond opens. The left border of the photo is a very large Caryota Urens that out paced the Syagrus!

I had a couple of these that I didn’t know where to put . This one got jammed up against a retainer wall ! It has been through a couple of name changes . Currently Chrysalidiocarpus Decaryi. The trunk on the left is a Roystonia Oleracae , and another Caryota M. for good measure! 

Backing up a bit , you can see the mess I created . On the left border is a nice Chambeyronia  Macrcarpa , one frond arching in from the upper left. 
This goes on all around the house . It is a hillside home so the bulk of the real estate is a south facing slope where only the most hardy of my palms got planted. The small concrete bench that the bag of mulch is on is my afternoon spot where I have spent a lot of afternoons gazing up at my palms and resting in the shade of it all. When the house was new it would’ve been too warm to sit there for any length of time . To the right is the entrance to the courtyard  and more of the same with a large Archontophoenix Alexandrea , a couple more Kentia and various others leading to my front door. My daughter was a toddler then . She would follow around with her beach pail and ask me why I was trying to hide our house! Harry

[sydneypalms]

17 hours ago, happypalms said:

Nice one I think it’s time for some small understory palms like chamaedorea adscedans and huniophoenix nana both take the cool weather. The fan  palm is a Bismarck.

lovely, now thats a happy place...refreshing happyplace.. so your hooky has out reaching leaves whereas mine go out then droop down making a dome shape.  my watermelons have upright leaves. the other days we went to a botanic garden and saw their chambers with the opposite habit. it was strange.  

so ye i thought it was a bizmarkia but the lighting in the foto threw me off and the openness of the branches

 

[sydneypalms]

another palm i have issues taking fotos of are Arenga pinnata. coz its just too big. its a monster for a small garden, but its ok its not a problem either..  maybe when it reaches full height haha..but it grows so sturdy, it rock hard n firm in the ground.  ive seen them in darwin, at a distance, they are tall....   the leaves glow sliver at night. but when i try to take a foto if i took a selfy to show comparison of my hand woth the leaf to express how big they get, it barely fits in the camera, a few leaflets, and a bit of me, and thats only 10% of the branch. ile find the foto later. but when you stand near it it doesn't seem that big, until you grab it for a foto

[sydneypalms]

14 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Going through my pics , most have been posted on various threads . I kept planting close to the house because it was the only shade to be had . I planted about half a dozen Syagrus R. because they grow like rockets and give a bit of canopy that I needed for the others.

The West side of my house , it is nice and shady there now but used to get quite warm in the afternoon during summer. The Pritchardia on the left is growing outward from the house .

The East side of the house with a lot of the Chamaedorea that I had in a greenhouse at our old place

Chamaedorea Tepejelote that I planted as a 4” band! This one turned out to be a clumper, hmm

By dumb luck , the Arenga Engleri turned out to be a privacy wall on the East side . There is also a Syagrus R. and a couple of Howea F. jammed in there as well! They all seem to get along.

A better shot of the Pritchardia H.  A happy camper sharing some real estate with a C. Radicalis TF volunteer and Caryota Mitis . Reckless abandon was my method!

This one , Caryota Obtusa ( C. Gigas when it was planted ) almost dwarfs everything when a new frond opens. The left border of the photo is a very large Caryota Urens that out paced the Syagrus!

I had a couple of these that I didn’t know where to put . This one got jammed up against a retainer wall ! It has been through a couple of name changes . Currently Chrysalidiocarpus Decaryi. The trunk on the left is a Roystonia Oleracae , and another Caryota M. for good measure! 

Backing up a bit , you can see the mess I created . On the left border is a nice Chambeyronia  Macrcarpa , one frond arching in from the upper left. 
This goes on all around the house . It is a hillside home so the bulk of the real estate is a south facing slope where only the most hardy of my palms got planted. The small concrete bench that the bag of mulch is on is my afternoon spot where I have spent a lot of afternoons gazing up at my palms and resting in the shade of it all. When the house was new it would’ve been too warm to sit there for any length of time . To the right is the entrance to the courtyard  and more of the same with a large Archontophoenix Alexandrea , a couple more Kentia and various others leading to my front door. My daughter was a toddler then . She would follow around with her beach pail and ask me why I was trying to hide our house! Harry

hide the house ? hahahaha.  thats what every guest said when they were trying to find our address too.  thanks for the palm Expedition  and walking us thru the place. i see you are having the same problem there.  fotos of a leaf here, a trunk there. a bit of this n some of that  haha.  but in person its easy to admire, when u try to capture on camera its hard to do so.

i always had issues trying to mature royal oleracs, afew years n they give up.

fishtail faster than a syagrus ????? wow

[sydneypalms]

O - K..  i got up on my roof n took a video, and took snapshots of the video, this is what i have to do to get a proper foto of my palms hahaha.  enjoy

[sydneypalms]

14 hours ago, sydneypalms said:

another palm i have issues taking fotos of are Arenga pinnata. coz its just too big. its a monster for a small garden, but its ok its not a problem either..  maybe when it reaches full height haha..but it grows so sturdy, it rock hard n firm in the ground.  ive seen them in darwin, at a distance, they are tall....   the leaves glow sliver at night. but when i try to take a foto if i took a selfy to show comparison of my hand woth the leaf to express how big they get, it barely fits in the camera, a few leaflets, and a bit of me, and thats only 10% of the branch. ile find the foto later. but when you stand near it it doesn't seem that big, until you grab it for a foto