Show us your chamaerops humilis

[Mazat]

show us your chamaerops humilis whether in a pot, planted out, indoors or outdoors and no matter what size..

we think it is an underestimated species ...

[Fusca]

I agree - what is interesting to me is the wide variability of the species from palm to palm.  Here's one of my three.

What I like about this one is the white tomentum on the underside of the new leaves and the relatively minor petiole thorns.

[Marco67]

Planted out for over 20 years. 

Chamaerops Vulcano

 

Chamaerops Humilis

 

Chamaerops Humulis

 

Chamaerops Cerifera

 

Chamaerops Cerifera

[Mazat]

13 hours ago, Marco67 said:

Planted out for over 20 years. 

Chamaerops Vulcano

 

Chamaerops Humilis

 

Chamaerops Humulis

 

Chamaerops Cerifera

 

Chamaerops Cerifera

very nice specimens of various chamaerops that you have, Marco67. i also like the vulcano very much.

[Mazat]

16 hours ago, Fusca said:

I agree - what is interesting to me is the wide variability of the species from palm to palm.  Here's one of my three.

What I like about this one is the white tomentum on the underside of the new leaves and the relatively minor petiole thorns.

these are very good, detailed observations from you, Jon.
Yes, each one is a little different and that is special.

[Mazat]

this large specimen in a pot is from the botanical garden (St. Gallen)

[NMPalmjunky]

Here are a couple of pics of mine after 5 degrees F in January. I thought I lost a couple of the pups, but they started growing again recently. I also think it is an underestimated species.

[KPoff]

Here are some pictures of mine. I have two humilis planted on the south side of my house and they’ve been through one winter so far seeing 12 F and multiple days that didn’t get above freezing. I recently planted a 15 gallon cerifera on the east side of my house. It doesn’t get as much sun as I would hope (5-6 hours) but I’m not moving it now. I live in west Texas zone 8A. We’ll see if these are long term survivors or not. I hope so because they are definitely one of my favorites because of the variable look from plant to plant. The bottom picture is of one that took no damage this winter so it has good genes. It has two bunches of ripening seeds I will germinate. The first picture is of the other humilis that I had to cut off 50% of tue fronds from winter burn. No lost trunks though and they’re are all growing back. I’m hoping it gets stronger as winters go on. Second picture is the cerifera.

[Las Palmas Norte]

I left a nice 8 ft Med palm at our last home. I haven't bought a new one to plant here (yet).

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, KPoff said:

I recently planted a 15 gallon cerifera on the east side of my house. It doesn’t get as much sun as I would hope (5-6 hours) but I’m not moving it now. I live in west Texas zone 8A. We’ll see if these are long term survivors or not.

Your cerifera (now officially called 'argentea') should do fine.  If your green humilis survived 12°F your argentea should be even more cold hardy.  I had a green one lose the main trunk in a wet 9°F event in San Antonio but the suckers came back well.  I forgot to take pics of mine before.  Also have a small 'vulcano'.

[KPoff]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

Your cerifera (now officially called 'argentea') should do fine.  If your green humilis survived 12°F your argentea should be even more cold hardy.  I had a green one lose the main trunk in a wet 9°F event in San Antonio but the suckers came back well.  I forgot to take pics of mine before.  Also have a small 'vulcano'.

@Fusca those look great! I’ve seen lots of pretty good examples of humilis in midland, Odessa and Pecos that appear to have been around a long time. I’m guessing most don’t get protected even in 2021 and came back. It generally is dry in the winter so that helps. I don’t see 10-15’ tall examples but lots of large bushy ones. My understanding is in our climate it’s pretty hard to completely kill them in the winter but occasionally large trunk losses can be expected.

[palmofmyhand]

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, KPoff said:

@Fusca those look great! I’ve seen lots of pretty good examples of humilis in midland, Odessa and Pecos that appear to have been around a long time. I’m guessing most don’t get protected even in 2021 and came back. It generally is dry in the winter so that helps. I don’t see 10-15’ tall examples but lots of large bushy ones. My understanding is in our climate it’s pretty hard to completely kill them in the winter but occasionally large trunk losses can be expected.

Thanks Kevin!  Dry in winter definitely helps and need to water them from below since they hate city water in their crown.  My argentea was a recent acquisition so it's still in "planting shock" mode.  Still too small to really tell but even if the 'vulcano' only ends up with some of the traits it'll be my favorite fan palm in the garden! 

[SeanK]

I must agree that this species is underutilized. It seems below z9a, they're rarely planted in the SE US. Still cold hardy throughout z8b and drier areas of z8a, not sure why folks don't use them.

[palmofmyhand]

10 minutes ago, SeanK said:

I must agree that this species is underutilized. It seems below z9a, they're rarely planted in the SE US. Still cold hardy throughout z8b and drier areas of z8a, not sure why folks don't use them.

I was thinking the exact same thing and agree, but the negatives I have realized about them are that they grow into a bush if you don’t trim it, and they never stop clustering so they’re a hassle to deal with, and take forever to grow to a sizeable height. I still think more people should grow these regardless.

[KPoff]

3 hours ago, palmofmyhand said:

@palmofmyhand this one is a beauty! You’re in Augusta? That 8A?

[palmofmyhand]

1 hour ago, KPoff said:

@palmofmyhand this one is a beauty! You’re in Augusta? That 8A?

yea Augusta 8B actually. Been surviving near the 10 Degrees range without issue.

[Darold Petty]

Here is my eleven year old Chamaerops 'vulcano'.  It was a gift to me in September, 2021 by a guy who will remain unknown.  Let's just say he knows the best place for pho !    

It is 3 cm diameter by 30 cm tall  (1.25x12 inches)     I ground planted it today. 

[gyuseppe]

[Mazat]

11 hours ago, SeanK said:

I must agree that this species is underutilized. It seems below z9a, they're rarely planted in the SE US. Still cold hardy throughout z8b and drier areas of z8a, not sure why folks don't use them.

a good question also here.

[Mazat]

13 hours ago, palmofmyhand said:

big and beatiful 😃

[Mazat]

5 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

Here is my eleven year old Chamaerops 'vulcano'.  It was a gift to me in September, 2021 by a guy who will remain unknown.  Let's just say he knows the best place for pho !    

It is 3 cm diameter by 30 cm tall  (1.25x12 inches)     I ground planted it today. 

also a beautiful specimen and already strong roots, Darold.

chamaerops vulcano are also really special, unfortunately you see them far too little here usda 8b/8a , more in southern switzerland ticino. a great pity ...

[Mazat]

5 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

wonderful specimens, Gyuseppe.
how big are they approximately ? they look very tall 

[Mazat]

9 hours ago, palmofmyhand said:

yea Augusta 8B actually. Been surviving near the 10 Degrees range without issue.

that's great and an advantage that they can cope with such temperatures without too much damage

[Mazat]

18 hours ago, NMPalmjunky said:

Here are a couple of pics of mine after 5 degrees F in January. I thought I lost a couple of the pups, but they started growing again recently. I also think it is an underestimated species.

just great to survive 5 degrees fahrenheit, which is really very cold ...

they look very good 

[Mazat]

15 hours ago, Fusca said:

Your cerifera (now officially called 'argentea') should do fine.  If your green humilis survived 12°F your argentea should be even more cold hardy.  I had a green one lose the main trunk in a wet 9°F event in San Antonio but the suckers came back well.  I forgot to take pics of mine before.  Also have a small 'vulcano'.

your little vulcano is also very beautiful, Jon. 

[Mazat]

5 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

they bear beautiful strong seeds

[palmofmyhand]

2 hours ago, Mazat said:

wonderful specimens, Gyuseppe.
how big are they approximately ? they look very tall 

yea I was about to ask the same question, how tall are those?, but yea my pair didn’t take any damage at all even after the couple of slight snowfalls we had and 11 degree low this year.

[gyuseppe]

2 hours ago, Mazat said:

wonderful specimens, Gyuseppe.
how big are they approximately ? they look very tall 

I think they will be 4.5/5 meters tall

[palmofmyhand]

1 hour ago, gyuseppe said:

I think they will be 4.5/5 meters tall

do you know how long they took to grow to that size from a say 3 gallon pot size?

[GregVirginia7]

Without winter protection this one would not make it here. Got lazy a couple winters ago…the panic lights went on after the damage was done…

And now a complete recovery to the point where protection will be more of a challenge…it’s overtaking the McCurtain.

I’ll have to make this winter’s shroud bigger for sure…doesn’t take a lot, just a little with a load of lights.

 

 

 

[NMPalmjunky]

5 hours ago, Mazat said:

just great to survive 5 degrees fahrenheit, which is really very cold ...

they look very good 

@Mazat Thank you for the kind words. Here is a pic from last year before the haircut. 

[MarcusH]

19 hours ago, SeanK said:

I must agree that this species is underutilized. It seems below z9a, they're rarely planted in the SE US. Still cold hardy throughout z8b and drier areas of z8a, not sure why folks don't use them.

It's a beautiful palm and I see them a lot over here in SA. With every palm tree, you have to keep in mind its mature size . These palms can grow pretty big and "wide" . The trunks can grow horizontally more than 5 ft away from the center.  I saw it many times but the good thing about the Chamaerops humilis is they're slow growing..  That's why I haven't gotten one. If I would have the space,  it would be growing it in my yard. 

[gyuseppe]

4 hours ago, palmofmyhand said:

do you know how long they took to grow to that size from a say 3 gallon pot size?

no, they grow everywhere here, I made them from seed in the 90s

[Foggy Paul]

Here are ours. They were planted in 2018 along with two Trachycarpus as the backbone of the garden, to hedge against an historic freeze or other calamity. They have been slow for sure, but I'm including an as-planted pic so you can see the growth over 7 years. Restricting them to a triple and a double has taken nearly continuous effort. I wear a bicycle helmet while pruning after getting a spine lodged in my scalp. This is one palm I do not subscribe to the "don't cut green leaves" dictum as otherwise they would be an uncontrolled mass of spiny foliage. They have flowered the last three years, but no fruit yet.

[JohnAndSancho]

I dunno why I never paid more attention to these. I'm pretty sure I could grow them here and they'd thrive. 

[Fusca]

2 hours ago, MarcusH said:

With every palm tree, you have to keep in mind its mature size . These palms can grow pretty big and "wide" . The trunks can grow horizontally more than 5 ft away from the center.

This is very true but it can also be 'trained' to be solitary which is what I do with mine.  You just have to be diligent to trim the suckers.  The first one that I posted was one of only a few at the nursery that had a minimal amount of small suckers that I immediately trimmed off (back in 2020).  Thankfully it wasn't a prolific sucker producer so I've only had to trim again once or twice in the 5 years since.  If you trim the suckers when small it's not a major effort.  Then they can be grown in a small space just growing vertically.  Lots of examples here of solitary palms.  

9 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I dunno why I never paid more attention to these. I'm pretty sure I could grow them here and they'd thrive. 

Absolutely! 

[MarcusH]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

This is very true but it can also be 'trained' to be solitary which is what I do with mine.  You just have to be diligent to trim the suckers.  The first one that I posted was one of only a few at the nursery that had a minimal amount of small suckers that I immediately trimmed off (back in 2020).  Thankfully it wasn't a prolific sucker producer so I've only had to trim again once or twice in the 5 years since.  If you trim the suckers when small it's not a major effort.  Then they can be grown in a small space just growing vertically.  Lots of examples here of solitary palms.  

Absolutely! 

Hey Jon, yes you're right about that.  I also seen them growing like that as well . Some clusters look pretty amazing. Is the growth rate comparable to Sabals , let's say Palmetto or Mexicana? 

[Hillizard]

RPS advertised the seeds as "Vulcano" but when I grew them they were obviously ''argentea'.  Still, a very nice palm. https://www.palmpedia.net/palmsforcal/Chamaerop_humilis_var._argentea

Next is a great "Vulcano" I got from a generous SoCal Palmtalker.  It's got lots of tomentum on the underside of each soft, bright green leaf.

[Fusca]

27 minutes ago, MarcusH said:

Hey Jon, yes you're right about that.  I also seen them growing like that as well . Some clusters look pretty amazing. Is the growth rate comparable to Sabals , let's say Palmetto or Mexicana? 

In my experience the regular green humilis grows much faster as far as number of fronds compared to Sabals.  It's not going vertical very fast though.  Right now mine is pushing 3 new fronds at once and it holds many fronds.  Sabal mexicana is faster than palmetto from what I have seen.  And the blue 'argentea' is slower growing than the regular green form.